Top US, Sudanese generals discuss safety of Americans in call. UN and others work to extract staff

Report from Alarabiya.net

By Reuters

Published: 22 April 2023: 02:07 AM GST

Updated: 22 April 2023: 02:42 AM GST

Top US, Sudanese generals discuss safety of Americans in call

PHOTO United States Army General Mark A. Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Rayburn House Office building on Capitol Hill on September 29, 2021 in Washington, DC. (AFP)

The top US general discussed the safety of Americans in Sudan during a phone call with Sudan’s army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, on Friday, the Pentagon said, as Washington considers a possible embassy evacuation amid fighting in Sudan’s capital.

“The two leaders discussed the safety of Americans and the developing situation in Sudan,” said a statement from Army General Mark Milley’s office. Milley is chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Forces commanded by two previously allied leaders of Sudan’s ruling council began a violent power struggle last weekend. Hundreds have died so far, and a nation reliant on food aid has been tipped into what the United Nations calls a humanitarian catastrophe.

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[…] Washington has said private American citizens in Sudan should have no expectation of a US government-coordinated evacuation. State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said the United States was in touch with several hundred American citizens understood to be in Sudan.

Earlier on Friday, the State Department confirmed the death of one US citizen in the country.

UN works to extract staff

Other countries and the United Nations are also looking at how they can evacuate citizens and employees.

The UN has been trying to extract staff from “very dangerous” zones in Sudan to move them to safer locations, the top UN aid official in Sudan, Abdou Dieng, said on Thursday. Dieng said he had been moved to a safer area on Wednesday.

The UN has about 4,000 staff in Sudan, of which 800 are international staff. A UN source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were a further 6,000 UN staff family members and associated personnel in Sudan.

Switzerland said on Friday it was examining ways to evacuate nationals from Sudan, and Sweden said it will evacuate embassy staff and families as soon as possible.

Spanish military aircraft are on standby and ready to evacuate some 60 Spanish nationals and others from Khartoum, and South Korea sent a military aircraft to stand by at a US military base in Djibouti to evacuate its nationals when possible.

View original: https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2023/04/22/US-military-prepares-options-for-possible-Sudan-evacuation

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No evacuation plans for all Americans in Sudan

Report from The Associated Press

By LOLITA C. BALDOR, MATTHEW LEE and TARA COPP

Friday 21 April 2023 - full copy

White House: No evacuation plans for all Americans in Sudan

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AP) — The Pentagon has deployed forces and is developing options to assist in the possible evacuation of U.S. Embassy personnel from Sudan, but the White House said Friday there are no plans for now for a broader pullout of the potentially thousands of other Americans from the African country where warring factions are in a violent conflict.

The troop moves by the U.S. military are intended “to ensure that we provide as many options as possible, if we are called on to do something. We haven’t been called on to do anything yet,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at a news conference in Germany. Austin and U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, held meeting meetings with defense leaders from other countries to discuss additional support for Ukraine. 

An estimated 16,000 private U.S. citizens are registered with the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum as being in Sudan. The State Department has cautioned that that figure probably is inaccurate because there is no requirement for Americans to register nor is there a requirement to notify the embassy when they leave.

“It’s absolutely imperative that U.S. citizens in Sudan make their own arrangements to stay safe in these difficult circumstances,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in Washington.

He added that “Americans should have no expectation of a U.S. government coordinated evacuation at this time. And we expect that that’s going to remain the case.” 

For embassy staff, according to an American official, a small number of U.S. troops have begun arriving in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti, where the U.S. is pre-positioning forces and equipment to assist in any potential evacuation. The official said Army soldiers are being tapped for the task.

The U.S. troops are being moved to Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti. Evacuation planning for Sudan got underway in earnest on Monday after a U.S. Embassy convoy was attacked in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.

The conflict between Sudan’s military and a rival paramilitary force is worsening. The military has ruled out negotiations and said it would only accept surrender as a temporary cease-fire ended, raising the likelihood of a renewed surge in the nearly weeklong violence that has killed hundreds.

The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations, said Milley discussed the situation with defense officials from Germany, Italy and Canada, among others. One topic was ensuring that any potential evacuation efforts did not conflict.

The U.S. State Department said Friday that an American citizen had died in Sudan, but did not have further details. 

“We are in touch with the family and offer our deepest condolences to them on their loss. Out of respect for the family during this difficult time, we have nothing further to add,” the department said in a statement. 

Lee and Copp reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.

