Moment marines fold flag at the US embassy in war-torn Khartoum before diplomatic staff evacuated

The images show the flag being lowered by the the Marine Security Guard Detachment at a flag-folding ceremony. There are still 16,000 desperate American citizens left in Sudan and two have died....

The Marine Security Guard Detachment assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, lowers the U.S. flag during a flag-folding ceremony at the U.S. Embassy, on April 22, 2023

 

On Saturday, the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum suspended its operations and ordered staff to leave the country.

In a security alert on Tuesday, the State Department reiterated that 'due to the uncertain security situation in Khartoum and closure of the airport, it is not currently safe to undertake a U.S. government-coordinated evacuation of private U.S. citizens'.

While embassy staff were airlifted out, there were no plans to provide similar evacuations for potentially thousands of Americans still in Sudan.  

Instead, it provided details on border crossings that are available and the requirements needed at each location. 

It cautioned that fighting continues and that many routes are dangerous and unpredictable.

American citizens who get to Port Sudan overland and can take a ferry to Jeddah will be assisted by the U.S. consulate there. 

Right now, the U.S. assistance for Americans is largely limited to phone and virtual help.

The U.S. could send Navy vessels to Port Sudan to ferry Americans to Jeddah or another location where they could get transportation back to the United States.

However, officials say this would depend on the security situation and whether it is safe for ships to dock. 

The U.S. has developed other options, such as opening a temporary consulate in Port Sudan, beefing up its consulate in Jeddah to assist Americans as they arrive, or using a nearby airfield that other European countries have used to fly citizens out.

U.S. officials believe the security situation in Port Sudan is better than in the capital, but remain concerned about the potential for an escalation of violence.

While many Americans may recall the dramatic 2021 evacuation of diplomats and private citizens alike from Afghanistan, those circumstances were far different.   

In most cases, the U.S. does not evacuate private citizens when it closes an embassy.

The situation in Afghanistan was different because the U.S. was ending a 20-year military presence in the country.

It was trying to extricate the residual American presence there, much of which was directly tied to Washington's role in propping up the Afghan government. 

No such situation existed or exists in Sudan.

More typical has been the practice in places like Yemen, Syria and Venezuela, where the U.S. suspended diplomatic operations and removed personnel because of turmoil, but did not evacuate private citizens.

While the U.S. says it's too dangerous to get its citizens out, other countries are proceeding with evacuations of their nationals.

France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, Holland, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, Jordan, South Africa, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are among the countries that have evacuated their citizens and those of other countries. 

The U.S. has warned Americans for several years not to travel to Sudan and told them that consular assistance at the embassy was extremely limited.

On Sunday, U.S. special operations forces carried out a precarious evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Sudan, sweeping in and out of the capital with helicopters on the ground for less than an hour. 

No shots were fired and no major casualties were reported.

With the final embassy employee out of Khartoum, the United States shuttered its diplomatic mission indefinitely. 

Remaining behind in the East African nation are thousands of private American citizens. U.S. officials said it would be too dangerous to carry out a broader evacuation operation.

Battles between two rival Sudanese commanders had forced the closing of the main international airport and left roads out of the country in control of armed fighters. The skirmishes has killed more than 400 people.

In a statement thanking the troops, President Joe Biden said he was receiving regular reports from his team on efforts to assist remaining Americans in Sudan 'to the extent possible.'

He also called for the end to 'unconscionable' violence there.

About 100 U.S. troops in three MH-47 helicopters carried out the operation. They airlifted all of roughly 70 remaining American employees from a landing zone at the embassy to an undisclosed location in Ethiopia.

Yesterday it was announced that a second American has died in Sudan, the White House said on Wednesday, and U.S. authorities are helping a small number of citizens seeking to leave the country during a ceasefire that has curbed fighting.

While sporadic violence continues, the ceasefire announced by the United States on Monday appears to be holding, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.

'So we want to take advantage of that ceasefire to make sure that Americans know if they want to make the move ... we're gonna see what we can do to get them the information they need to link up with these ground routes,' he said on CNN.

'It is still dangerous. I want to stress that. It is still dangerous, but the ceasefire seems to be holding or at least contributing to a reduction in violence.'

The Biden administration was continuing to work with both the Sudanese army and the paramilitary force opposing it to extend the ceasefire to allow more humanitarian assistance, Kirby told reporters in a briefing earlier Wednesday.

The White House's comments came as fighting between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) flared on the outskirts of the capital of Khartoum despite the truce aimed at quelling the 11-day conflict.

Levels of violence appear to have decreased significantly, Kirby said. 

'The levels are down, but we want to see the levels at zero,' he said.

President Joe Biden has directed U.S. officials to help as many Americans as possible, and they were 'actively facilitating the departure of a relatively small number of Americans' who wanted to leave.

U.S. officials have put that number in the dozens.

Some U.S. citizens had arrived at Port Sudan to evacuate, and the United States was continuing to support other limited evacuation efforts via ground routes, he added.

USAID has deployed teams in the region and was prepared to help provide humanitarian assistance in the event the ceasefire was extended, Kirby told reporters.

The United States and African nations were trying to secure an extension of a three-day ceasefire in Sudan on Thursday, with the Sudanese army giving an initial nod to an African proposal calling for talks even as fighting continued. 

Hundreds of people have been killed in nearly two weeks of conflict between the army and a rival paramilitary force - the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) - which are locked in a power struggle that threatens to destabilise the wider region.

An RSF statement accused the army of attacking its forces on Thursday and spreading 'false rumours', making no reference to the proposal which the army said came from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an African regional bloc.

The existing three-day ceasefire brought about a lull in fighting, without completely halting it, but was due to expire at midnight (2200 GMT) and many foreign nationals remained trapped in the country despite an exodus over the past few days.

The army late on Wednesday said its leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, had given initial approval to the plan to extend the truce for another 72 hours and to send an army envoy to the South Sudan capital, Juba, for talks.

The military said the presidents of South Sudan, Kenya and Djibouti worked on a proposal that includes extending the truce and talks between the two forces.

'Burhan thanked the IGAD and expressed an initial approval to that,' the army statement said. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat discussed working together to create a sustainable end to the fighting, the State Department said in a statement on Wednesday.

At least 512 people have been killed and close to 4,200 wounded since by the fighting since April 15.

The crisis has sent growing numbers of refugees across Sudan's borders. The U.N. refugee agency has estimated 270,000 people could flee into South Sudan and Chad alone.

With air strikes and artillery unleashed during the fighting, the conflict has destroyed hospitals and limited food distribution in the vast nation where a third of the 46 million people were already reliant on humanitarian aid.