THE US military has evacuated American diplomats and their families from Khartoum, Sudan’s paramilitary army Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has said.
Six aircraft were used in Sunday’s early morning mission, the RSF tweeted, adding that it had worked with the US to co-ordinate the evacuation.
It is not clear how many people were airlifted. The US has not commented.
It is the second evacuation of foreign citizens since violence erupted in Sudan’s capital Khartoum last week.
In its tweet, the RSF said it supervised the arrangements and provided protection to those being evacuated.
Details of the mission remain unclear. Arabic news service Al Hadath reported that the six aircraft landed in the embassy compound, and several Twitter users posted that they could hear helicopter activity over the US embassy, however the BBC has been unable to verify this.
The US has now closed its embassy in Khartoum, unnamed US officials say.
Khartoum airport has been repeatedly targeted by shelling and gunfire, making evacuation flights from there impossible.
An unnamed US official told the Associated Press that President Joe Biden had ordered US troops to evacuate embassy staff after receiving a recommendation from his national security team, who saw no end to the fighting.
On Saturday, more than 150 citizens, diplomats and international officials were evacuated by sea to the Saudi Arabian port of Jeddah. They were mostly citizens of Gulf countries, as well as Egypt, Pakistan and Canada.
The UK says it is considering ways to evacuate its staff. A hotline has been set up for those who need urgent help, and UK citizens in Sudan are being urged to tell the Foreign Office where they are.
Any UK evacuation is expected to be very limited and focus on diplomatic staff – not comparable to the mass evacuation from Afghanistan in 2021.
Meanwhile the Canadian government has told its citizens in Sudan to “shelter in a safe place”.