The plan of the Ministry of Defense is ready. Clashes have been raging in the country for a week between the regular army and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces
Ready on Ministry of Defense plan for the evacuation of about 200 Italians who are in Sudan, where clashes between the regular army and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been raging for a week. According to Adnkronos, the compatriots should arrive by land from Sudan – as most of the airports are unusable – to the assembly point in Djibouti, where the military planes are located ready for evacuation operations.
Meanwhile “19 Italians who were on a cruise in the waters of Port Sudan have been made safe. We have assisted them since the beginning of the clashes, now they have landed in Hurghada. Thanks to the work of our embassies in Khartoum and Cairo and of the Crisis Unit of the Farnesina,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani wrote on Twitter.
EVACUATIONS – General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, at the head of the Sudanese Armed Forces, “agreed” to “facilitate” the evacuation of foreign nationals and diplomats from Sudan. According to what was announced via Twitter, Al-Burhan “received phone calls from the leaders of various countries with the request to facilitate and guarantee the evacuation” from Sudan “of their citizens and diplomatic missions” and “agreed to provide assistance necessary to guarantee” the transfers. According to the statement, “the transfer operations of all missions whose countries request it are expected to begin in the next few hours” and “the United States, the United Kingdom, France and China will transfer their diplomats and citizens with military transport aircraft, belonging to the their armed forces, from Khartoum and this should start immediately”. Instead, the Saudis were transferred by land to Port Sudan and then left the country by plane from there, they also claim on Twitter.
CLASHES AGAIN – After a short break the fighting continues. This morning the capital Khartoum was hit again, a journalist on the spot told the dpa agency. Gunfire rang out in the city, and witnesses tweeted about the explosions. According to the journalist, the ceasefire – agreed by the parties on Friday on the occasion of the celebrations of Eid al-Fitr for the end of the month of Ramadan – has mostly held overnight and there have been only “sporadic clashes”.
Fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces “intensified” this morning in the Sudanese capital, according to the Sudan Tribune, according to which explosions and clashes were reported in areas close to the General Command of the army and the presidential palace of Khartoum. The clashes, it continues, then spread to the areas of Hillat Hamad, Khojaly and Arkaweet. The Sudan Tribune cites testimonies referring to artillery attacks in the areas of Ombada and Karari.
GENERAL AL-BURHAN: “ME AWAY FROM HERE? ONLY IN A COFFIN” – “Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are deployed in neighborhoods and they use civilians as human shields” is the accusation launched by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in statements to al-Arabiya as fears grow about the situation in Sudan and as work is done to get foreign nationals out of the country. According to the general, Sudan’s airports are “under the control of the army, except those in the capital Khartoum and Nyala” and for al-Burhan “an internal dialogue is needed to resolve the crisis”.
The general accused the Rapid Support Forces of “attacking diplomatic missions” and “turning hospitals into military sites”. “They attacked shops, banks and government institutions,” he pressed. The fighting “inside the cities prolongs the clashes – he said – The armed men must leave the inhabited areas to put an end to this war”.
And when asked if he knows where the head of the rapid support forces, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, is, he replied that “not even his forces know where he is”, convinced that “no one can predict when the clashes will end”.
“From here they will only take me away in a coffin,” said General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. “No one can predict when this conflict will end – he insisted – The first fundamental step is for the paramilitaries to withdraw from inhabited areas”.
Source-www.adnkronos.com