US leads race to flee Sudan as fighting worsens

The United States said it had evacuated its embassy staff from Sudan, but evacuations by some other countries appeared to face problems yesterday amid battles between rival military factions that have triggered a humanitarian crisis.

Sudan's warring army and Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group accused each other of attacking a convoy of French nationals, both saying one French person was wounded.

The army also accused the RSF of attacking and looting a Qatari convoy heading to Port Sudan.

Egypt said a member of its mission in Sudan had been wounded by a gunshot.

President Joe Biden said the United States was temporarily suspending operations at its embassy in Khartoum but remained committed to the Sudanese people, reiterating calls for a ceasefire that have so far gone largely unheeded.

"The belligerent parties must implement an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, allow unhindered humanitarian access, and respect the will of the people of Sudan," Biden said.

Thick smoke still hanged over the capital, Khartoum, and its sister cities of Bahri and Ombdurman, as gunfire continued to ring out in some areas. The fighting erupted in Khartoum and elsewhere on April 15, four years after long-ruling autocrat Omar al-Bashir was toppled in an uprising, and has killed more than 400 people.

It pits Sudan's army against the RSF, who jointly staged a coup in 2021 but fell out during negotiations over a plan to form a civilian government and integrate the RSF into the armed forces.

The army under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF of Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, aka Hemedti, have failed to observe ceasefires agreed almost daily, including a three-day one for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr that began Friday.

Intense fighting has continued around army headquarters in Khartoum and the airport, which has been closed by the clashes, and over the past two days in Bahri, where the army has used troops as well as air strikes to try to push back the RSF.

US officials said special forces using aircraft, including MH-47 Chinook helicopters swept into Sudan's battle-stricken capital on Saturday from a base in Djibouti, spending just one hour on the ground to bring out fewer than 100 people.

"We did not take any small-arms fire on the way in and were able to get in and out without issue," said Lieutenant General Douglas Sims, director of operations at the military's Joint Staff.