A German plane flew dozens of Canadians out of Sudan on Monday, and a Canadian C-17 transport plane stationed in the region is on standby to help more nationals flee the East African country, as the conflict escalates.
Global Affairs Canada has provided very little information on efforts to date to get Canadian citizens, or even its own personnel, out of Sudan. But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in a photo op with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, provided a small update Monday afternoon in Ottawa.
“I just learned earlier today that a German plane took off from Khartoum with one German citizen and 58 Canadian citizens on board,” he said. We also have a [avion] C-17 in the region, and we will also provide air transport. »
Mr. Trudeau added that this recent airlift is an example of great cooperation between Canada and Germany.
Heavy gunfire and deafening explosions rocked Khartoum on Monday, with continued fighting between the national army and a rival paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces.
More than 420 people, including at least 273 civilians, have been killed and more than 3,700 injured since fighting began on April 15, after power-sharing negotiations between the two sides rapidly deteriorated.
Canadians must register
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said earlier Monday that Canada was working “with allied countries” to help citizens who remain in Sudan flee the country.
Minister Joly tweeted that Global Affairs Canada is trying to contact all Canadians in Sudan who have registered with the government. She reminds that Canadians in Sudan must register or update their personal information on the Registration of Canadians Abroad service.
A Canadian in Khartoum, Waddaha Medani, said she received an email from the Canadian government at 2:45 a.m. local time Monday night telling her to “book a seat on an evacuation flight” scheduled for noon that day. there.
But because the country’s internet and phone services largely collapsed over the weekend, she didn’t get the email until later that afternoon and said she didn’t get a direct response Monday night. from the Emergency Watch and Response Center in Ottawa.
“We’re already frustrated, we already don’t know what’s going on and what’s going to happen. And the communication is fundamentally bad,” she said in an interview.
The 29-year-old said she was debating whether or not she should begin a dangerous journey Tuesday morning to an air base on the outskirts of town, where her sister in Ottawa heard of a suspected evacuation flight . “They keep saying there’s a ceasefire right now, but they don’t really respect it. We still hear gunshots. »
Nearly 1,600 Canadians were officially registered in Sudan on Saturday, but experts believe the number of Canadians there is likely much higher.
Port Sudan and the Red Sea
Sudanese are trying to get to safety amid explosions, gunfire and armed fighters looting shops and homes. Food and fuel prices are rising and these items are harder to find; hospitals are on the verge of collapse.
Amidst this chaos, a ballet of military planes from Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia flew over Khartoum all day Sunday and Monday to take out foreign nationals who walked past fighters armed on the city’s front lines, in great tension.
France obtained the use of a military base on the outskirts of Khartoum to serve as an extraction point for nearly 500 people of different nationalities who traveled there with their own vehicles or by using private security.
Others have traveled hundreds of miles to Port Sudan in the east, where boats can depart across the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia — and its airports.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Washington had placed intelligence and reconnaissance assets along the land evacuation route from the capital to the port to help protect convoys of evacuated. He said the United States had no military on the ground.
Still, US special operations forces carried out a precarious evacuation of the US embassy in Khartoum on Sunday, sweeping the capital with helicopters on the ground for less than an hour. No shots were fired and no major casualties were reported.
Canadian Embassy closed
Canada on Sunday suspended consular services in the East African country, saying Canadian diplomats would work “temporarily from a safe location outside the country” while trying to help citizens Sudanese.
While Ottawa has not explained how its diplomats left Sudan, the New York Times wrote on Sunday that US special forces had evacuated six Canadian diplomats, as well as 70 US diplomats and some from other countries.
The BBC, meanwhile, reported that Canadians were part of a group evacuated by sea to Saudi Arabia.
As of August 2022, the embassy in Khartoum had six Canadian-based staff and 12 locally hired people, according to data filed by the department with a Senate committee.
However, Ottawa is not evacuating its locally hired Sudanese staff, but ensures that it is studying all possible options to support them.