military has a base, to prepare for a rescue.īut with the airport in the capital badly damaged by shelling and the land corridor to Port Sudan - more than 500 miles away - seen as too risky, a limited evacuation by airlift was seen as the best option, officials said.
The Pentagon had positioned more troops in recent days in Djibouti, where the U.S. “But always with the intention of finding a path back to having our flag up and our presence in Khartoum as quickly as we could.” “It was only at that point that we reluctantly concluded that the only really feasible option for us in this case was to temporarily suspend operations, move those operations - our diplomacy - offshore, and continue to work from there,” Mr. The first step, said John Bass, the under secretary of state for management, was to get various embassy personnel who were “pinned down in apartments scattered around the city” consolidated in a small number of safer places.Īs officials were working on that, he said, they began to assess that as the conflict continued, they could not reliably predict and depend on there being food, fuel, power and other critical supplies to keep the embassy operating safely.
ambassador to Sudan in a quarter-century - arrived in the country about eight months ago.) Blinken, the secretary of state, and Molly Phee, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, had been in close contact with the U.S. The fighting has left many people stranded at home without electricity, food or water, and doctors and hospitals say they are struggling to cope.Īs the situation deteriorated, Antony J.
They include at least 256 civilians who died and 1,454 who were wounded, according to a doctors union. The move came on the eighth day of brutal fighting in the capital and other parts of the country between the army and a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, whose leaders are vying for supremacy in Sudan.Īt least 400 people have been killed in the ensuing clashes and 3,500 injured, according to the United Nations.
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