DÉFENSE ZONE
The violence that has been shaking Sudan for more than a week has led to the evacuation of the many Western nationals in the country. The French operation “Sagittaire” (Sagittarius), which began early this morning, has run into difficulties.
The French convoy came under fire and one person was wounded by a bullet. The paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) say they escorted the convoy, but that it was targeted by “aircraft” “while passing through Bahri towards Omdurman”, west of the capital, Khartoum. A Western official quoted by the New York Times said the operation had been halted and the French nationals had been taken to safety at a military airfield.
Yet a diplomatic source had stated that the Sudanese armed forces and the RSF paramilitaries had given security guarantees for this operation. Around 250 French nationals live in Sudan and must be evacuated safely. The two factions opposing each other in the conflict have accused each other of obstructing the evacuation operations.
Tensions between the two Sudanese warlords degenerated into open conflict over the question of integrating the RSF into the regular army, only days before a planned transition of power to civilians. The violence has already left hundreds dead and thousands wounded, causing thousands of people to flee. In addition, an almost total internet outage was reported on Sunday, making the situation even more opaque.
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Photo credit: Maxxar
