Mary Carlin Yates, the former charge d’affaires in Khartoum for the State Department, described the journey from Khartoum to Port Sudan as a “long arduous journey,” during an interview with CNN on Saturday, one that was already difficult when she traveled the route in an armored air-conditioned vehicle.īut Yates said the US may have had legitimate reasons for waiting to figure out the best way out for US citizens. “I mean if we hadn’t, who knows? It bothers me because they say, ‘Oh it’s too dangerous, we can’t get there,’ but all these other countries are getting there and getting their people out? So I don’t understand that.” “I can’t even express how disappointing it was that it was another country’s military and embassy who got us out and we were just lucky enough to be a part of that group, to have heard about it and gotten there in time,” Welker said. Still, CNN spoke with a number of family members of stranded Americans who said that the State Department had not provided sufficient assistance since the violence had broken out.īefore news of the American convoy Saturday, Deana Welker, an American teacher who recently evacuated Sudan with the help of the French Embassy, told CNN that she was disappointed in the US government. “Of those, only a fraction have actively sought our assistance to depart Sudan,” he said. On Friday, State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said that “fewer than 5,000 US citizens have requested additional information from us” since the start of the crisis in Sudan.
The Defense Department monitored the evacuation convoy with surveillance assets, the Pentagon said in a statement Saturday, adding that it is moving Navy ships to Port Sudan to provide assistance. citizens who want to leave Sudan but chose not to participate in this convoy to contact the Department of State using the crisis intake form on our website.” citizen in Sudan who communicated with us during the crisis and provided specific instructions about joining this convoy to those who were interested in departing via the land route,” he said. citizens in Sudan and enable the departure of those who wished to leave.” Miller’s statement said that “the US government has taken extensive efforts to contact U.S. Hundreds of evacuees land in Saudi Arabia as Sudan fighting enters third week On Friday, they were advised to meet between certain hours at a golf course and to bring “food, water, and travel essentials … limited to only one travel bag,” according to an email reviewed by CNN. On Thursday, American citizens who had registered with the State Department for assistance received an email advising them that “the US government is planning to assist US nationals and immediate family members with a valid US travel document to depart Khartoum for Port Sudan in the coming days, possibly as early as tomorrow, via an overland convoy.”
citizens, including through today’s operation,” he said. “Intensive negotiations by the United States with the support of our regional and international partners enabled the security conditions that have allowed the departure of thousands of foreign and U.S. citizens by land convoys, flights on partner air craft, and sea.” government has done this week to facilitate the departure of our diplomats by military assisted departure, and hundreds of other U.S. Miller said in the statement Saturday that the US-led convoy “builds on the work the U.S. All US government personnel were evacuated in a military operation last weekend. The country remains at risk of humanitarian disaster, as those still trapped in their homes face shortages of food, water, medicine and electricity.ĭespite a number of nations evacuating their citizens, the US government had maintained for more than a week that the conditions were not conducive to a civilian evacuation. The deadly violence between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group that broke out earlier month has left hundreds dead, including two Americans, and thousands wounded.
Americans stuck in Sudan to make 'life or death decisions' express anger at US government
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