US evacuating diplomats in Sudan amid fierce fighting

The United States has shuttered its embassy in Sudan and is in the process of evacuating American government personnel from the capital of Khartoum as fighting between the Sudanese army and a rival powerful paramilitary group in Africa’s third largest nation entered a second week

Sudan

U.S. troops are carrying out a precarious evacuation of American embassy staffers in the African nation of Sudan, shuttering the U.S. embassy there as fighting rages for a ninth day, according to a senior Biden administration official.

Biden ordered American troops to evacuate embassy personnel after receiving a recommendation earlier Saturday from his national security team with no end in sight to the fighting, according to the official who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the mission.

The evacuation order was believed to apply to about 70 Americans. U.S. forces were airliftng them from a landing zone at the embassy to an unspecified location.

The State Department has suspended operations at the embassy due to the dire security situation. It was not clear when the embassy might resume functioning.