African nations are rushing to evacuate their citizens to safety from Sudan where intense fighting rages between the army and a paramilitary group for control of the capital, Khartoum.
They join a growing list of countries that have been conducting evacuation operations by sea and air for their diplomats and citizens since Saturday. The weeklong bombardment and gunfire in the city has left hundreds dead and thousands injured.
Somalia has begun evacuating its citizens from Sudan as fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that erupted on April 15 continues intermittently.
The first group of Somali citizens, including students, arrived in Ethiopia, an official of the country’s Foreign Ministry told local media in Mogadishu on Monday.
He said 27 Somali nationals, including four women, have arrived in Ethiopia after crossing the border at Metema on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Somali National Disaster Management Agency (SoDMA) has established 24-hour hotlines for Somali people in Sudan who require evacuation.
“If you’re a Somali Citizen in Sudan or you have family & friends there, IMMEDIATELY contact SoDMA,” the agency said in a statement on Monday.
Djibouti has also begun to evacuate its diplomatic staff and citizens from Sudan.
Several diplomats, including Djiboutian Ambassador to Sudan Issa Khaire, arrived in Djibouti City on Monday, the country's Foreign Minister Mohamoud Ali Youssouf confirmed on Monday.
“The trip was exhausting with a lot of stress, but Alhamdulillah they are safe and sound,” the Djiboutian top diplomat said in a message on Twitter, adding that 40 students are expected to arrive later in the day.
Meanwhile, Kenya has confirmed relocating 29 of its students who were stranded in Sudan owing to intense clashes with heavy weapons.
The students have now been relocated to Ethiopia, from where they will fly to Addis Ababa and then to Nairobi, Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua said in a statement issued in Nairobi on Monday.
Kenya is working to evacuate nearly 400 students from Sudan, he added.
“I also, in particular, thank the Governments of South Sudan and Ethiopia for heeding our request and allowing Kenyans to cross their borders and make it to safety,” Mutua said.
Uganda has evacuated over 200 of its nationals and six foreigners from Sudan, putting them on buses travelling via Ethiopia, its ambassador to Khartoum said Monday.
Foreign nations have been rushing to get their citizens out of Sudan as fighting between forces loyal to two rival generals rages into a second week. "We finally evacuated 208 Ugandans by buses from Khartoum through Ethiopia.
Onboard are 110 men including male children and 98 are women including female children," Uganda's ambassador to Khartoum, Rashid Ssemuddu, told AFP news agency.
"Among the evacuees are diplomats, students and Ugandans who have been doing private work in Sudan," he said.
His office said the evacuees left Sudan's capital Khartoum on four buses on Sunday, travelling hundreds of kilometres (miles) through Ethiopia before arriving in the Ugandan city of Entebbe.
In addition to the Ugandan nationals, the evacuees also included two Sudanese citizens, three Tanzanians and a Zimbabwean married to a Ugandan.
The ambassador's office said there were an estimated 300 Ugandans in Khartoum at the time the fighting broke out.
"A comprehensive assessment of persons who are still in Sudan will be made and communication about their status released," it said.
Nigeria said it was planning to evacuate 5,500 nationals - most of them students - by road to Egypt because of the potential risk in the Sudanese airspace. Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama said the evacuations will start once the Sudanese government assures on security and a safe corridor is established.
He said some diplomats will remain in Khartoum to organise the evacuations while the country's embassy advised the students to stay indoors.
"Obviously, what you need in a situation like this is a place where everybody can congregate before you start moving them out.
"The only viable way out is by road. But of course, it is not totally safe so you are going to require the government to provide some security and a safe corridor out,” Onyeama told a Nigerian media outlet on Sunday.
Ghana's foreign ministry said a number of its nationals, particularly students, were affected by the conflict but all were said to be safe. It said its embassy in Egypt was working on securing their safe passage to Ethiopia.
In a statement, it told families and acquaintances of Ghanaians stranded in Sudan that "every effort is being made to ensure the safety of their loved ones until their arrival in Ghana".
Kenya said three operations were underway to evacuate its nationals through Ethiopia, South Sudan and Saudi Arabia. The foreign ministry said some 47 students had so far been evacuated by road to Ethiopia and South Sudan and will be flown to Nairobi.
A larger group of about 400 people will be flown to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and thereafter travel to Nairobi, it added.
Kenyan foreign minister said that it is not pulling out its diplomats out of Sudan because it wants a presence in negotiations toward a peaceful solution.
A near-total disruption of internet connection in Sudan was confirmed on Monday by Netblocks, an internet monitoring group, which cited military allegations that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces allegedly sabotaged the telecom exchange.
Many stranded African civilians and students groups have been relying on the internet to reach out to diplomats and their families back home.
Chad will evacuate 438 of its citizens, busing them from Khartoum to Port Sudan on the Red Sea then flying them home, Chadian government spokesman Aziz Mahamat Saleh tweeted on Monday.
Those who were being evacuated were 300 students as well as 120 Chadians in need of medical care, as well as "around 30" soldiers who were at Sudanese training schools, he said.
The ongoing violence has affected operations at the main international airport, destroying civilian planes and damaging at least one runway, and thick, black smoke rose above it. Other airports also have been knocked out of operation.
Other airports also have been knocked out of operation.
The fighting broke out on April 15 between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The military toppled Bashir in April 2019 following mass citizen protests.
The two generals seized power in a 2021 coup, but later fell out in a bitter power struggle, most recently centred on the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army.
