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CNN —The World Health Organization warned Tuesday of a “huge biological risk” after Sudanese fighters seized the National Public Health Laboratory in the capital Khartoum, as foreign nations raced to mount rapid evacuation efforts from the country and violence punctured a fragile US-brokered ceasefire. Seized laboratory a potential ‘germ bomb’A high-ranking medical source told CNN that the lab, which contains samples of diseases and other biological material, had been taken over by RSF forces. Navy PhotoAs many as 500 people fleeing the fighting have begun boarding the French frigate “Lorraine” in Port-Sudan on Tuesday afternoon, a spokesman for the French Chief of Defense Staff told CNN. “Shops are running out of food completely” and several food factories in the state had been looted, the witness, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons, told CNN. On Monday, the Sudanese military claimed that the RSF killed an Egyptian diplomat, while the RSF claimed the army targeted civilians in an airstrike on a Khartoum neighborhood.

GENEVA, April 25 (Reuters) - There is a "high risk of biological hazard" in Sudan's capital Khartoum after one of the warring parties seized a laboratory holding measles and cholera pathogens and other hazardous materials, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. Speaking to reporters in Geneva via video link from Sudan, the WHO's representative in the country, Nima Saeed Abid, said technicians were unable to gain access to the National Public Health Laboratory to secure the materials. Fighting erupted between the Sudanese armed forces and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries on April 15 and has killed at least 459 people and injured 4,072, according to the WHO's latest figures. The WHO has reported 14 attacks on health facilities since the clashes began and is relocating its staff to safety. Smoke is seen rise from buildings during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum North, Sudan.

CNN —National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby defended the United States’ decision not to evacuate US citizens from Sudan after US forces conducted a military operation extracting government personnel from its embassy in Khartoum Saturday. Internet connectivity has also been unreliable, leaving family members and friends outside of Sudan to worry if their loved ones are safe. Kirby said Monday that the violence in Sudan “is increasing,” and urged Americans remaining in the country to shelter in place. Officials told congressional staffers last week that there could be an estimated 16,000 American citizens in Sudan, most of whom are dual nationals. Kirby echoed this on Monday and suggested that many of those dual nationals “don’t want to leave” the country.

☆ Countries rush Sudan evacuations, fearful of violence rocking Khartoum
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KHARTOUM, April 24 (Reuters) - A German air force plane with 101 people evacuated from Sudan landed in Berlin early on Monday, as countries rushed to extract their citizens from Khartoum amid a deadly power struggle between the army and a paramilitary force. Sweden said that all its embassy staff in Khartoum, their families and an unspecified number of other Swedes had been evacuated to nearby Djibouti. Others are via Port Sudan on the Red Sea, which is about 650 km (400 miles) northeast of Khartoum, but is about 800 km (500 miles) by road. The German military did not provide a break-down of how many of those evacuated were German citizens or nationals from other countries. The fighting in Sudan has triggered a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished country, where millions of people have been left without access to basic services.

A convoy leaving Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, advances on a road toward Port Sudan, on Sunday. Photo: abubakarr jalloh/AFP/Getty ImagesThe U.S. and other governments moved swiftly over the weekend to evacuate embassy staff from Sudan, where a battle for power between the country’s top two generals has now left millions of residents with the difficult choice of whether to try to sit out the clashes at home or attempt a risky escape. The rapid descent of the east African country—and especially its capital, Khartoum—into all-out war appeared to surprise many embassies, including the U.S. mission, which didn’t issue advisories for American citizens to leave the country before the fighting started on April 15.

PinnedThe United States military airlifted embassy officials out of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, amid continuing violence as rival military leaders battled for control of Africa’s third-largest country, President Biden said late on Saturday. (Mr. Godfrey — the first U.S. ambassador to Sudan in a quarter-century — arrived in the country about eight months ago.) They had lived in the same apartment buildings as some American diplomatic staff and arrived together at the embassy, he said. “I am proud of the extraordinary commitment of our embassy staff, who performed their duties with courage and professionalism and embodied America’s friendship and connection with the people of Sudan,” Mr. Biden said. Credit... Ebrahim Hamid/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesU.S. officials have said that about 16,000 American citizens were living in Sudan, many of them dual nationals.

