Three Brazilians are still waiting to leave Sudan, says Itamaraty

Three Brazilians are still in Sudan waiting to leave the country, which is suffering from intense fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The information is from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil.

According to the Itamaraty, 27 Brazilians were in Sudan when the fighting broke out. The three Brazilians have already been transported to a location with a lower relative risk, where they are waiting to leave Sudan soon”, he informed the CNN via email. The folder stated that it could not disclose the identities of those remaining.

“As soon as hostilities began in Sudan, the Itamaraty began to act incessantly with a view to ensuring the safe withdrawal of all Brazilians from that country, which has been the case”, continues the Itamaraty.

Since the beginning of the fighting, on the 15th, several countries have carried out special operations to remove their citizens from Sudan, through their diplomatic officials. Countries like Indonesia, the United States and Turkey sent planes and ships to Sudanese territory and neighboring countries to promote the withdrawal.

In addition to land borders, the city of Port Sudan is one of the most popular destinations for leaving the country. The port city borders the Red Sea, offering a quick route to Saudi Arabia.

Itamaraty has carried out support operations from neighboring countries to drive citizens back. The last to land on Brazilian soil were nine members of Al-Merreikh, a soccer club in Sudan’s first division, based in the largest city in the country, Ondurman. The group, made up of four athletes and five members of the coaching staff, was in the capital Khartoum when the first clashes took place and returned on the last 28th.

In report to CNN one of the Brazilians from Al-Merreikh, the assistant coach and performance analyst at the club, Esdras Lopes, said that the group was confined to their homes for seven days in Khartoum, until they managed to get transport that took them to the border with Egypt, from where they could go to the capital Cairo and, from there, back to Brazil.

Refugees

More than 500 people have been killed and more than 4,000 injured in clashes between the Army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that erupted on April 15 and derailed an internationally supported transition to democratic elections.

The two groups, which have been battling for power for several years, have violated several truces brokered by neighboring countries as well as the United States, continuing fierce fighting. With the resurgence of fighting, a large contingent of people left the country. According to information provided by United Nations (UN) officials, more than 100,000 people were forced to flee across the borders of Egypt, Chad, Djibouti and Eritrea. Even South Sudan, which is experiencing a serious humanitarian crisis, was the destination of at least 20,000 refugees.

As the fighting continues, the country is rapidly and dangerously heading towards a deep humanitarian crisis. The problem is even more serious because many of the neighboring countries, such as South Sudan and Chad, were already facing serious political and economic problems. For this reason, these nations already have difficulties in serving their own population and also the refugees who were already in their territories before the Sudanese crisis.

power struggle

The clashes that broke out on the 15th are the sharpest point in a violent power struggle between the two great lords of the Sudan War: the commander of the Army, General Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, and the leader of the RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti.

The now deadly enemies were once great allies, and together they overthrew then Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in 2019, during a military revolt that interrupted a despotic government that had oppressed Sudan for 30 years. Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, helped arm the RFS, which were used to suppress independence movements in the southern part of the country in the early part of the century, in what is now South Sudan. It was from then on that Dagalo began to gain strength as a military leader.

However, Dagalo betrayed his boss by ousting him from power in 2019. Two years later, Dagalo helped al-Burhan seize power, with a commitment that the RFS would be incorporated into the official army. This, however, did not happen. The stalemate was the starting point of tension between the two warlords, which culminated in the bloodbath that has bathed Sudan since the last 15th.