As fighting rages on in Khartoum over the past 9 days between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, Member States’ Foreign Ministers welcomed on Monday 24 April the first evacuations of European citizens last weekend, while reiterating the EU’s call for an urgent ceasefire to prevent a major humanitarian crisis and the destabilisation of the whole region.
“The good news is that we have completed the evacuation of the EU delegation, including our ambassador, but the No. 2, in charge of security, has remained”, announced the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, after the Foreign Affairs Council meeting.
He praised the “impressive mobilisation” of Member States who had the capacity to mobilise military aircraft and the required military protection: “11 flights took place yesterday and we expect 20 more today. More than 1,200 EU citizens and some from other countries will have been evacuated by the end of the day”, said Mr Borrell.
400 nationals still have to be evacuated, according to consular information, “but we must not forget the Sudanese who are dying in the country, that’s why the fighting must stop”, he added (see EUROPE 13166/22).
He said that in the current context, which saw the director of ECHO (the European Commission’s humanitarian service) “shot and wounded”, there was “no sense in keeping the EU delegation in the conflict”: diplomats had no choice but to leave. “We will come back when we can”, he added.
Asked about the lack of EU capabilities, he said that the ‘Strategic Compass’ should allow for a more integrated approach in the future, “but what the Member States have done, together, with their troops and military aircraft, through our crisis management centre, is a great success”.
As for the ceasefire, he said that “nobody can impose it”. But “we are exerting maximum pressure to stop the fighting”.
On the sidelines of the session, Belgian Minister Hadja Lahbib spoke to the press about a very serious humanitarian situation in Khartoum, “but also in Darfur, a region where people have been suffering for more than 20 years, and in the whole region”.
Eight Belgians and their dependants, including the Director of ECHO, who was injured, were evacuated, she said. “I thank France, Catherine Colonna, with whom I have been in contact all weekend, for the good collaboration”, she said, thanking also Djibouti, Jordan, Germany and the Netherlands as well as the Belgian embassy in Cairo.
About 30 Belgians are still in Sudan, many of whom have not expressed a desire to leave. “Further evacuations may take place, but this is not yet certain. It all depends on the security situation on the ground”, according to the Minister.
Italian Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani welcomed the fact that all the Italians (embassy staff) had been evacuated with the help of the Foreign and Defence Ministries, but expressed alarm at a “very complicated situation”. He added: “We also helped citizens from different EU countries and Africans. They are in Djibouti and today the Italians will be in Rome around 7-8pm”. He was speaking ahead of the session.
He said he had spoken to the two military leaders who are fighting each other, General Abdel Fattah al-Burha of the Sudanese forces and General Hemedti, who heads the Rapid Support Forces. “I have been pushing, in the phone calls I’ve had with both of them, to try to find an agreement, to see what can be done in a country that is one of the largest in Africa. We must deescalate the situation, but it is not easy”, he said, referring to “a very dangerous situation”.
Satisfied that most of the Finnish citizens could be evacuated on Sunday night “with the help of France, Germany and Sweden”, the Finnish Minister, Pekka Haaviston, who is also in contact “with the various Sudanese actors”, wants us to think “of the Sudanese citizens in Khartoum, who need help at the moment”. According to him, “the EU could do more and also coordinate [its] action with the UN on humanitarian issues. If we leave, we leave space for Wagner and the Russian troops to take advantage of the situation. Europe must strengthen its role in Sudan”.
For the Austrian Minister, Alexander Schallenberg, “it is a humanitarian disaster. Sudan is experiencing a tsunami of crises. A civil war is looming”, but he said that in the face of the multiple crises it faces - including “military coups and counter-coups in West Africa, and now in Sudan, the EU is responding, showing itself to be stronger, more resilient and more united than is sometimes perceived from the outside”, he told the press.
“Thanks to German help, thanks to French help, we managed to evacuate almost half of the Austrian nationals (27 out of 50). It is an international effort” that is ongoing, he stressed.
Those who are still there are heading for Port Sudan (the main port on the Red Sea), Egypt or east of Khartoum, where planes can still land. In contact with his Saudi Arabian counterpart on Sunday, he also mentioned “possible evacuation flights”.
Luxembourg has no nationals in Sudan, but the Luxembourg Minister, Jean Asselborn, feels “naturally in solidarity with all European countries” and the Sudanese. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)