Egypt is in the process of evacuating its nationals from Sudan in the wake of the vicious fighting that erupted on 15 April between the national Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced on 23 April the start of operations to evacuate Egyptian nationals from safe areas in Sudan, in coordination with Sudanese authorities.
The Ministry said that 436 Egyptian citizens were that day evacuated by land.
Last to leave
In a briefing with reporters, the foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu-Zeid said that evacuating a number like 10,000 Egyptians from Sudan, among whom some 5000 are students, is a process that requires careful planning to ensure the safety and efficiency of the operation amid ongoing violence in the country.
Mr Abu-Zeid stressed that the embassy staff will be the last to leave Sudan once they help ensure the safe exit of all Egyptians from the war-torn country. This, he said, had been the case in previous evacuations of Egyptian nationals in Libya, Ukraine and Afghanistan.
Inside and outside Khartoum
In a statement, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry urged Egyptians in Sudan to exercise the utmost caution amid the ongoing fighting. Mr Abu Zeid asked Egyptians in Khartoum to remain in their homes until the security situation and violence in the capital abate. He said the situation in Khartoum is being regularly assessed in coordination with the Sudanese authorities, with the aim of facilitating the evacuation of Egyptians.
Egyptian nationals outside Khartoum were asked to head to the point nearest them in preparation for evacuation by Egyptian authorities. The Foreign Ministry said the would-be evacuees were instructed to head to designated meeting points to begin their trip back home.
It added that Egypt’s Embassy in Khartoum, consulates in both Khartoum and Port Sudan, and the consular office in Wadi Halfa in northern Sudan were coordinating with Egyptian nationals to secure their safe repatriation.
The Foreign Ministry had designated hotlines for the Egyptian community in Sudan, amid imminent evacuations from the Arab-African country.
On 23 April, however, Sudan experienced a “near-total collapse” of internet connection and telephone lines nationwide, as announced by NetBlocks, an internet monitoring service.
“It’s possible that infrastructure has been damaged or sabotaged,” Alp Toker, director of Netblocks, said in an interview. “This will have a major effect on residents’ ability to stay safe and will impact ongoing evacuation programmes.”
Casualties .. and safe corridors
According to the State-owned daily al-Ahram, sources that spoke to al-Arabiya TV channel said that Egypt has deployed security forces on its borders with Sudan to secure the safe evacuation of Egyptian nationals. The sources added to al-Arabiya that the Egyptian and Sudanese armed forces are coordinating efforts in these evacuation operations, explaining that Sudan has provided Egypt with the details of safe corridors that would take Egyptian nationals to designated evacuation sites in Sudan. The sources explained that the Sudanese army would accompany convoys of Egyptians to be evacuated from Sudan to the border crossings between the two countries.
Civilians, including foreign diplomats, were caught in the fighting. An Egyptian diplomat in Sudan was wounded, Mr Abu-Zaid said but offered no details. A French national was also reported shot as he attempted to evacuate from Sudan while the fighting raged in the Khartoum. A US Embassy convoy was attacked, and the home of the European Union ambassador to Sudan was stormed.
Saber Nasr El-Din, a student at Khartoum University’s Faculty of Medicine, died on 23 April after suffering a severe drop in blood pressure, according to his Egyptian roommates who spoke to news websites in Egypt. Nasr’s roommates said they were in contact with the Egyptian Embassy in Khartoum to repatriate his body to his hometown of Dayrout in the governorate of Assiut in Upper Egypt.
Horrendous conditions
People in Sudan reported horrendous conditions. A declared truce that was to coincide with the three-day Muslim feast of Eid al-Fitr never materialised. Fighting raged in Omdurman, the city across the Nile from Khartoum. Heavy gunfire and thundering explosions rocked the city. Thick black smoke filled the sky. Numbers of those killed by 23 April stood at 420 individuals that included 264 civilians, whereas more than 3,700 were wounded in the fighting.
Hospitals said they were struggling to cope, while many dead and wounded were stranded by the fighting. Sudanese stranded at home, their numbers estimated in the millions, go without water, food, electricity, Internet, or communication lines.
According to the United Nations, some 20,000 Sudanese have abandoned their homes in the western region of Darfur for neighbouring Chad.
The Egyptian soldiers
Early on in the fighting, Egyptians were deeply worried about their soldiers stationed in Sudan. Rumours that they were captured by the RSF went viral, raising concerns for their safety. The paramilitary group had published videos showing Egyptian soldiers apprehended by the RSF in Merowe airbase north of Sudan, but RSF Head Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, said that the Egyptian soldiers were “safe and sound”, expressing willingness to cooperate to return them to Egypt.
The Egyptian Armed Forces issued a statement that stressed the importance of “safeguarding the safety and security of Egyptian troops who were in Sudan to conduct joint training with their Sudanese counterparts”, adding that Egypt was “closely following up on the events taking place inside Sudan”.
For his part, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi expressed readiness to mediate and restore calm between battling parties in Sudan, reiterating that the presence of Egyptian forces in Sudan was solely for training exercises and not for combat or to support any specific party. President Sisi affirmed that intensive communications were taking place to ensure the safety and security of Egyptian forces in Sudan.
The Egyptian President described the fighting in Sudan as an internal matter that “should never be interfered with so as not to inflame the situation.” He indicated that communications with the two Sudanese adversaries “are continuous” to stop the bloodshed and restore stability.
Repatriation
On 19 April, the Egyptian Armed Forces issued a statement declaring the repatriation of 177 soldiers out of a total of 204 who had been in Sudan on a training mission as part of the ‘Nile Eagles’ joint air exercise with Sudanese counterparts. The remaining 27 were safely moved to the Egyptian embassy in Khartoum.
Al Qahera News TV Station reported that the 177 had left the airbase to some safe spot as soon as the fighting broke, but the 27 had remained at the airbase and were apprehended by the RSF.
The statement released by the official spokesperson of the Egyptian Armed Forces said: “In light of the ongoing events on Sudanese lands, and within the framework of the efforts of the Egyptian Armed Forces and the close cooperation between the security apparatuses in Egypt and Sudan to secure the return of the Egyptian troops that were in joint training exercise with Sudanese troops, “All necessary coordination was undertaken with the Sudanese authorities on Wednesday 19 April, to land three military transport planes from the Egyptian Armed forces in an airbase in Sudan to carry out the mission of evacuating the Egyptian troops in a completely safe way. This was followed by the takeoff of the three planes in three successive flights which carried the majority of the Egyptian forces to an Egyptian military base in Cairo.
“In coordination with the Sudanese parties concerned, and friendly and brotherly countries, as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross, the secure arrival of all the remaining Egyptian troops to the Embassy of Egypt was accomplished.”
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry for its part, explained in a statement that Egypt had coordinated efforts with the United Arab Emirates to bring to the Egyptian embassy in Khartoum the 27 Egyptian soldiers who had been held by the RSF at Merowe airbase.
“The two brotherly countries [Egypt and the UAE] expressed their appreciation to the International Red Cross for its efforts in supporting the process of ensuring the safety of Egyptian soldiers,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Watani International
24 April 2023