View original: https://apnews.com/article/united-states-sudan-djibouti-evacuation-2773f4922611aeed462652f178745688

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US military plans possible Sudan embassy evacuation

Report from The Associated Press

By MATTHEW LEE and LOLITA C. BALDOR

Thursday 20 April 2023

US military prepares for possible Sudan embassy evacuation

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is moving additional troops and equipment to a Naval base in the tiny Gulf of Aden nation of Djibouti to prepare for the possible evacuation of U.S. Embassy personnel from Sudan.

Two Biden administration officials say the deployments to Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti are necessary because of the current uncertain situation in Sudan, where fighting is raging between two warring factions.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the administration’s planning for a potential evacuation. That planning got underway in earnest on Monday after a U.S. Embassy convoy was attacked in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.

In a statement Thursday, the Pentagon said it will deploy “additional capabilities” to the region to potentially help facilitate an evacuation of embassy personnel from Sudan if required, but provided no details, and did not state the location.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the decision to prepare for a possible evacuation was made by President Joe Biden in the “last couple of days.” The president “authorized the military to move forward with pre-positioning forces and to develop options,” Kirby told reporters at the White House.

“There’s no indication that either side is deliberately going after or trying to hurt or target Americans,” Kirby said. “But it’s obviously a dangerous situation.”

Deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said conditions were not yet safe to mount any evacuation but stressed that all embassy personnel are safe and accounted for and that those who haven’t been moved to a secure centralized location had been instructed to shelter in place at their homes.

U.S. officials have told lawmakers concerned about the situation that there are roughly 70 American staffers at the Khartoum embassy, according to congressional aides.

An estimated 16,000 private U.S. citizens are registered with the embassy as being in Sudan, but the State Department has cautioned that that figure is likely inaccurate as there is no requirement for Americans to register nor is there a requirement to notify the embassy when they leave.

Since hostilities between the two factions erupted last weekend, the U.S. has been contemplating the evacuation of government employees and has been transporting them from their homes to a secure, centralized location to prepare for such an eventuality.

The officials said Djibouti, a small country on the Gulf of Aden sandwiched between Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, will be the staging point for any evacuation operation.

However, any evacuation in the current circumstances is fraught with difficulty and security risks as Khartoum’s airport remains non-functional and overland routes from the capital out of the country are long and hazardous even without the current hostilities.

If a secure landing zone in or near Khartoum cannot be found, one option would be to drive evacuees to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. But that is a 12-hour trip and the roads over the 523-mile (841-kilometer) route are treacherous.

Another might be to drive to neighboring Eritrea, however that would also be problematic given that Eritrea’s leader, Isaias Afwerki, is not a friend of the U.S. or the West in general.

The last time the U.S. evacuated embassy personnel overland was from Libya in July 2014, when a large convoy of U.S. military vehicles drove staff from the Tripoli embassy to Tunisia. 

There have been more recent evacuations, most notably in Afghanistan and Yemen, but those have been conducted largely by air.

View original: https://apnews.com/article/united-states-sudan-djibouti-evacuation-2773f4922611aeed462652f178745688

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Can northern Sudan alone pass laws for the whole of Sudan?

The United States Embassy in Khartoum issued a strongly-worded statement from the State Department on Wednesday evening following the announcement that the NCP had passed legislation which differed from the original bill agreed to by the SPLM. Further details here below.

NCP Passing Of Amended Referendum Act Angers SPLM As US State Department Expresses Concern
Report by SRS - Sudan Radio Service, Wednesday, 23 December 2009:

(Khartoum) – The SPLM is accusing the NCP of pushing an amended version of controversial referendum legislation through parliament on Tuesday. The US State Department has issued a strongly-worded statement condemning the NCP for the move.

The SPLM claim that the legislation, which in part lays out the procedure for a referendum to decide the future of southern Sudan, was amended during the passage of the bill without the SPLM being consulted.

NCP MPs used their majority in the parliament to amend article 27 of the legislation which had previously been agreed with the SPLM. The article now includes a clause which stipulates that southerners living in the north must vote in the north during the referendum.

The move caused outrage among SPLM MPs and other southern political parties. They demanded that the agreed article should be reinstated. The original article stipulated that "all southerners living outside southern Sudan should return to their region of origin in order to vote."

The SPLM deputy chairman, Dr. Riek Machar, expressed his "surprise" at the NCP move at a press conference in Khartoum on Tuesday evening.

[Riek Machar]: “We are surprised about what happened today, because we had agreed at the highest level about this law. We agreed at the level of the presidency, attended by both chairmen of the NCP and the SPLM, after which this law was approved by the cabinet. We were present at that meeting. They (NCP) even described the session as "historic". There was a common desire to pass the referendum law for southern Sudan, the popular consultation process for Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile and the referendum law for Abyei. On Monday, I held a meeting with El Shiekh Ali, the joint chairman of the joint executive political committee and we discussed the importance of passing these laws.”

