Saudi Arabia evacuates dozens of Russians from Sudan

Saudi Arabia evacuated dozens of Russians by warships from Sudan. Ruslan Usmanov, an attache and spokesman for the Russian Consulate General in Jeddah, announced this in an interview with TASS.

He clarified that Russian citizens do not independently leave the territory of Sudan, where fighting is now taking place.

“They are being taken out by Saudi Arabian warships. They took care of this issue.”Usmanov noted.

From the port of Sudan, the Russians are brought to the port of Jeddah to the naval base, where they are met by Russian diplomats.

“At the moment, about 40 Russians have arrived,” – added the attache, explaining that most of the citizens have already left either for Russia or for other countries.

Fighting in Sudan

On April 15, an armed confrontation between the country’s army and the Rapid Reaction Forces (RRF) began in Sudan. The first shots and explosions were heard in the capital of the country, Khartoum – the RRF reported that their headquarters were attacked by representatives of the army. However, the RRF themselves seized the capital’s airport and the airfield in the city of Merov, as well as the presidential palace. The Sudanese army, in turn, accused the RRF of rebellion and hit their bases.

The Russian Foreign Ministry, the UN and a number of other departments and organizations called on the warring parties to cease fire and return to negotiations. However, the army in response stated that it would not negotiate with the SBR, as it considered them to be rebels.

With the help of the Russian embassy, ​​140 citizens of the CIS countries wanted to evacuate from Sudan, but the country’s authorities closed the airspace over the state until April 30, which complicates the evacuation.

In March 2023, the civil opposition in Sudan agreed with the military to sign a reform agreement, which was scheduled for April 1. However, negotiations on the document only exacerbated the situation in the country.

In particular, one of the clauses of the agreement provided for the inclusion of the Rapid Reaction Forces (RRF) in the regular army. This caused divisions between the army, led by al-Burhan, and the special forces, led by the Deputy Chairman of the Sovereign Council, Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (Hamidti). As a result, the signing of the agreement was repeatedly postponed.

Ahead of the scheduled signing date in Khartoum, the security forces were on high alert. The army moved its units to a state of readiness, and the special forces pulled about 60,000 of their fighters to the capital. On April 13, the army demanded that the special forces withdraw their units from the city of Merove, putting forward an ultimatum. But the special forces refused to do this and, on the contrary, increased their presence in the city. Also on this date, a meeting of the Security and Defense Council of Sudan was scheduled, at which the issue of reducing tension in the country was to be discussed, but it was canceled.