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Smaller Bites – Sudan, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Harvard University, The Satellite Sentinel Project & Soros Funding, All Networking

Special Forces Swiftly Evacuate US Embassy Staff From Sudan

Sunday, 23 April 2023 02:26 PM EDT

Newsmax.com

Smoke is seen in Khartoum, Sudan, Saturday, April 22, 2023. The fighting in the capital between the Sudanese Army and Rapid Support Forces resumed after an internationally brokered cease-fire failed. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali)

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/american-embassy-personnel-sudan-evacuated-airlift/2023/04/23/id/1117168/

U.S. special operations forces carried out a precarious evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Sudan on Sunday, sweeping in and out of the capital with helicopters on the ground for less than an hour. No shots were fired and no major casualties were reported.

With the final embassy employee out of Khartoum, the United States shuttered its diplomatic mission indefinitely. Remaining behind in the East African nation are thousands of private American citizens. U.S. officials said it would be too dangerous to carry out a broader evacuation operation.

Battles between two rival Sudanese commanders had forced the closing of the main international airport and left roads out of the country in control of armed fighters. The skirmishes has killed more than 400 people.

In a statement thanking the troops, President Joe Biden said he was receiving regular reports from his team on efforts to assist remaining Americans in Sudan “to the extent possible.”

He also called for the end to “unconscionable” violence there.

About 100 U.S. troops in three MH-47 helicopters carried out the operation. They airlifted all of roughly 70 remaining American employees from a landing zone at the embassy to an undisclosed location in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia also provided overflight and refueling support, said Molly Phee, assistant secretary of state for African affairs.

Biden said Djibouti and Saudi Arabia provided assistance, too.

“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,” Biden said in a statement. “I am grateful for the unmatched skill of our service members who successfully brought them to safety.”

U.S. Africa Command and the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Gen. Mark Milley, were in contact with the factions before and during the operation to ensure that U.S. forces would have safe passage to conduct the evacuation. John Bass, an undersecretary of state, denied claims by Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Security Forces that it assisted in the U.S. evacuation.

“They cooperated to the extent that they did not fire on our service members in the course of the operation," Bass said.

Biden had ordered American troops to evacuate embassy personnel after receiving a recommendation from his national security team, with no end in sight to the fighting.

“This tragic violence in Sudan has already cost the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians. It’s unconscionable and it must stop,” Biden said. “The belligerent parties must implement an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, allow unhindered humanitarian access, and respect the will of the people of Sudan.”

Sudan's fighting broke out April 15 between two commanders who just 18 months earlier jointly orchestrated a military coup to derail the nation’s transition to democracy.

The power struggle between the armed forces chief, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the head of the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, has millions of Sudanese cowering inside their homes.

The violence has included an unprovoked attack on an American diplomatic convoy and numerous incidents in which foreign diplomats and aid workers were killed, injured or assaulted.

An estimated 16,000 private U.S. citizens are registered with the embassy as being in Sudan. The figure is rough because not all Americans register with embassy or say when they depart.

The embassy issued an alert earlier Saturday cautioning that “due to the uncertain security situation in Khartoum and closure of the airport, it is not currently safe to undertake a U.S. government-coordinated evacuation of private U.S. citizens.”

The U.S. evacuation planning for American employees of the embassy got underway in earnest on Monday after the embassy convoy was attacked in Khartoum. The Pentagon confirmed on Friday that U.S. troops were being moved to Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti ahead of a possible evacuation.

Embassy evacuations conducted by the U.S. military are relatively rare and usually take place only under extreme conditions. When it orders an embassy to draw down staff or suspend operations, the State Department prefers to have its personnel leave on commercial transportation if that is an option.

When the embassy in Kyiv temporarily closed just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022, staffers used commercial transport to leave.

In several other recent cases, notably in Afghanistan in 2021, conditions made commercial departures impossible or extremely hazardous. U.S. troops accompanied personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Libya, in an overland convoy to Tunisia when they evacuated in 2014.

Connecting the Dots:

Satellite Sentinel Project monitors the activities in Sudan and South Sudan.

John Prendergast  is a co-founder for the Satellite Sentinel Project, a co-founder for the Enough Project and was a fellow at the Center for American Progress.

Enough Project is an affiliated project for the Center for American Progress.

Open Society Foundations was a funder for the Center for American Progress

George Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, a board member for the International Crisis Group, was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society and a supporter for the Center for American Progress.   

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Center for American Progress and the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Lawrence H. Summers was a distinguished senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank) and is a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, a board member for the International Crisis Group and a professor; former president for Harvard University.

Harvard Humanitarian Initiative is in collaboration with Harvard University and analyzes the images for the Satellite Sentinel Project.

Satellite Sentinel Project monitors the activities in Sudan, and South Sudan.

John Prendergast  is a co-founder for the Satellite Sentinel Project, a co-founder for the Enough Project and was a fellow at the Center for American Progress.

Enough Project is an affiliated project for the Center for American Progress.

Open Society Foundations was a funder for the Center for American Progress

George Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society and a supporter for the Center for American Progress.   

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Center for American Progress.

Resources: Past Research

McDonnell: Looking for the Real Bastards in South Sudan (Past Research on Sudan)

SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 2017

https://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2017/04/mcdonnell-looking-for-real-bastards-in.html

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