Saudi Royal Navy officers assist a child onboard their navy ship as they evacuate Saudi and other nationals from Sudan on April 22, 2023. (Credit: Saudi Ministry of Defense/Handout via Reuters)
BEIRUT — A convoy carrying around 60 Lebanese citizens evacuated from Khartoum, Sudan's capital, is on its way to Beirut via the sea, caretaker Prime Minister, Najib’s Mikati’s advisor Fares Gemayel told L’Orient Today on Sunday, without giving details of the convoy's precise route.
Violence broke out in Sudan on April 15 between the army of Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, Sudan's de facto ruler since a 2021 coup overthrew the government of Omar al-Bashir, and his deputy-turned-rival, Gen. Mohamed Hamdane Dagalo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and has continued since, despite a number of attempted cease-fires.
“The Lebanese Embassy in Sudan organized a convoy to evacuate all the Lebanese in Sudan, who are around 60 people, to Lebanon by sea, and the ambassador of Lebanon to Sudan, Dima Haddad, is currently with them,” Gemayel said. He added that "all the citizens are safe, and none of them were harmed when the violence broke out."
“We can't give further information to the media to ensure the safety of those working on the ground and we ask media outlets to understand the sensitivity of the situation. For now, all the information that we have is that the citizens are all safe and have been evacuated,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Walid Haidar told L’Orient Today on Sunday.
Sudan's only maritime access is on the Red Sea, facing Saudi Arabia.
On Sunday, Mikati and Foreign Affairs Minister Abdallah Bou Habib met to discuss the “returning of Lebanese citizens safely from Khartoum to Beirut,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
Earlier on Saturday, Lebanon's Foreign Ministry had said in a statement that "Lebanese in Sudan who want to travel by land, at their own risk, to the Egyptian border are invited to send a copy of their passport to the Lebanese Embassy in Cairo, via WhatsApp, to the number of Consul Ibrahim Sharara +20 122 011 3222." The ministry had also advised people to travel to the border "via public transport and not in their personal vehicles" for their own safety.
‘My husband has been left behind’
Zeina Mneimneh, wife of Abdulrahman Al Tayarah, a businessman who has been stuck in Khartoum since the clashes broke out, told L’Orient Today Sunday that her “husband has been left behind and is currently stuck in the middle of the clashes.”
“He is stuck in his hotel, which is a 25-minute drive away from the meeting point, and was not able to catch the evacuated Lebanese convoy that left Khartoum. A driver demanded $6,000 to transport him, so my husband didn’t go. It was too dangerous; they would have had to pass by the airport, which is extremely dangerous,” she said.
Al Tayarah has allegedly been informed by the Lebanese Embassy that his name is with French Embassy and they will contact him for evacuation, according to his wife.
However, he was not evacuated Sunday when France started evacuating its citizens.
His wife says she has tried contacting several other embassies, hoping her husband will be transported with them when their convoys arrive.
“My kids and I are breaking down. We are very worried. I can’t believe the Lebanese convoy left without him,” she told L'Orient Today.
US, France, Italy and Saudi Arabia evacuate citizens
The Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) both said they were ready to help evacuate foreign nationals.
The SAF said in a statement Saturday that its leader, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has “agreed to provide the necessary assistance” to facilitate the safe evacuation of foreign citizens from the country in response to “calls from a number of heads of states.”
“The evacuation of all missions whose countries made such a request is expected to begin within the coming hours, as the United States, the UK, France, and China will evacuate their diplomats and nationals by air by military transport aircraft belonging to their respective armed forces from Khartoum and this is expected to begin immediately,” the SAF said in the statement, posted on its Facebook page.
The US troops swooped in on helicopters to evacuate embassy staff from Sudan's battle-torn capital, President Joe Biden announced Sunday.
France's Foreign Ministry also said Sunday that a "rapid evacuation operation" had begun and that European citizens and those from "allied partner countries" would also be assisted, without giving further details. Italy also announced the beginning of evacuation operations on Sunday.
Saudi Arabia confirmed Saturday that it had evacuated over 150 people from Sudan and that among those evacuated to Jeddah were diplomats and international officials, the Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The statement noted that 91 Saudi Arabian citizens, as well as 66 others from various other countries including Qatar, Pakistan, the UAE and Canada were safely transported. They were evacuated by sea, state TV channel Al-Ekhbariyah reported. It is unclear where in Sudan they were evacuated from.
The UN has warned that up to 20,000 people — mostly women and children — have fled Sudan to seek safety in Chad, across the border from Darfur.
