Sudan rivals pledge evacuation help, US diplomats airlifted

American embassy staffers and their families were airlifted from Sudan early Sunday, as forces loyal to rival generals battled for control of Africa’s third-largest nation.

The warring sides said they were helping coordinate the evacuation of foreigners, though continued exchanges of fire in Sudan’s capital undermined those claims, Associated Press reported.

A senior Biden administration official said U.S. troops are carrying out the precarious evacuation of U.S. Embassy staffers. The troops who airlifted the staff out of Khartoum have safely left Sudanese airspace, a second U.S. official confirmed.

The Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, which has been battling the Sudanese army, said the U.S. rescue mission involved six aircraft and that it had coordinated evacuation efforts with the U.S.

But the U.S. denied the group did anything to help the evacuation.

“You may have seen some assertions in social media in recent hours, that the Rapid Security Forces somehow coordinated with us and supported this operation. That was not the case,” said Under Secretary of State for Management John Bass.

“They cooperated to the extent that they did not fire on our service members in the course of the operation.”

The RSF, led by Gen. Mohammed Hamad Dagolo, said it is cooperating with all diplomatic missions and that it is committed to a three-day cease-fire that was declared at sundown Friday.

Earlier, army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan said he would facilitate the evacuation of American, British, Chinese and French citizens and diplomats from Sudan after speaking with the leaders of several countries that had requested help.

French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre said Sunday that France was organizing the evacuation of its embassy staff, French citizens in Sudan and citizens of allied countries. She said France was organizing the operation “in connection with all the involved parties, as well as with our European partners and allies.”

However, the situation on the ground remains volatile. Most major airports have become battlegrounds and movement out of the capital has proven intensely dangerous. The two rivals have dug in, signaling they would resume the fighting after the declared three-day truce.

Saudi Arabia announced the successful repatriation of some of its citizens on Saturday, sharing footage of Saudi nationals and other foreigners welcomed with chocolate and flowers as they stepped off an apparent evacuation ship at the Saudi port of Jeddah, AP reported.

Officials did not elaborate on exactly how the rescue unfolded but Burhan said the Saudi diplomats and nationals had first traveled by land to Port Sudan, the country’s main seaport on the Red Sea. He said that Jordan’s diplomats would soon be evacuated in the same way. The port is in Sudan’s far east, some 840 kilometers from Khartoum.