The US military has successfully completed the evacuation of the American embassy in war-torn Sudan, President Joe Biden said late Saturday evening.
“Today, on my orders, the United States military conducted an operation to extract US Government personnel from Khartoum in response to the situation in Sudan,” said Biden.
“I am grateful for the commitment of our Embassy staff and the skill of our service members who brought them to safety,” he added.
“I am receiving regular reports from my team on their ongoing work to assist Americans in Sudan, to the extent possible. We are also working closely with our allies and partners in this effort.”
“This tragic violence in Sudan has already cost the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians. It’s unconscionable and it must stop. We’re temporarily suspending operations at the US Embassy in Sudan, but our commitment to the Sudanese people and the future they want is unending,” the President concluded.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the suspensions of operations at the embassy in Khartoum was due to the growing security risk and ensuring the safety of personnel, according to ABC News.
"The widespread fighting has caused significant numbers of civilian deaths and injuries and damage to essential infrastructure and posed an unacceptable risk to our Embassy personnel. I applaud the skill and professionalism of our team on the ground, US military forces, and others across the government who carried out this evacuation mission," Blinken said in a statement.
The Rapid Support Forces, the Sudanese paramilitary group battling Sudan's army, issued a statement claiming to have aided in the US evacuation.
"Today, Sunday, the Rapid Support Forces, in coordination with the US forces mission consisting of 6 planes for the purpose of evacuating diplomats and their families, supervised the necessary arrangements that preceded the evacuation process," the statement read.
The Sudanese army said on Saturday that evacuations of foreign diplomatic staff from the US, UK, France and China will begin in the coming hours on military airplanes, as fighting persisted in the capital, including at its main airport.
Their evacuation will be by air in military transport aircrafts belonging to their armed forces, the army said.
Despite a 72-hour ceasefire agreed upon to coincide with the religious holiday of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of month of Ramadan, deadly clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, a powerful paramilitary group continued through the weekend, according to ABC News.
The battles in Sudan erupted in Khartoum on April 15, after disagreements emerged between Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF's Mohamed Hamdan "Hemedti" Dagalo over how Sudan should be run.
They both held top positions in Sudan's current military government, formed after the 2019 coup that ousted long-time leader Omar al-Bashir.
They were to merge their forces, but the RSF resisted the change, mobilizing its troops which escalated into full-scale fighting last week.