China Sends Navy To Sudan To Evacuate Its Citizens

According to the Beijing defense ministry today, China has sent its navy to Sudan to rescue residents from the country’s civil war.

As a result of conflict between the army and paramilitaries in Sudan, which has resulted in hundreds of deaths and severe shortages of water, food, medication, and gasoline, numerous governments have rushed to evacuate diplomatic employees and nationals by land, air, and sea.

Since a 72-hour ceasefire went into force on Tuesday, rescue efforts have increased. On Wednesday, however, there were reports of minor fighting across the nation, with witnesses citing “heavy air strikes” east of Khartoum as the cause.

Tan Kefei, the spokesman for the Chinese defense ministry, stated that “recently, the security situation in Sudan has continued to deteriorate.”

He said, “To protect the lives and property of Chinese people in Sudan, the navy was deployed yesterday.” He omitted to mention how many vessels were engaged.

China estimated that approximately 1,500 of its residents were in Sudan and said on Monday that it had safely evacuated the first batch of citizens.

More than 1,100 Chinese nationals, including residents of Hong Kong, had been evacuated, state broadcaster CCTV was informed by Wu Xi, head of consular affairs at the foreign ministry, on Wednesday evening. China claims to be Sudan’s greatest trading partner, and as of mid-2022, more than 130 businesses had invested there.

800 Chinese nationals will be transported from Sudan by sea between April 25 and 27, according to Mao Ning, a spokesman for the foreign ministry. She continued by saying that more than 300 other people had entered Sudan’s neighboring countries by land.

According to the Sudanese health ministry, the violence has left more than 4,000 people injured, at least 512 dead, and some areas of greater Khartoum in ruins.

Civilians from Sudan were reportedly “fleeing areas affected by fighting, including Chad, Egypt, and South Sudan,” according to UN agencies.

Groups of foreigners have been evacuated out of lesser airstrips because Khartoum’s international airport is no longer operational due to fights that have destroyed numerous aircraft.

Other evacuations were also occurring at Port Sudan, which is located 850 kilometers (530 miles) away from Khartoum.

Yesterday, 110 Indonesian citizens were transported by Indonesian military aircraft from Port Sudan to the Saudi city of Jeddah, according to a tweet from the foreign ministry today. As a result, 667 Indonesians have now been evacuated from Sudan since hostilities began.