Sailors assigned to guided-missile destroyer USS Truxtun prepare to conduct a replenishment-at-sea with Canadian Naval Replenishment Unit Motor Vessel Asterix in the Red Sea on April 25, 2023. The Truxtun, USS Lewis B. Puller and USNS Brunswick are positioned off the coast of Sudan to help evacuate Americans from the war-torn country if needed. (Kenneth Blair/U.S. Navy)
WASHINGTON — There are still Americans in Sudan who want to leave as dangers from a violent power struggle linger in the northeastern African country, the Pentagon said Thursday.
“We are working very closely with the State Department to identify the number of Americans who want to leave Sudan,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon’s top spokesperson, told reporters Thursday. “As of right now, the indications that we have is that those numbers are relatively small.”
The Sudanese army and Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group, have been fighting for two weeks in what officials and observers have called a bloody dispute over power. The two factions cooperated to overthrow Sudan’s civilian government in 2021 but are now at odds over merging the paramilitary force into the military structure and deciding who the leaders will be.
U.S. special forces evacuated all American personnel from the embassy in Khartoum last weekend, and U.S. officials have been working all week to help private citizens leave as well.
News reports have said there were about 19,000 Americans in Sudan at the start of this week, but U.S. officials haven’t said specifically how many of those people are trying to get out of the country. The State Department is leading the effort to identify and help remaining Americans wanting to leave Sudan.
The Pentagon, which is playing a support role in the effort, now has three ships off the Sudanese coast — the USS Truxtun, USS Lewis B. Puller and USNS Brunswick — in case they’re needed to transport Americans. Ryder also said Thursday that some have taken commercial flights out.
“The small number of Americans who have made their way to the airport have been offered flights out,” he said, adding U.S. Africa Command is working with the State Department to find out which Americans still want to leave.
Fighting in Sudan has slowed a bit with a three-day ceasefire enacted this week, but Ryder called it a “deteriorating security situation” and said U.S. forces are ready at any time to step in and help. He also said the United States is working with some trusted Sudan nationals on the ground to aid in the process.
The Sudan army and Rapid Support Forces said Thursday that they have agreed to extend the ceasefire by another 72 hours. The extension will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday.
Sudan is Africa’s third-largest country by area — almost 730,000 square miles — and was the continent’s largest nation before a segment broke off in 2011 and declared independence as South Sudan. A U.S. estimate said roughly 48 million people lived in Sudan in 2022.
The U.N. International Organization for Migration said Thursday that more than 3,500 people fled the fighting in Sudan and entered Ethiopia between April 21 and April 25. The U.N. previously said the conflict could ultimately displace as many as 270,000 Sudanese and prompt them to seek refuge in Ethiopia, Egypt, Chad or South Sudan.
