Afcon 2023: Sudan players hope to 'bring joy'. Sudan football on the up says ex Newcastle midfielder Clark

Report at BBC News Sport Africa

By Morad Dakhil

Football Writer

Published Monday 19 June 2023 - full copy:

Afcon 2023: Sudan players hope to 'bring joy' to war-torn nation

Sudan will move to the top of Group I with one game to go if they beat Mauritania on Tuesday

Midfielder Muataz Hashem says Sudan are looking to bring joy to football fans in the war-torn country by clinching qualification for next year's Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).

Sudan face Mauritania on Tuesday, knowing a win will take them top of Group I with one game remaining.

The Secretary Birds are the home side but are being forced to train and play in Morocco because of the ongoing conflict in their country.

"[It is] very difficult to be far from your country, land and stadium," Hashem told BBC Sport Africa.

"But we count on determination and persistence, and all my colleagues are aware of this task."

• Sudan crisis: the football coach forced to flee for his life
• Sudan football on the up, says former Newcastle midfielder Clark
• Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia - the origins of the Nations Cup

Sudan's 1-0 win against Gabon in their previous qualifier has raised hopes of a second successive appearance at an Afcon finals.

The 1970 champions played that game in front of their own fans in Omdurman on 27 March, three weeks before the conflict led the national federation to suspend all football in the country.

"We have to forget the circumstances in which my country is living today," added Hashem.

"We have to focus on football in order to bring joy to the Sudanese people - who need joy to mitigate their suffering and forget their circumstances, even for a few days."

Sudan head coach Badou Zaki, who was only appointed in March, helped choose the venue for both the current training camp and the match with Mauritania at the Adrar Stadium in Agadir.

The team has already played several warm-up matches in their new North African home.

Hashem insists the game against Mauritania goes beyond what happens on the pitch and represents an opportunity to unify all Sudanese.

"Our victory may help stabilise Sudan," said the 27-year-old.

"We are counting on the spirit of the group and our goal is to take the name of Sudan high."

A win and a draw from their final two games will be enough to book Sudan's place at the tournament in Ivory Coast.

The team's final group game will be away at current group leaders the Democratic Republic of Congo in September.

View original: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/africa/65929852

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French rescue 100+ from Sudan and helped Greece evacuate some of its citizens, including 2 wounded

Report from International Business Times.com

By Agence France-Presse News (AFP)

Sunday 23 April 2023 a 4:30 PM EDT

French Rescue More Than 100 From Sudan

Those evacuated so far include people from Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Ethiopia and Morocco, said one official AFP

More than 100 people have been evacuated from Sudan on the first French flight out of the war-hit country after a "complicated" rescue operation, French officials said on Sunday.

According to a Djibouti airport source, 106 people landed in Djibouti by late afternoon, while a French official said another flight was on the way.

"A plane has landed and another is in the air", each plane allowing the evacuation of "a hundred people", the French military said.

The first rescue flight to Djibouti carried citizens from Britain, France, Germany, and Switzerland as well as African nations such as Ethiopia and Morocco, an official from the foreign ministry said on condition of anonymity.

And the foreign ministry in Athens said France had helped it evacuated some of its citizens, including two wounded.

"They're tired, tense, but very relieved to have arrived safe and sound," he said.

The evacuees had to cross the frontline of fighting around the capital Khartoum to board the planes, with the French embassy helping negotiate a ceasefire with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that is battling the army.

"I must stress the complicated nature of this operation," the official said.

Some 150 troops were deployed including "elements of protection, others of reconnaissance, logistical support and medical personnel", in a "volatile situation", where the two sides "continue to wage war, even during the truces", the French general staff said.

Reconnaissance operations were carried out to "secure" the routes taken by the civilians to get to an airport in the Khartoum region, said this source.

Asked about unconfirmed reports that a French national had been injured on Sunday when the rescue convoy was fired upon, a defence ministry official declined to comment.

"With the operation ongoing, we do not want to comment on this type of rumour," an official from the defence ministry said, speaking during the same briefing with reporters.

They gave details of the long planning process and negotiations leading up to Sunday's operations.

Locating French and other foreign nationals has been difficult because of the lack of phone network coverage and electricity.

An evacuation mission by road was considered, but then discarded due to security concerns as well as the difficulties in supplying it with food and fuel.

Once the airborne option was chosen, President Emmanuel Macron called his Ethiopian counterpart to request permission for the flights to use Ethiopian air space on their way to Djibouti.

"We had difficulties with some countries which had closed their air space," the foreign ministry official said.

A doctor was on board the French plane to assist evacuees, many of whom were "understandably psychologically affected" by their ordeal in Khartoum where food and fuel are in short supply, the official added.

Other French rescue flights are expected on Monday morning.

© Copyright AFP 2023. All rights reserved.

View original: 

https://www.ibtimes.com/french-rescue-more-100-sudan-3688382

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