US Military Evacuates Embassy

An armed conflict in Sudan began on April 15. The fight is between two factions of the Sudanese military. One side is loyal to Mohamed “Hemedti” Hamdan Daglo, the commander of the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF). And the other side is loyal to Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the Sudanese army. The US took action to protect its own personnel recently.

On Saturday, April 22, President Joe Biden released a statement announcing the extraction of US government personnel from the embassy in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. According to the president, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Saudi Arabia “were critical to the success of [the] operation” to get the Americans to safety.

The New York Times reported Joint Staff Director for Operations Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Sims II said the mission to get the Americans out of Khartoum was “fast and clean.” The US military spent “less than an hour on the ground” evacuating staffers. He went on to say the workers are “safe and secure.”

Roughly 70 Embassy employees were rescued. A small number of diplomats from other countries who lived in the same buildings as the Americans were also rescued. The Navy’s SEAL Team 6 was reportedly involved in the operation. The military used V-22 Ospreys and helicopters to get them out.

There are still thousands of American citizens in Sudan who are there of their own accord. The Embassy is now closed, which means those who are there will have to get out of the region on their own. In a security alert, the government stated that it cannot undertake a mass evacuation of US citizens because of safety concerns.

Americans who need help are encouraged to fill out a form on the State Department website. The government has vowed to help citizens as best it can.