Germany shuts South Sudan Embassy amid civil war fears. German Embassy in Kampala, Uganda is open

THE German government said Saturday that it is temporarily shuttering its embassy in Juba, South Sudan amid safety concerns over a deteriorating security situation that is once again on the brink of civil war. The German Embassy in Kampala, Uganda is open as usual for passports etc. Read more.

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Report from Deutsche Welle (DW)
By Richard Connor with AFP, AP, dpa
Edited by Louis Oelofse
Dated Saturday, 22 March 2025 - full copy:

Germany shuts South Sudan embassy amid civil war fears

Berlin says it is temporarily shuttering its embassy in South Sudan amid safety concerns over a deteriorating security situation. Civil war once again looks in the world's youngest country.

Kiir (L) and Machar formed a transitional government but the arrangement now looks shaky. Image: Peter Louis Gume/AFP

The German Foreign Office on Saturday said it would temporarily close its embassy in South Sudan's capital, Juba, in light of renewed and escalating violence.

While President Salva Kiir Mayardit and his erstwhile opponent Riek Machar formed a joint government of national unity in 2020, the accord now threatens to collapse.

What the German government said

"After years of fragile peace, South Sudan is once again on the brink of civil war," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced.

"President Kiir and Vice President Machar are plunging the country into a spiral of violence. They have a responsibility to stop the senseless violence and finally implement the peace agreement," Baerbock continued.

The minister said the safety of employees was the top priority.

Why is South Sudan getting dangerous again?

South Sudan, with a population of around eleven million, went through a bloody civil war — with Kiir and Machar on opposite sides — after gaining independence from its northern neighbor Sudan in 2011.

Although they agreed to form a transitional government after a 2018 peace deal, with Machar as vice president, that arrangement looks perilously close to failing.

For weeks, a militia from the Nuer ethnic group, to which Machar belongs, has been fighting government soldiers on the border with Ethiopia.

The army accuses Machar's party of fueling the conflict, while Machar accuses Kiir of wanting to depose his supporters.

While the fighting is more than 1,300 kilometers (about 800 miles) from the capital, the sparks threaten to spread to other parts of the country. Warring parties in neighboring Sudan are also threatening to intervene.

German diplomats, together with representatives from Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Great Britain, the USA, and the EU, have offered to mediate between Kiir and Machar.

View original: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-shuts-south-sudan-embassy-amid-civil-war-fears/a-72007695

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Related

Report from and by The Associated Press (AP)

Dated Saturday, 22 March 2025 11:43 am - full copy:

Germany closes its embassy in South Sudan as it teeters on the brink of civil war

Image: Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks during a press conference in Damascus, Syria, Thursday, March 20, 2025. 

Credit: AP/Omar Sanadiki

BERLIN — The German government said Saturday that it is temporarily closing its embassy in South Sudan.

“After years of fragile peace, South Sudan is once again on the brink of civil war,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on social media platform Bluesky.

The crisis team of the German Foreign Office "has therefore decided to close the embassy in the capital Juba for the time being. The safety of the employees has top priority," she added.

Baerbock also wrote that South Sudan President Salva Kiir and his rival, Vice President Riek Machar, “are plunging the country into a spiral of violence. They have a responsibility to stop the senseless violence and finally implement the peace agreement.”

South Sudan has been plagued by political instability and violence since it gained independence from Sudan in 2011.

In 2018, a peace deal signed between Machar and Kiir ended a five-year civil war in which more than 400,000 people were killed. Machar serves as the country’s first vice president in a government of national unity, even though his political group opposes Kiir.

The political rivalry between the two men is widely seen as a major obstacle to peace in South Sudan, with Kiir suspicious of his deputy’s ambitions and Machar calling Kiir a dictator.

Image: Children sit and play on the remains of a tank, at the river port in Renk, South Sudan on May 17, 2023. Credit: AP/Sam Mednick

View original: https://www.newsday.com/news/nation/germany-south-sudan-war-embassy-e94461

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Notice on German Embassy in Juba, South Sudan and Kampala, Uganda

Image source: Violet IKong https://www.linkedin.com/posts/violet-ikong-3b7193166_saesdsudan-activity-7309312344772243456-bv2_

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Report from Deutsche Welle (DW)

By Beni van Essen 1 week ago

Why is South Sudan on edge again?

