US Helping From Afar as Americans Flee Fighting in Sudan

Hold on tight, America! The White House has announced that it’s helping thousands of Americans stranded in Sudan to escape the fighting that’s tearing the country apart. The U.S. Embassy has already evacuated all of its diplomatic personnel and shut down, but the U.S. is still working hard to get its citizens out of harm’s way.

President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has defended the decision not to keep U.S. forces or diplomats in Sudan to help its citizens evacuate, but instead, the U.S. is remotely assisting Americans trying to flee the country by road. The U.S. is also placing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets over the route from the capital, Khartoum, to the country’s main seaport, the Port of Sudan, to scope out safety threats.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has helped broker a 72-hour cease-fire to begin late Monday, which would extend a nominal truce coinciding with a Muslim holiday that brought almost no reduction in fighting but helped to facilitate the evacuations.

Foreign governments have been airlifting hundreds of their diplomats and other citizens to safety as Sudan has spiraled into chaos. France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, and Turkey are among the countries that have diplomats or troops in the country to evacuate their citizens and those of other countries. That is in contrast to a Biden administration decision that the situation was too dangerous to help private American citizens get out.

But don’t worry, America! The U.S. is doing everything it can to get its citizens to safety. Convoys with Americans in them are beginning to arrive at Port of Sudan on the Red Sea, and the U.S. is working with neighboring countries to get them safely over the border. The U.S. is looking at every conceivable option to help Americans get out of Sudan but is not considering troops.

Sudan’s conflict involves two rival military leaders, the armed forces chief, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group, Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, who 18 months ago joined forces to derail the nation’s hoped-for transition to democracy. The violence has killed hundreds and left millions of Sudanese seeking safety amid explosions, gunfire, and armed fighters looting shops and homes.

It’s a scary situation, but the U.S. is doing everything it can to help its citizens. Hold on tight, America, and stay safe!