WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States is looking at how to help U.S. citizens wishing to leave Sudan amid the ongoing violence, while exploring ways to resume a diplomatic presence in the country, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday.
Speaking at a news conference at the State Department, Blinken declined to say how many U.S. citizens are known to be in Sudan, but said “dozens” have expressed an interest in leaving. Many of the Americans there were dual citizens, he added.
“We continue to be in close communication with U.S. citizens and individuals affiliated with the U.S. government to provide assistance and to facilitate available departure routes for those seeking to move to safety,” Blinken said.
“In addition, we’re looking at what options we have to perhaps resume diplomatic presence in Sudan, including in Port Sudan,” he said, but added that the conditions were “very challenging.”
The sudden eruption of violence in Sudan between the military and the well-armed Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group on April 15 has killed at least 427 people, knocked out hospitals and other services and turned residential areas into war zones.
Tens of thousands of people, including Sudanese and citizens from neighbouring countries, have fled.
On Saturday, Washington evacuated all of its government personnel from the U.S. embassy in Khartoum and suspended operations there due to the security risks.
Earlier on Monday, White House spokesman John Kirby said several dozen Americans were travelling overland in a United Nations-led convoy to Port Sudan and that the U.S. military was helping to monitor it via unmanned aerial systems.
Blinken said some convoys that have tried move people out encountered problems such as “robbery and looting”. It was not immediately clear if those convoys included U.S. citizens.
He also expressed concern about the engagement of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group in Sudan, although did not elaborate.
The United States, he said, was pressing Sudanese military leaders to extend and expand a ceasefire and that U.S. officials were continuing “to engage directly” with Sudanese military leaders General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the army and leader of Sudan’s ruling council since 2019, and his deputy on the council, RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Doina Chiacu and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Sharon Singleton)
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