South Sudan’s security situation is volatile, as civil war-time leadership divisions deepen.

The UN has expressed concern, regional mediators are scrambling and a US evacuation is underway.

https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/why-is-south-sudan-on-edge-again/ar-AA1AMtRL

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Sudan's police order all foreigners to leave Khartoum & surrounding region. MSF evacuates Khartoum team

Report from Ghana News Agency
Dated Friday, 12 July 2024. Here is a copy, in full:

Sudanese police order all foreigners to leave Khartoum

Khartoum, Jul. 12, (dpa/GNA) – Sudanese security authorities have ordered all foreigners to leave the capital Khartoum and the surrounding region.

They have two weeks to do so, according to a statement from the section of the police dealing with foreigners.

Foreigners should leave for their own safety amid the fighting still raging between government troops and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia, the police said.

According to media reports, hostility towards foreigners, especially those from other African countries, has been on the rise following reports of foreign mercenaries in the RSF ranks.

Just a few days ago, more than 150 foreigners who did not have valid residence papers were detained.

A bloody power struggle has been raging in Sudan for more than a year between de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohammed Hamdan Daglo.

According to the UN, the conflict has caused almost 10 million people to flee their homes, and risks a famine in the country.

International aid organization staff and diplomats still in the country left Khartoum after the outbreak of fighting and are now working from Port Sudan, where the situation is comparatively stable.

Source: https://gna.org.gh/2024/07/sudanese-police-order-all-foreigners-to-leave-khartoum/

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Related reports

Dabanga Online English - Friday, 12 July 2024

MSF Sudan evacuates ‘exhausted’ Khartoum team

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF/Doctors Without Borders) announced the evacuation of its team from the Turkish hospital in Khartoum, due to ongoing violence both inside and outside the facility. The decision follows numerous threats to the lives of MSF staff. … The Turkish hospital will remain open with Ministry of Health staff, but surgeries will not be possible without the evacuated MSF staff, casting uncertainty on the hospital’s future.

https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/msf-sudan-evacuates-exhausted-khartoum-team

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MSF halts vital care deliveries to Khartoum’s Turkish hospital pic.twitter.com/H8q5SgUnWj

— Radio Tamazuj (@RadioTamazuj) July 11, 2024

https://x.com/RadioTamazuj/status/1811317249073934483 

Full story: https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/sudan-violence-forces-msf-evacuate-team-turkish-hospital-khartoum

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Khartoum: Community kitchen shut after support runs out

The field coordinator said the kitchen had ceased operations for over two weeks. pic.twitter.com/TF1qKBnmQr

— Radio Tamazuj (@RadioTamazuj) July 12, 2024

https://x.com/RadioTamazuj/status/1811739285395308593 

Full story: https://www.radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/khartoum-community-kitchen-shut-after-support-runs-out

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Sudan Tribune - Thursday, 11 July 2024

Khartoum State orders foreign nationals to leave

The army controls the Karari locality and some neighbourhoods of old Omdurman, while Khartoum and Khartoum Bahri are under the control of the RSF, except for the headquarters and bases of the armed forces.

South Sudanese combatants pose at the Sport City in southern Khartoum

https://sudantribune.com/article288124/

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Sudan: UK Gov begins large-scale evacuation of Brits

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: It's good to see Sir Nicholas Kay mentioned in this report. He was an excellent UK ambassador to Sudan 2010-2012 a dangerous and difficult time in Sudan and South Sudan. I miss his reports.

In this report he is quoted as saying: the situation in Khartoum was precarious and the security situation could change rapidly because there was no trust between the two sides in the conflict.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that moving around Khartoum could be challenging because the bridges crossing the Blue and White Nile rivers were being controlled by armed groups.

Report from BBC News

By Charley Adams, BBC News

Tuesday 25 April 2023 14:30 hrs BST UK - full copy

Sudan: UK government begins large-scale evacuation of British people

IMAGE SOURCE, PA MEDIA

Image caption, Military forces have been deployed to Cyprus to help evacuate British citizens stuck in Sudan

The UK is beginning a large-scale, complex evacuation of British people from Sudan, PM Rishi Sunak has said.

Families with children, the elderly and people with medical conditions will be prioritised on RAF flights leaving from an airfield near the capital Khartoum.

They are being told to make their own way to the airport, without an escort.

A 72-hour ceasefire, agreed by rival military factions, appears to be holding although there have been reports of new gunfire and shelling.

