Riyadh - Nearly 500 people arrived Monday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia aboard two vessels, one a US ship and the other Saudi, after fleeing the fighting in Sudan.
The US Navy's USS Brunswick arrived at the Saudi Red Sea port Monday carrying 308 people, according to Al-Ekhbariya TV, which showed images of numerous passengers wearing red shirts inscribed "US Embassy."
There were 105 Americans in total on the vessel, 100 Sudanese and others from 15 countries, officials told AFP, insisting on anonymity. The Saudi vessel evacuated 171 from Sudan, including 41 Saudis and nationals of other countries, including Britain and the United States, according to SPA, the Saudi state news agency.
They were all part of a broader exodus that has seen more than 5,000 people seek refuge in the Gulf kingdom since fighting broke out in Sudan on April 15. The United States conducted three overland convoys in as many days to help people flee the Sudanese capital of Khartoum to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, where a number of vessels have helped them flee the fighting.
"These convoys have assisted over 700 individuals," said US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel. Aside from the three convoys, Patel said US officials have helped nearly 1,000 Americans escape the spreading conflict in Sudan.
He said they are being taken to Jeddah and other cities in the region like Djibouti and Nicosia. The evacuation took place amid a very tentative cease-fire between two battling factions of the country's armed forces.
"Intensive negotiations by the US with the support of our regional and international partners enabled the security conditions that have allowed the departure of thousands of foreign and US citizens, including through today's operation," Patel said. "We continue to call on Sudanese armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces to end the fighting that is endangering all civilians," he said. As of Monday, Saudi Arabia had received more than 5,400 civilian evacuees from Sudan, including 225 Saudis and foreigners from 102 countries, SPA said.
Millions of Sudanese, unable to leave, are hunkering down amid heavy fighting between the forces of army general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The fighting has killed more than 500 people, displaced tens of thousands and triggered an exodus of foreigners and international staff. Gun battles and explosions again rocked the capital Monday, with warplanes flying sorties and striking northern areas of Khartoum.
The UN on Monday warned more than 800,000 people could flee fighting and dire conditions in Sudan, where explosions again shook the capital in violation of the latest truce extension agreed by warring generals.
The chaos and bloodshed, now in their third week, have already sparked an exodus of tens of thousands of Sudanese to neighbouring countries including Egypt, Chad and Central African Republic. But the United Nations' refugee agency, UNHCR, said it was bracing for "the possibility that over 800,000 people may flee the fighting in Sudan for neighbouring countries". "We hope it doesn't come to that, but if violence doesn't stop we will see more people forced to flee", UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said in a tweet, adding to UN alarm over what the world body calls a catastrophic humanitarian situation sparked by the war. Hundreds have been killed and thousands wounded since fighting erupted on April 15 between Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Experts agree the truces have largely been announced to enable evacuation corridors and talks with mediators. While foreign nations have helped thousands of their citizens escape by air, road and sea, at least 75,000 Sudanese are internally displaced and more than 50,000 have already escaped overland to neighbors, said the UN and other agencies. Some families rode donkeys, their few possessions in baskets at the animals' side, to cross the sandy border into Chad from Sudan's Darfur region, which has seen some of the worst violence outside of Khartoum. At a makeshift camp in a Chadian border village, UN workers handed out emergency supplies to the refugees, many of whom made desperate getaways empty-handed. Mahamat Hassan Hamad, a tailor, tried to hold back tears as he told AFP he had no food for his 11 children and no means of work because "my sewing machines were taken by the attackers". He blamed the RSF who "destroyed everything in their path." - 'Breaking point' - Sudan's turmoil has seen hospitals shelled, humanitarian facilities looted, and foreign aid groups forced to suspend most of their operations. Top UN humanitarian official Martin Griffiths arrived in Nairobi on Monday on an urgent mission to look for ways to bring relief to millions.
"The humanitarian situation is reaching breaking point," he said on Twitter, later calling it "catastrophic". The fighting was pushing Sudan's already ailing health sector toward "disaster", warned the World Health Organization's regional director for the eastern Mediterranean, Ahmed al-Mandhari. He sounded an alarm over the growing threat of cholera, malaria, and other diseases. There was, however, at least some relief. WHO announced that six containers of medical gear arrived in Port Sudan. They included supplies for treating traumatic injuries and severe acute malnutrition.
The agency said fuel -- in short supply during the war -- has been distributed to some hospitals which rely on generators. The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said it expected to soon resume food distribution in some parts of the country after a suspension following the deaths of three of its aid workers. Even before the war, more than 15 million people faced severe food insecurity in Sudan, WFP said. Daglo's RSF emerged from the Janjaweed unleashed during a scorched-earth campaign in Darfur from 2003 by former strongman Omar al-Bashir, who faces a war crimes charge
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