BEIJING – China has sent its fleet to rescue citizens from conflict-torn Sudan, the Chinese military ministry announced on Thursday.
Several governments have hurried to remove embassy personnel and people from Sudan, where violence between the army and paramilitaries has killed hundreds and caused severe shortages of water, food, medication, and fuel.
Rescue efforts have stepped up in recent days, following the implementation of a 72-hour cease-fire on Tuesday.
“Recently, the security situation in Sudan has continued to deteriorate,” said Tan Kefei, a spokeswoman for China’s defense ministry.
He noted that the navy was dispatched on Wednesday “in order to protect the lives and property of Chinese people in Sudan.”
China announced on Monday that it had safely evacuated the first batch of citizens, estimating that 1,500 of its countrymen were in Sudan.
Tan did not say how many vessels were involved.
China claims to be Sudan’s greatest trading partner, with over 130 companies investing in the country as of mid-2022.
From April 25 to 27, 800 Chinese individuals will be evacuated by ship from Sudan, according to Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.
She claimed that more than 300 other migrants have traveled into nations neighboring Sudan by land.
According to Sudan’s health ministry, the battle has killed at least 512 people and injured over 4,000 others, and has left certain neighborhoods of greater Khartoum in ruins.
According to UN agencies, Sudanese civilians are “fleeing areas affected by fighting, including to Chad, Egypt, and South Sudan.”
With Khartoum’s international airport closed due to clashes that damaged numerous planes, many foreigners have been evacuated out of smaller airstrips.
Other evacuations were taking underway from Port Sudan, which is around 850 kilometers from Khartoum.
According to the foreign ministry, an Indonesian military plane carried 110 Indonesian people from Port Sudan to the Saudi city of Jeddah on Wednesday.
It brings the overall number of Indonesians evacuated from Sudan since the conflict’s inception to 667.
