Friday, April 28, 2023

Sudan and evacuations

In case you haven't heard, Sudan is falling apart as a civil war (Wikipedia: "armed conflict between rival factions of the military government") consumes the country. Expats are bugging out, often with help from the respective militaries of the expats' countries of origin. ROK Drop reports that Koreans have been "fully evacuated" from Sudan by Korean special forces. Meanwhile, and I can't believe I'm quoting Al Jazeera (but it came up in a Google search), the US has 16,000-some citizens in Sudan, many of whom are dual US-Sudanese citizens. How many got evacuated by US special forces?

The United States has come under scrutiny for evacuating roughly 70 embassy staff in a helicopter mission by elite SEAL commandos over the weekend while warning thousands of private American citizens in Sudan there would be no similar evacuation for them.

The State Department, which has advised US citizens for years not to travel to Sudan, continues to advise Americans to shelter in place. Most of the estimated 16,000 Americans believed to be in Sudan right now are dual US-Sudanese nationals and only a fraction of them have expressed a desire to leave.

So the US situation is complicated. Many of these US citizens, far from being expats, are also Sudanese citizens who may be unwilling to leave what is their home despite the ongoing conflict. Still, evacuating only 70-ish citizens seems pretty meager. Another example of how much the Biden administration cares for US citizens.



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