Friday, April 21, 2023

US Prepares for Evacuation of Its Nationals from Sudan

 The New York Times published on 20 April 2023 an article titled "U.S. Positioning Troops for Evacuation of American Embassy in Sudan" by Helene Cooper, Elian Peltier, and Farnaz Fassihi.

While it is currently not safe to undertake a US-government coordinated evacuation from Sudan because of the breakdown of security, it is deploying more troops at its base in neighboring Djibouti on a contingency basis.

Comment:  As Deputy Chief of Mission at the US embassy in Khartoum in the mid-1980s and required to play a key role in two evacuations of US citizens under much less hostile conditions than what the embassy faces today, I can attest to the challenges.  The Khartoum airport is closed and damaged and the capital is far from the border of any neighboring country, many of which have their own issues.  An evacuation would require the acceptance of the two contending forces.