France has launched an operation to remove its citizens and diplomatic staff from Sudan, the country’s foreign ministry said today, as fighting enters its second week.

European citizens and others from “allied countries” will also be removed, the French ministry added without elaborating.

According to a diplomatic source, the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF) “offered security guarantees” for the operation. About 250 French citizens live in Sudan, the same source said.

On Saturday evening, US President Joe Biden said that the staff of the US embassy in Khartoum had been removed from the Sudanese capital, following an operation by US military special forces.

Also yesterday, Saudi Arabia announced that it had evacuated more than 150 people from Sudan to the port of Jeddah.

The evacuation was carried out by the country’s navy with the support of other military forces, the Saudi Foreign Ministry noted, announcing “the safe arrival” of 91 Saudi citizens and about 66 citizens of 12 other countries.

Jordan will use the same route, while other foreign nationals have begun to evacuate from a Sudanese port on the Red Sea.

Japan’s TBS network reported that UN workers, including Japanese citizens, and their families will be evacuated from the war-torn country as early as today.

Heavy fighting has trapped large numbers of people in Khartoum, with the airport out of service and some roads impassable.

The UN and foreign countries have called on the warring sides – Sudan’s regular army under General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the DTI paramilitaries of General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hamedi – to abide by the ceasefire they have agreed to and establish safe passages for civilians but also for the passage of aid.

With the airport closed and the airspace unsafe, thousands of foreigners—among them embassy workers, aid workers and students—in Khartoum and elsewhere in Sudan are unable to leave.

Fear of the future

Western countries are expected to send planes from Djibouti to evacuate their citizens, although the Sudanese military has indicated that airports in Khartoum and Nyala, the largest city in Darfur, are experiencing problems and it is unclear when this will be possible. .

The army and DTY have not respected the cease-fires that were announced almost daily after April 15, when hostilities began.

Clashes also occurred yesterday Saturday, despite the three-day truce announced on the occasion of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan for Muslims. One side accused the other of violating the ceasefire.

“I have no problem with the truce,” Hamedi told al Arabiya TV late yesterday. The army “didn’t respect her. If she respects her, we will respect her too,” he added.

Residents in Khartoum and its neighboring towns of Omdurman and Bahri said airstrikes were launched near state television and fighting broke out in several areas, including near the army headquarters.

A resident of Bahri said the town has been without running water and electricity for a week, while airstrikes are frequent: “We are waiting for the big battle. We are terrified of what comes next,” he said, later adding: “It has begun.”

Television images showed thick, black smoke rising over Khartoum airport.

Meanwhile, NetBlocks announced today that internet connectivity has been almost completely disrupted in Sudan. “Real-time network data shows an almost complete breakdown of internet connectivity in Khartoum,” it said.

Humanitarian risk

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called for safe corridors to be opened for aid and aid workers to pass through.

“We need ports of entry where specialist trauma personnel and medical equipment can come through,” said Abdullah Hussein, the organisation’s Sudan operations chief.

The Sudanese Doctors Association said more than two-thirds of hospitals in the conflict-ridden areas were out of service, while 32 were forcibly evacuated by soldiers or caught in the crossfire.

The World Health Organization said on Friday that 413 people have been killed and 3,551 injured since the clashes began. Among the dead are at least five aid workers.

Apart from Khartoum, the most intense conflicts are in Darfur, Sudan’s poorest province, where inter-ethnic conflicts that broke out in 2003 have killed 300,000 people and displaced 2.7 million.

The UN reported yesterday that the offices of the World Food Program (WFP) in Nyala were looted, with at least 10 of the agency’s trucks and six others containing food stolen.

There are currently no signs that either side will prevail anytime soon or that they are open to talks. The army controls the air force, while the DTY has forces scattered in urban areas.

Burhan said yesterday that “we must all sit together as Sudanese and find the right way to return to hope and life”, the most conciliatory statements he has made so far.

In Sudan, Africa’s third-largest gold producer and yet one of the world’s poorest, health services have collapsed for decades, while a third of the country’s 45 million people suffer from hunger.

The suspension of the activities of most humanitarian organizations will worsen the situation. The conflict also threatens to spread beyond Sudan’s borders, experts say.