Several countries scrambled to evacuate embassy staff and citizens by road, air and sea from Sudan, where fighting between the army and paramilitaries has killed hundreds of people and led to acute shortages of water, food, medicine and fuel.
Rescue operations have intensified in recent days as a 72-hour ceasefire came into force on Tuesday. “The security situation in Sudan continues to deteriorate recently,” Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Tan Kefei said.
The navy was deployed on Wednesday, he added, “to protect the lives and property of the Chinese people in Sudan”.
On Monday, China said it had safely evacuated the first group of citizens, estimating that there are about 1,500 of its nationals in Sudan. Tan did not specify the number of vessels involved.
China claims to be Sudan largest trading partner
China claims to be Sudan largest trading partner, with more than 130 companies investing there by mid-2022. About 800 Chinese nationals will be evacuated from Sudan by sea from April 25 to 27, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Wednesday.
More than 300 other people have crossed into countries neighboring Sudan by land, she added.
The fighting has left at least 512 dead and more than 4,000 injured, according to Sudan’s health ministry, and has reduced some districts of Khartoum to ruins. UN agencies reported that Sudanese civilians “are fleeing conflict-affected areas, including Chad, Egypt and South Sudan”.
As the international airport in the capital Khartoum was disabled after the fighting damaged many planes, many foreigners were flown in from smaller airstrips. Other evacuations were taking place from Port Sudan, an 850 kilometers (530 mi) drive from Khartoum.
An Indonesian military aircraft flew 110 Indonesian nationals from Port Sudan to the Saudi city of Jeddah on Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry said on Twitter on Thursday. This brings the total number of Indonesians evacuated from Sudan since the outbreak of the conflict to 667.
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