LONDON: US citizens in Sudan should have no expectation of a US-government coordinated evacuation from the country, deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Friday, amid heavy firing heard in the capital Khartoum.
Patel told reporters at a press briefing that given the closure of Khartoum’s airport and the uncertain security situation in the country, citizens there should make their own arrangements to stay safe.
Elsewhere, a British man trapped in Khartoum for almost a week with his family has said the UK Foreign Office has done nothing to help evacuate citizens, according to a report in The Independent.
He is sheltering at a location in the Sudanese captial along with 20 other foreign nationals.
On Friday morning, he and the others were requested to register their names on a list of those needing to be evacuated, but, after six days, “that’s it”, the man told the newspaper.
Aid workers, diplomats, officials and citizens have been trapped in Sudan since fighting broke out last Saturday between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, with supplies dwindling and violence escalating.
Governments and aid agencies have said it is too dangerous to attempt an evacuation given the situation on the ground.
The Foreign Office and the British embassy in Sudan have not commented.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon said it had deployed forces and is developing options to assist in a possible evacuation of US Embassy personnel from Sudan.
The troop moves by the US military are intended “to ensure that we provide as many options as possible, if we are called on to do something. We haven’t been called on to do anything yet,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at a news conference in Germany.
“It’s absolutely imperative that US citizens in Sudan make their own arrangements to stay safe in these difficult circumstances,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in Washington.
He added that “Americans should have no expectation of a US government coordinated evacuation at this time. And we expect that that’s going to remain the case.”
The UK on Friday was also finalizing plans for a possible evacuation of hundreds of its citizens from Sudan, with British officials reportedly setting up an emergency operation to extricate people trapped in the north African country.
* With Reuters and AP
