Africa

Netherlands Shutters Embassy in Sudan Amid Mass Evac Operations

PARIS (Sputnik) - The Netherlands has closed its embassy in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, diplomats will continue to work remotely, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said.
Sputnik
"The Embassy of the Netherlands in Khartoum is closed. Work will continue as possible from the region and the Netherlands," the ministry said in a statement on its website.
Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said Monday 60 Dutch nationals had been evacuated from Sudan.
Earlier, the Netherlands sent a few military aircraft to Jordan, so that later they could evacuate people from Sudan.
The Netherlands and various other countries, including Germany, Greece, France and Spain, have been evacuating their nationals and diplomats from Sudan due to the tense security situation in the country.
On April 15, violent clashes between the Sudanese regular armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group broke out, with the epicenter in Khartoum. Government forces accused the RSF of mutiny and launched airstrikes against their bases.
Abdel Fattah Burhan, the head of the Sudanese military, issued a decree disbanding the RSF. The sides agreed to a three-day truce starting Friday in connection with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
World
Eyewitness Tells Sputnik About Khartoum University Students' Evacuation Amid Sudan Clashes
So far, around 600 people have died in the clashes, the Sudanese Health Ministry said last week. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization reported over 400 deaths and said more than 3,500 people had been injured.
Earlier Monday, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry confirmed that Mohamed al-Gharawy, who served as the assistant of Egypt’s administrative attache in Sudan, was killed in Khartoum. The Sudanese armed forces had initially reported that al-Gharawy had been killed by RSF officials before the ministry had temporarily denied his death.
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