Machar added that after the NCP's decision to amend the agreed legislation, the SPLM will consider passing a different referendum law in the Southern Sudan legislative assembly.

[Dr. Riak Machar]: “I would like to say we will not accept the law which was passed today, because the SPLM caucus withdrew and the southern political parties also withdrew from the session. Some members from the NCP also withdrew from the assembly. The house was turned into a northern Sudanese assembly. Can northern Sudan alone pass laws for the whole of Sudan? I think this is an unacceptable precedent, because southern Sudanese could say to themselves that if things have reached such a state, then we will pass the agreed legislation in the south - then we will see which law will be the national law because we reject what took place today."

However, the NCP chairman of the committee which supervised the drafting of the referendum laws, Badreia Suliman, speaking at a press conference in Khartoum on Tuesday, said that the SPLM’s withdrawal from the parliament was unjustified since the terms were agreed upon by the two partners in previous meetings.

[Badreia Suliman]: “The withdrawal of our brothers in the SPLM from the legislative assembly session at the final stage which was meant to pass the referendum legislation is inexcusable, because the law was already agreed upon by all the political parties who were represented on the emergency committee.”

The NCP insists that including the original article violated the constitutional rights of Sudanese citizens because it contradicts article 25 which guards against racial discrimination in Sudan.

Other than southerners living in the north being able to vote in the south, the SPLM had insisted that southerners living abroad should also be able to vote during the referendum in 2011.

The disagreement between the NCP and the SPLM over the disputed article highlights recent tensions between two CPA partners and threatens to call into question the legitimacy of the referendum legislation under the terms of the CPA.


The United States Embassy in Khartoum issued a strongly-worded statement from the State Department on Wednesday evening following the announcement that the NCP had passed legislation which differed from the original bill agreed to by the SPLM:

“The United States is deeply concerned about reports that the National Assembly passed the Southern Sudan referendum bill with language added by the NCP that is different than that agreed to by NCP and SPLM leadership. Reneging on the agreement negotiated on December 13th by the two parties undermines the peace process, jeopardizes CPA implementation, and risks sparking renewed political hostilities between the parties. We call on the parties to pass the remaining bills, including the Abyei referendum bill, using the text as agreed, and to restore the Southern Sudan referendum bill to the agreed-upon language before it is signed into law.”

In the same statement, the United States also expressed its concern about the passage of a revised National Security Act on Monday which it said, “contains no new measures of accountability for the security services. For elections to be credible, it is incumbent on the regime to demonstrate in word and in deed that this law will not be used to arrest and detain political opponents. The Government of Sudan must also make immediate and significant improvements to the electoral environment, including permitting peaceful demonstrations, ending press censorship, and allowing opposition voices to be heard. The high voter registration signals the clear desire of the people of Sudan to participate in the process of democratic transformation as proposed in the spirit and letter of the CPA. The United States calls on all parties to work together to ensure the upcoming elections and referenda are conducted in a credible manner.”

The statement was issued by the US Embassy in Khartoum on Wednesday evening.

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See report by Radio Dabanga in The Netherlands, 23 December 2009 entitled Vice president Sudan Salva Kiir feels cheated.

US Embassy in Khartoum has organised an HIV/AIDS awareness workshop for 700 IDP students in Khartoum

From SRS - Sudan Radio Service December 4, 2009:

(Khartoum, Sudan) – The US Embassy in Khartoum has organized an HIV/AIDS awareness workshop for 700 IDP students in Khartoum.

Speaking to SRS during the workshop in Khartoum on Friday, the regional medical officer from embassy, Dr. Behzad Shahbazian, explained why the workshop was being organized for the students.

[Dr. Behzad Shahbazian]: “The goal of the programme was to reach out and educate the students in Khartoum about H-I-V and AIDS. Specifically what the disease is, how you can get it, how it is transmitted, ways to prevent it, the transmission of the disease and how you can protect yourself. Also to educate everyone about the available testing facilities here in Khartoum and in all of Sudan and also to let the students know that there is treatment available. HIV/AIDS is a problem, it is a big problem in Sub-Saharan Africa and the best way for someone to protect themselves from HIV/ AIDS is to educate themselves about it and to know the facts. To know what is right and what is wrong and to get tested if they feel they are at risk. I think that is the big message.”

Doctor Behzad Shahbazian was talking to Sudan Radio Service in Khartoum on Friday.