At least 459 people have been killed since fighting broke out on 15 April.

UK ministers have come under increasing pressure to help its citizens flee the fierce fighting.

Around 4,000 UK citizens are thought to be in Sudan and 2,000 of them have already requested help, Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell said on Monday.

Only British passport holders and their immediate family with existing UK entry clearance are eligible, the government has said.

The Foreign Office is urging them to make their own way to the Wadi Saeedna airfield to the north of Khartoum to board evacuation flights.

Previous advice that people should not travel to the evacuation site until contacted by the government has been removed.

An RAF plane which took off from an airfield north of Khartoum has landed in Cyprus, according to a flight tracking site. It is not yet clear whether UK nationals are onboard.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the government was not able to escort people to the airfield and British nationals would need to "make their own way there".

He said he had made contact with the military leaders in Sudan but it was impossible to predict how long the evacuation window would remain open.

They would maintain the airhead for "as long as we can", he added, and the UK was working as quickly as possible to get people out.

Mr Cleverly said the situation there remained "dangerous, volatile and unpredictable".

"This is an active conflict, the ceasefire has been announced but we know there have been pockets of violence even within previous ceasefires," he added.

Downing Street said those evacuated would first be taken to Cyprus before being brought back to the UK.

One man with dual nationality said he feared he might not make it out of Sudan.

Musaab, who is waiting to be evacuated from Khartoum, told the BBC the situation was fraught with challenges.

"The one thing that I didn't like is that they're asking people to come to the airport which is very risky because there is no law and order," he said.

Many British nationals have spent days indoors with food and drink running low and no electricity or wifi.

Several have spoken of their anger and desperation at being left behind, while other foreign nationals and embassy staff were flown out.

On Sunday, the UK airlifted diplomats and their families out of Sudan in a military operation.

The fragile ceasefire, which began at midnight on Monday (22:00 GMT), appears to be holding but there have been reports of gunfire and warplanes flying over Khartoum.

This is the fourth suspension of fighting since violence erupted in Sudan this month, but other attempts did not hold.

Sir Nicholas Kay, a former UK ambassador to Sudan, said the situation in Khartoum was precarious and the security situation could change rapidly because there was no trust between the two sides in the conflict.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that moving around Khartoum could be challenging because the bridges crossing the Blue and White Nile rivers were being controlled by armed groups.

Hundreds of people have been airlifted from Sudan by other countries, including more than 1,000 people by European Union nations.

IMAGE SOURCE, PA MEDIA

Image caption, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak paid tribute to the military forces "carrying out this complex operation"

Dr Nala Hamza, whose family is trying to get out of Khartoum, said the evacuation was "good news if it came to reality".

She said her family, who live in the centre of the city, had fled their home at dawn to try to get a bus to the north of the country.

"They were hiding in a room at the back of the house away from windows because of the shooting," she told BBC Breakfast.

Dr Hamza said at least 40 out of 55 hospitals were "not functioning at all" and the system "was already struggling before the war".

There was no safe route to get any help and doctors were exhausted, she added.

Dr Atia Abdalla Atia, the general secretary of the Sudan Doctors Union, agreed the situation was "very bad" and they were doing their best to support people.

He told BBC's Today the hospital he was working in has reached maximum capacity and patients were lying down in reception without beds.

Mo, from Reading, said he was "very scared" for his family, who had arrived in Khartoum the day before the violence broke out.

"They were in that area for the first five days, with no electricity, water running out, they were isolated," he said.

"Even getting to this airport that's being looked at to be evacuating Brits from, that in itself is going to be hard to get to."

View original, with thanks to the BBC: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65383400

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Canada suspends Sudan consular services as diplomats evacuated to “temporarily work from a safe location outside the country” to help citizens in Sudan

Report from THE CANADIAN PRESS

By Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press

Sunday 23 April 2023 12:30 p.m. - full copy:

Canada suspends Sudan consular services as diplomats evacuated

More than 420 people killed, thousands injured in conflict between government and paramilitary group

Smoke is seen in Khartoum, Sudan, Saturday, April 22, 2023. The fighting in the capital between the Sudanese Army and Rapid Support Forces resumed after an internationally brokered cease-fire failed. Ottawa has suspended consular services in Sudan as reports merge of allied countries evacuating Canadian diplomats. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Marwan Ali

Canada suspended consular services in Sudan on Sunday (April 23) amid reports of allied countries evacuating Canadian diplomats and as armed conflict escalates in the East-African country.

