Fighting in Sudan Drives Diplomats Away as Refugees Fight To Get Out

Sudanese have anxiously searched for ways to flee the upheaval as foreign governments have flown hundreds of their diplomats and other citizens to safety, afraid that once evacuations are complete, the country’s two competing generals will intensify their all-out power struggle.

Convoys of foreign diplomats, teachers, students, workers, and families from dozens of nations wound through combatants at tense front lines in the capital Khartoum in dramatic evacuation operations in order to reach extraction locations.

Others traveled the nation’s east coast by car across long distances.

To transport them out, a steady stream of military aircraft from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia flew in on Sunday and Monday.

But for many Sudanese, the airlift was a scary warning that after repeatedly failing to broker ceasefires, international powers only anticipate the fighting, which has already plunged the population into tragedy, to get worse.

A 72-hour truce that will start late on Monday was negotiated with assistance, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

It would prolong a formal cease-fire that hasn’t really stopped the violence but made evacuations easier.

Meanwhile, Antonio Guterres, the secretary-general of the UN, issued a warning of a “catastrophic conflagration” that might consume the entire region. In order to “pull Sudan back from the edge of the abyss,” he pleaded with the 15 members of the Security Council to “exert maximum leverage” on both parties.

In the continuously shifting conflict of explosions, gunfire, and armed combatants looting shops and houses, Sudanese must endure a terrifying hunt for safety.

For nine days, many people had been hiding inside their homes. A large portion of the country lacks electricity and internet access, and hospitals are on the verge of collapse. Food and fuel are becoming more expensive and difficult to find.

Those with the means were making the 15-hour drive to Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast or to the Egyptian border. Those without the wherewithal to travel abroad poured into the relatively tranquil Nile districts north and south of Khartoum.

With money in short supply and transportation costs skyrocketing, many more people were imprisoned.

“Traveling outside of Khartoum has turned into a luxury”, according to high school teacher Shahin al-Sherif.

The 27-year-old was feverishly making plans to get himself, his younger sister, mother, aunt, and grandmother out of Khartoum. Days of warfare had kept them confined to their home in Khartoum’s Amarat neighborhood. They finally relocated to a more remote, safer area.

However, Mr. al-Sherif believes things will only grow worse and is concerned that his sister, aunt, and grandmother—all of whom have diabetes—won’t be able to receive the supplies they require.