German plane airlifts 58 Canadians from Sudan as Canadian plane prepares to evacuate more
Foreign affairs minister says government working with allies to help other Canadians flee Sudan
A German plane airlifted dozens of Canadians out of Sudan Monday and a Canadian C-17 transport plane in the region is on standby to help more escape the country as the conflict in the East African country escalates.
Global Affairs Canada has provided very little information on efforts to get Canadian citizens, or even its own staff, out of Sudan. But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, at a photo-op with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Ottawa, provided a limited update Monday afternoon.
"I just heard earlier today that a German plane lifted off from Khartoum with one German citizen on it and 58 Canadian citizens," he said Monday. "We have a C-17 in the region, too, and we will be airlifting as well."
Trudeau added that the recent airlift is an example of the great co-operation between Canada and Germany.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said earlier on Monday that Canada was working with "like-minded countries" to help citizens who remain in Sudan flee the country as an armed conflict there escalates.
Global Affairs contacting Canadians in Sudan
Hundreds have been killed and thousands injured in just 10 days after power-sharing negotiations between the country's armed forces and its paramilitary troops rapidly deteriorated.
Joly said Global Affairs Canada is trying to contact all Canadians in Sudan who have registered with the government, and she repeated calls for anyone who hasn't yet done so to get in touch immediately.
One Canadian in Khartoum, Waddaha Medani, said she received an email from the Canadian government at 2:45 a.m. local time Monday telling her to "reserve a seat on an evacuation flight" being planned for as early as noon that day.
But because the country's internet and phone services largely collapsed over the weekend, Medani said, she only got the email later that afternoon. She said she had not heard back directly from the Emergency Watch and Response Centre in Ottawa as of Monday night.
"We're already frustrated, we already don't know what's happening and what's going to happen. And the communication is basically poor," she told CBC News.
The 29-year-old said she was left wondering whether to make a dangerous trip Tuesday morning to an airbase on the outskirts of the city, where her sister in Ottawa got wind of an apparent evacuation flight.
"It's not safe at all. You're literally taking the chance. You don't know if you're going to make it or not. That's how it is," Medani said.
"They keep saying there's a ceasefire at the moment. However, they're not really respecting it. We still hear gunshots."
Harrowing search for safety as foreign nationals flee
Almost 1,600 Canadians were formally registered in Sudan as of Saturday, but experts believe the number of Canadians in the country is likely much higher.
People in the country are facing a harrowing search for safety in a constantly shifting landscape of explosions, gunfire and armed fighters looting shops and homes. Food and fuel are leaping in price and hospitals are near collapse.
Amid that chaos, a stream of European, Mideast, African and Asian military aircraft flew in and out of Khartoum all day Sunday and Monday to extract foreign nationals who were moving past combatants at the city's tense front lines.
France secured the use of a military base on the outskirts of Khartoum to use as an extraction point for nearly 500 people of various nationalities who made their way there in their own vehicles or using private security firms.
Others drove hundreds of miles to the Port of Sudan on the country's east coast, where boats can depart to cross the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia and where some nations are operating flights.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Washington has placed intelligence and reconnaissance assets along the overland evacuation route from the capital to the port to help protect convoys of evacuees. He said the U.S. does not have any troops on the ground.
Yet U.S. special operations forces carried out a precarious evacuation at the American Embassy in Khartoum on Sunday, sweeping in and out of the capital with helicopters on the ground for less than an hour. No shots were fired and no major casualties were reported.
Canada suspended consular services in the country Sunday, saying Canadian diplomats would "temporarily work from a safe location outside the country" while still trying to help citizens in Sudan.
Canadian embassy staff left via U.S. evacuation
The New York Times reported Sunday that U.S. special forces evacuated six Canadian diplomats, along with 70 American diplomats and some from other countries. Ottawa confirmed Monday evening that embassy staff left Sudan as part of a U.S. evacuation.
"Canadian diplomats in Sudan were able to be part of the U.S. military assisted departure on very short notice as they had collocated near the U.S. embassy. Canada extends its gratitude to the United States for its support," a statement from Global Affairs Canada said.
The BBC, meanwhile, reported Canadians were part of a group evacuated by sea to Saudi Arabia. Global Affairs Canada has yet to answer questions sent Sunday morning about that report.
Ottawa is not evacuating its locally hired Sudanese staff and says it is looking at all possible options to support them.
As of August 2022, the Khartoum embassy had six Canadian staff and 12 who were locally hired, according to data filed by the department with a Senate committee.
UN warns fighting may escalate
For many Sudanese people, the ongoing airlift is a terrifying sign that international powers, after failing repeatedly to broker ceasefires, only expect a worsening of the fighting that has already pushed the population into disaster.
The military has appeared to have the upper hand in fighting in Khartoum, but the Rapid Support Forces still controls many districts in the capital and the neighbouring city of Omdurman and has several large strongholds around the country. With the military vowing to fight until the group is crushed, many fear a dramatic escalation.
The latest nominal ceasefire, which brought almost no reduction in fighting, was due to run out Monday evening.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of a "catastrophic conflagration" that could engulf the whole region. He urged the 15 members of the Security Council to "exert maximum leverage" on both sides in order to "pull Sudan back from the edge of the abyss."
Joly has spoken with her counterparts in both Egypt and the United Arab Emirates about the need for peace. Cairo has strong links with the Sudanese Armed Forces, and the Emirates have ties to the RSF.
With files from The Associated Press and Jordan Omstead