More than 1,000 European Union citizens have evacuated from conflict-hit Sudan over the weekend, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, has said.
Borrell also informed journalists on Monday that 21 diplomats from the EU’s mission in Khartoum were taken out and the EU ambassador had moved outside the capital to elsewhere in Sudan.
Similarly, a hundred French nationals and other nationalities have already been evacuated from Sudan by France and another hundred are expected to follow, the French Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Armed Forces said.
Borrell stated, “It has been a complex operation and it has been a successful operation.”
“I want to thank France, especially for taking our people out.”
“And I want to thank the combined efforts of many countries that took their nationals but also all nationals that they could pick.”
An EU official on Friday told AFP that there were an estimated 1,500 citizens from the bloc in Khartoum.
Across Khartoum, army and paramilitary troops have fought ferocious street battles since April 15, leaving behind charred tanks, gutted buildings and looted shops.
More than 420 people have been killed and thousands wounded, according to UN figures, amid fears of wider turmoil and a humanitarian disaster in one of the world’s poorest nations.
Borrell said on Sunday that he had spoken to rival commanders Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo to call for an “immediate ceasefire”.
The post Over 1,000 citizens with 21 diplomats evacuated from Sudan – EU appeared first on Vanguard News.
