Evacuation of Americans from Conflict Zones in Sudan Begins

Hundreds of Americans arrived at a port in Sudan on Saturday in the first evacuation operation conducted by the United States, after a long journey while being monitored by armed drones. According to U.S. officials, American armed drones that had been monitoring ground evacuation routes for several days accompanied a convoy of buses carrying 200 to 300 Americans on their 800-kilometer journey to a relatively safe port in Sudan. Matthew Miller, spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, emphasized that this convoy included American citizens, local individuals employed by the United States, and citizens of U.S. allied countries, and once again warned Americans not to travel to Sudan. The U.S. State Department stated that American drones were sent to monitor the security of the ground transfer of hundreds of Americans to the area. The ground evacuation took place six days after U.S. special operations forces briefly flew to Khartoum to move American embassy staff and other U.S. government personnel to a safe location. More than a dozen other countries had previously evacuated their citizens from Khartoum using a combination of military aircraft, naval ships, and ground personnel. Since the outbreak of conflict on April 15 between two rival generals, the United States has warned its citizens to find a way to exit the country. This report utilized information from the Associated Press.