The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, assured yesterday that the Government “has everything ready” to evacuate the Spanish colony residing in Sudan when “there is an effective truce in the fighting”, but “at this moment the security conditions are not in place” for this.
“I am in contact with the Minister of Defense (Margarita Robles)” and “I confirm that there are military planes of the Army pre-positioned in Djibouti to be able to enter Khartoum or as close to Khartoum as possible and evacuate our colony,” Albares told the press during his official visit to Berlin.
“For several days now, we initiated the evacuation plan in contact with our Embassy,” he continued. “We have contacted all the Spaniards that we are aware of who are in Sudan, either for residence or for tourist reasons, as was the case of a small group of Spaniards,” added Albares, who asked anyone who has “evidence that there is a Spaniard we have not contacted and who is in Sudan” to “immediately contact” the consular emergency telephone number at the Embassy or the consular emergency telephone number of the Consular Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Likewise, Albares specified that, “unfortunately”, it is still not possible to know “when the evacuation will take place” because, “at this moment, there are no security conditions to be able to do so”. “We have started the process of regrouping the colony as far as possible”, but there is “very intense fighting between troops of two generals throughout the city of Khartoum” and, therefore, “the movements are extraordinarily dangerous”, he continued. “Everything is very slow because the security conditions are very precarious,” he added.
“At what point will our planes be able to land? We are waiting for an effective truce in the fighting, even if it is only for a few hours,” he warned. “The Government of Spain has everything ready for our military planes to enter” and to evacuate “that colony, which is made up of about 60 Spaniards and about twenty citizens of other nationalities – Poles, Portuguese, Latin Americans – who have asked us to help them with the evacuation and, of course, Spain is going to help them,” he added.
In addition, during the joint press conference with her German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, Albares indicated that, for the moment, “the provisioning of the Embassy and the Ambassador’s residence” has already been carried out and the security around them has been reinforced “as far as possible”. He also explained that it has already been possible to evacuate “a Spanish citizen who was embarked on a boat off the coast of Sudan”, which has facilitated his transfer from Sudan “to another country where they are already in safety”.
Sudan has been suffering, since last weekend, armed clashes between the Sudanese Army and a paramilitary group called Rapid Support Forces (RSF) which have already caused several hundred deaths. About 60 Spaniards are unable to leave the country because the clashes between the army and the paramilitaries have left the city’s airport unusable. Spain and other countries, such as the United States, France and Korea, have launched a joint and synchronized operation to evacuate foreign nationals.