☆ Latest status on foreign states' Sudan evacuation efforts
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Several evacuation efforts appear to be via Port Sudan on the Red Sea, which is directly located about 650 km (400 miles) northeast of Khartoum, but is about 800 km (500 miles) by road. SAUDI ARABIA AND KUWAITSaudi Arabia on Saturday pulled 91 Saudis and about 66 people from other countries out from Port Sudan by naval ship to Jeddah, across the Red Sea. QATARSudan's army accused the RSF of attacking and looting a Qatari embassy convoy heading to Port Sudan. OTHER COUNTRIESJordan said it had begun evacuating about 300 of its nationals from Port Sudan on Saturday. Sweden has given the government permission to deploy forces to help evacuate embassy staff and families.

☆ US and France evacuate diplomats from Sudan as battles rage on
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Khalid Abdelaziz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

"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 in a statement. It pits Sudan's army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (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. Saudi Arabia has already evacuated Gulf citizens from Port Sudan on the Red Sea, 650 km (400 miles) from Khartoum. Egypt, which has more than 10,000 citizens in Sudan, urged its nationals outside Khartoum to head to its consulate in Port Sudan, and to a consular office in Wadi Halfa on the border with Egypt, in preparation for their evacuation. It encouraged those in Khartoum to shelter in place and wait for the situation to improve.

WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) - All U.S. government personnel were evacuated from Washington's embassy in Khartoum, as well as a small number of diplomatic personnel from other countries, U.S. officials said on Saturday, as fighting rocks Sudan. The operation evacuated fewer than 100 people, the officials told reporters. "We evacuated all of the U.S. personnel and dependents assigned to Embassy Khartoum," said Under Secretary of State for Management John Bass. A substantial number of local staff remain in Khartoum supporting the embassy, where Washington decided to suspend operations on Saturday due to the security risks, Bass said. U.S. forces spent just an hour on the ground in Sudan before taking off again, entering and exiting Sudan without being fired upon by the warring factions on the ground, the military said.

NAIROBI, Kenya — It began with a helicopter evacuation of American diplomats from Sudan’s besieged capital city just after midnight Sunday, then turned into a full-fledged exodus of foreign officials and citizens of other nations as the battle raged around them. At the United States Embassy in Khartoum, an elite team of Navy SEALs ushered up to 90 people onto aircraft before taking off for Djibouti, 800 miles away. Hours later, a United Nations convoy began snaking its way out of the city, starting a 525-mile drive to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, while British and French diplomats were escorted to an airfield outside the city where military cargo planes were waiting. Other groups headed for Qadarif, a small town near the border with Ethiopia, and a boat chartered by Saudi Arabia carried its fleeing diplomats across the Red Sea. After days of fruitless diplomatic efforts to get two warring Sudanese generals to lay down their weapons, foreign governments took another tack this weekend: fleeing a country, long viewed as strategically important, that has been in the grip of intense fighting for over a week.

☆ Sudan Army Chief Claims U.S. Citizens and Some Other Foreigners Will Be Evacuated
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Elian Peltier | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The head of the Sudanese Army said on Saturday that citizens of the United States and a few other countries would be evacuated “in the coming hours” as the fighting between two clashing military factions entered its second week. The claims could not be immediately confirmed. A spokeswoman for France’s Foreign Ministry said she could not confirm the evacuation of any French diplomat or citizen. The international airport in Khartoum, the capital, has been closed amid the fighting, and roads across the country remain dangerous. Diplomats from Saudi Arabia were evacuated earlier by land to Port Sudan, in the country’s east, and flown to Saudi Arabia, according to General al-Burhan, with a similar operation expected to take place for Jordanian citizens.