Global Affairs Canada said Canadian diplomats would “temporarily work from a safe location outside the country” while still trying to help citizens in Sudan.

The Associated Press reports that more than 420 people, including 264 civilians, have been killed and over 3,700 wounded in the fighting between the Sudanese armed forces and the powerful paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF.

Those deaths occurred in just nine days after power-sharing negotiations between the two groups deteriorated.

Global Affairs said there were 1,596 Canadian citizens formally registered as being in Sudan as of Saturday.

But Nicholas Coghlan, Canada’s former top envoy to Sudan, said in a Sunday interview that the number is likely “considerably higher,” with many being dual nationals.

He said many Canadians abroad see registering as a needless hassle, while others believe their information will be shared with other branches of government such as the Canada Revenue Agency, despite laws preventing such data transfers.

Coghlan was also Canada’s first ambassador to South Sudan when it separated from that country in 2011, and he oversaw an evacuation of citizens after a civil war broke out in 2013.

At that time, less than 20 Canadian citizens were registered in South Sudan, but roughly 140 ended up being evacuated in less than a week.

Canada first evacuated those easily reachable in the capital of Juba who wanted to leave, and then worked to identify others and get them onto roughly weekly flights operated by one of Canada’s allies.

The ongoing situation in Sudan is likely different, Coghlan said, because the clashing forces are deliberately targeting airports as strategic locations in a turf war.

The Associated Press reports that fighting at the country’s main international airport in the capital city of Khartoum has destroyed civilian planes and damaged at least one runway.

Canada’s embassy sits near that airport, making it one of the most dangerous areas in the country, Coghlan said.

The New York Times reported Sunday that U.S. special forces evacuated six Canadian diplomats, along with 70 American diplomats and some from other countries.

The BBC, meanwhile, reported Canadians were among a group evacuated by sea to Saudi Arabia. Global Affairs did not immediately confirm those reports.

Overland travel through contested areas has proven dangerous. Khartoum is about 840 kilometres from Port Sudan, on the Red Sea. Both the country’s militias have accused each other of obstructing evacuations.

Coghlan said Sunday’s announced suspension of consular services means Canadian citizens who need emergency passports to leave Sudan likely have no chance of getting them, because Ottawa deemed it too risky to keep a scaled-down operation running in the country.

He said many dual nationals likely have expired passports or insufficient paperwork to get on a flight.

Some registered Canadians likely work for the United Nations or aid organizations, who can help extract them, but many will be private citizens with family ties to Sudan who will be left to their own devices.

Reports from Sudan’s Arqin border crossing with Egypt suggest 30 packed coaches were trying to reach safety.

Sudan experienced a “near-total collapse” of countrywide internet and phone connections Sunday, according to the monitoring service NetBlocks.

Coghlan said many Sudanese will likely feel let down by western countries, particularly those critical of how the world handled the heads of the two duelling forces ever since an October 2021 coup d’état.

“The signal that’s been sent there is (that) there is a perception of people leaving the sinking ship,” he said,

“That’s how it looks, a sense of abandonment, for sure.”

The federal government is not evacuating its locally hired Sudanese staff, saying it is “looking at all possible options to support them.”

Coghlan said the issue of how to handle locals is always sensitive.

“The harsh reality is they are typically left to their own devices,” he said.

“That’s controversial within Global Affairs (Canada), out of a sense that we depend on these people 100 per cent.”

Last summer, the Liberals came under fire over allegations that Canada did not heed intelligence warnings about the safety of its Ukraine embassy’s locally engaged staff ahead of Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion. The allegations, which have not been proven, include claims that other western countries had evacuated Ukrainians listed as targets by Moscow.

Coghlan said the current Sudan conflict, unlike the Ukraine invasion and the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, does not have a focus on western policy.

He stressed that situation is dynamic and he does not have the full facts surrounding Ottawa’s choice to pull out diplomats and end consular services.

“The minister had a very hard decision to make here,” he said. “It’s very easy to be an armchair quarterback on this.”

READ ALSO: Why Sudan’s conflict matters to the rest of the world

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View original:

https://www.westerlynews.ca/news/canada-suspends-sudan-consular-services-as-diplomats-evacuated/

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