PM Thanks Saudi Assistance To Evacuate Qatari Citizens From Sudan

(MENAFN- Gulf Times) HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani held a phone call Sunday with Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah al-Saud. The latest developments in Sudan were discussed during the call.
HE Sheikh Mohamed thanked Saudi Arabia for its assistance in evacuating Qatari citizens from the city of Port Sudan to Jeddah by sea.
Meanwhile, other countries were rushing to evacuate their nationals from Sudan.
As gunfire again echoed through Khartoum and fighter jets roared above, foreigners fled the capital in a long United Nations convoy, while millions of frightened residents hunkered down inside their homes, many running low on water and food.
Across the city of 5mn, army and paramilitary troops have fought ferocious street battles since April 15, leaving behind charred tanks, gutted buildings and shops that have been looted and torched.
More than 420 people have been killed and thousands wounded, according to UN figures, amid fears of wider turmoil and a humanitarian disaster in one of the world's poorest nations.
US special forces launched a rescue mission early Sunday for around 100 embassy staff and their relatives, swooping in with Chinook helicopters to fly them to a military base in Djibouti.
US President Joe Biden condemned the violence, saying it is "unconscionable and it must stop".
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said UK forces had also evacuated diplomats and their families "amid a significant escalation in violence and threats to embassy staff".
Germany and France meanwhile Sunday announced that they had begun evacuating their nationals and those from other countries.
A French plane carrying around 100 people of multiple nationalities "landed in Djibouti", according to French President Emmanuel Macron, with a second flight of another 100 people expected to leave later.
Long convoys of UN vehicles and buses were seen leaving Khartoum heading east to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, 850kms away by road, carrying "citizens from all over the world", according to one Sierra Leonean evacuee.
Taking advantage of a recent brief lull in fighting, residents of Khartoum rushed to organise buses out - mainly north to Egypt - sharing drivers' numbers, safe routes, and advice on visa restrictions on social media.
The fighting broke out on April 15 between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Khartoum's airport, where the blackened hulls of destroyed aircraft lie on runways, is under the control of the RSF.
At least one jailbreak has taken place in the capital, according to lawyers.
Reports of prisoners also being freed from two other prisons -- including the Kober jail where Bashir has been held -- could not be independently verified.
In Khartoum, the conflict has left terrified civilians sheltering inside their homes, with power largely off amid sweltering heat and the internet out for most.
"We were living in darkness... first we didn't have water and then we didn't have power," Khartoum resident Awad Ahmad Sherif said.

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