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The White House on Monday said American citizens have begun arriving in Port Sudan, after the US enabled their evacuation from the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the US has placed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets over a land evacuation route to enable American citizens to travel from Khartoum to the eastern city of Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
“We have started to see a more regular pattern of convoys begin to arrive, including convoys that have Americans in them,” Mr Sullivan said.
“Once at the port, then we are using diplomatic facilities in neighbouring countries to help those Americans with their onward travel so that they can get safely out of the country.”
About 16,000 US citizens are believed to be living in Sudan, though that figure may be an undercount.
Also on Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended his decision to pull all diplomatic staff from Sudan as the country spirals further into war.
“The decision to suspend operations at the embassy and remove our personnel from their signposts is among the most difficult that any secretary has to make,” said Mr Blinken.
“But my first priority is the safety of our people.”
He said the situation in Khartoum, which has seen more than a week of fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, had become an “unacceptable risk” to staff there.
Still, he added that the US is “exploring options to return a diplomatic and consular presence to Sudan as soon as possible”.
The US flew embassy staff and their families out at the weekend.
The road journey from the embattled capital to Port Sudan spans 800 kilometres in intense heat and takes about 35 hours.
Other foreign governments have made similar moves, amid intensified fighting between Sudan’s two rival generals who are battling for control of the country.
Earlier, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that the violence in Sudan “risks a catastrophic conflagration … that could engulf the whole region and beyond”.
Mr Sullivan said that “it is not standard practice” for the US to extract citizens from areas of conflict. He named Syria, Libya and Yemen as examples.
He said Afghanistan was “a unique case” because it involved “the end of the 20-year war that the United States was centrally involved in”.
But Mr Sullivan said that the administration of President Joe Biden is looking at “every conceivable option” to help Americans leave Sudan.
Sudan crisis latest — in pictures