☆ Sudan’s army says evacuations of diplomats expected to begin
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Heavy smoke billows above buildings in the vicinity of the Khartoum airport on April 15, 2023, amid clashes in the Sudanese capital. The military said that army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan had spoken to leaders of various countries requesting safe evacuations of their citizens and diplomats from Sudan. With Sudan's airspace closed, foreign countries have ordered their citizens to simply shelter in place until they can figure out evacuation plans. Burhan said that some diplomats from Saudi Arabia had already been evacuated from Port Sudan, the country's main seaport on the Red Sea, and airlifted back to the kingdom. Even as questions persisted over how the mass evacuation of foreign citizens would unfold, the Saudi Foreign Ministry announced Saturday that it had started arranging the evacuation of Saudi nationals out of the country.

[1/5] People gather to get bread during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum North, Sudan, April 22, 2023. The army and the paramilitary RSF, which are waging a deadly power struggle across the country, had both issued statements saying they would uphold a three-day ceasefire from Friday for Islam's Eid al-Fitr holiday. The army has air power but the RSF is widely embedded in urban areas including around key facilities in central Khartoum. The army said the United States, Britain, France and China would evacuate diplomats and other nationals from Khartoum "in the coming hours". The army on Friday accused the RSF of raiding the prison, which the paramilitary force denied.

The army and the paramilitary RSF, which are waging a deadly power struggle across the country, had both issued statements saying they would uphold a three-day ceasefire from Friday for Islam's Eid al-Fitr holiday. The army has air power but the RSF is widely embedded in urban areas including around key facilities in central Khartoum. Burhan said the army was providing safe pathways but that some airports including in Khartoum and Darfur's largest city Nyala were still problematic. [1/5] People gather to get bread during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum North, Sudan, April 22, 2023. The army on Friday accused the RSF of raiding the prison, which the paramilitary force denied.

☆ Explainer: Sudan's conflict and what worries neighbours, the U.S. and others
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

Five of Sudan's seven neighbours - Ethiopia, Chad, Central African Republic, Libya and South Sudan - have faced political upheaval or conflict themselves in recent years. Smoke rises from burning aircraft inside Khartoum Airport during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum, Sudan April 17, 2023. SOUTH SUDAN - South Sudan, which seceded from Sudan in 2011 after a civil war lasting decades, exports its oil output of 170,000 barrels per day via a pipeline through its northern neighbour. Analysts say neither side in Sudan's conflict has an interest in disrupting those flows but South Sudan's government said this week fighting had already hampered logistics and transport links between the oilfields and Port Sudan. THE UNITED STATES AND THE WEST - The United States, like other Western powers, was happy to be rid of Bashir, who was charged with genocide and war crimes by the International Criminal Court over the Darfur conflict.

A patchy cease-fire between Sudan’s two rival generals held in parts of the capital on Wednesday night, as desperate residents looked for ways to escape the city after five days trapped by the chaotic fighting with dwindling stocks of water and food. Evacuation from the capital, Khartoum, has proved intensely dangerous since conflict erupted over the weekend between Sudan’s military and a powerful paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces. Nearly 300 people have been killed and over 3,000 wounded since fighting erupted on Saturday, the World Health Organization said. Conditions have deteriorated with dizzying speed in Sudan, even by the standards of modern warfare. Khartoum was already a fragile city before fighting erupted on Saturday, with frequent power outages and soaring food prices.

☆ World Food Programme halts Sudan operations, 3 workers killed
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

CAIRO,April 16 (Reuters) - The United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) said on Sunday it had temporarily halted all operations in Sudan after three of its employees were killed in clashes between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) a day earlier. "While we review the evolving security situation, we are forced to temporarily halt all operations in Sudan," WFP executive director Cindy McCain said in a statement. The incident has seriously impacted the organisation's ability to move humanitarian workers and aid in Sudan, he said. Earlier on Sunday, the United Nations condemned the killing of the WFP employees, saying they died while carrying out their duties. The fighting broke out on Saturday between army units loyal to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

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