Washington (agencies)
Yesterday, the US Department of Defense announced that the United States is in the process of sending military personnel to the region, in anticipation of a possible evacuation of its embassy staff in Khartoum, in the midst of raging battles in the Sudanese capital between the army and the Rapid Support Forces.
The Pentagon said in a statement: “We are in the process of sending additional forces to the region to ensure the security of American employees at the embassy, and to facilitate their possible departure from Sudan, if circumstances require that.”
The statement did not specify the number of these reinforcements, nor the country in which they would be stationed.
The US State Department has established a special task force to deal with the crisis in Sudan, according to CNN, quoting a spokesperson for the ministry.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has established a working group concerned with the military conflict in Sudan to supervise the ministry’s planning, management and logistics related to events in Sudan,” said the spokesman, whose identity the network did not reveal.
The network quoted sources as saying that a notice regarding the task force was sent to employees at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, last Monday.
The US State Department urged its citizens to take cover and stay in their places, as did US diplomats in Khartoum.
And the US embassy said, last Tuesday, that “due to the unstable security situation in Khartoum and the closure of the airport, there are no plans for the US government to evacuate.”
And Secretary of State Anthony Blinken had confirmed that an American diplomatic convoy was shot at in Sudan, without the incident resulting in any injuries, describing the act as “reckless and irresponsible.”
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