KHARTOUM-Sudanese people and Western staff are desperately trying to flee the country’s capital, Khartoum, where intense violence between rival factions is overwhelming hospitals with victims and multiple attempts to bring about a ceasefire have failed.
Bloody clashes and confrontations between the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have entered a sixth day, bringing chaos to the streets of Khartoum and other towns and cities near the capital. By Thursday morning, many residents trapped in the middle of the clashes appeared to have lost faith in an immediate resolution. There was an increase in the number of people at bus stops, trying to leave Khartoum and escape the fighting, according to witnesses. “Yesterday (Wednesday), I decided to leave Khartoum together with my wife and four of my children at any cost,” Muhammad Hammam told CNN in an interview, as he recalled his success in escaping from the Al-Nasr neighborhood, east of the Nile, to the city of Atbara, northern Sudan.
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“Death surrounded us from all directions, so I said it would be better for us to die attempting to cling to life while trying to survive instead of dying by a stray bullet at home or maybe dying of hunger or thirst,” he said. But escaping is no simple task. The situation on the ground in Sudan on Wednesday remained too volatile to get diplomatic staff from the US Embassy in Khartoum out of the country, a top State Department official told congressional staffers. According to multiple staffers in the room, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee said that the State Department would do a drawdown if they could.