•Canada suspends consular services
The Irish government has confirmed it is sending a team to evacuate its citizens from Sudan.
It comes as hundreds of people have died in a conflict between the Sudanese army and paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces.
Following a cabinet meeting yesterday, the government approved the deployment of an Emergency Civil Assistance Team (ECAT) mission to assist with the process of evacuating Irish citizens and their dependents from the crisis.
Up to 12 defence forces personnel would be deployed initially to Djibouti as part of the ECAT mission.
They were due to arrive in Djibouti yesterday.
The Irish government indicated that the duration of the mission would be dependent on the progress that could be made, the security situation on the ground and decisions on extraction by partners.
They said they were in contact with Irish citizens who had registered with the embassy and every effort was being made to assist them.
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Irish premier Leo Varadkar said an estimated 150 Irish nationals were in Sudan.
“The situation in the Sudanese capital Khartoum has got worse in the last few days, and violence is being reported across the city,” he said.
“The Irish defence forces personnel and department of foreign affairs officers being deployed will make every effort to provide advice and assistance to the 150 or so Irish nationals in Sudan.”
“The situation on the ground in Sudan remains extremely volatile and I wish the ECAT and defence forces team every success in this mission.”
Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheal Martin said the decision was a “continuation of the substantial, intensive work that the department of foreign affairs has been engaged in since this recent outbreak of violence in Sudan”.
“Above all, our primary aim is to offer our citizens every assistance through what has been an extremely difficult and challenging time,” he said.
Irish premier Leo Varadkar said the situation in the Sudanese capital Khartoum ‘had got worse in the last few days’
“If urgent, the embassy’s out-of-hours consular assistance phone line can be contacted at +254 716 353 999, and the department of foreign affairs can be contacted at +353 1 408 2000,” they added.
Alao, Canada suspended its consular services in Sudan yesterday, saying a rapidly deteriorating situation has made it impossible to safeguard the safety and security of its staff in the capital city of Khartoum.
Hundreds have been killed and thousands injured in just 10 days after power-sharing negotiations between the country’s armed forces and its paramilitary troops rapidly deteriorated.
“The situation in Sudan has rapidly deteriorated making it impossible to safeguard the safety and security of our staff,” Global Affairs Canada said in a statement. “After consulting with Canada’s Ambassador to Sudan, the decision has been made to temporarily suspend our operations in Sudan.
Canadian diplomats will temporarily work from a safe location outside of the country, the statement said, adding that they will continue working with others to coordinate the response to Sudan’s crisis.
Canada’s decision came as U.S. special operations forces carried out a precarious evacuation of the American embassy in Sudan on Sunday, sweeping in and out of the capital with helicopters on the ground for less than an hour. No shots were fired and no major casualties were reported.
With the last U.S. employee of the embassy out, Washington shuttered the U.S. mission in Khartoum indefinitely. Left behind were thousands of private American citizens remaining in the east African country.
The New York Times reports that U.S. special forces evacuated six Canadian diplomats, while the BBC says Canadians are among a group evacuated by sea to Saudi Arabia. Global Affairs did not immediately confirm those reports.
As of Saturday, 1,596 Canadian citizens were formally registered as being in Sudan, though experts say the figure is likely much higher.