Iran Press/ Africa: A power struggle between the regular army and a formidable paramilitary force has plunged the country into protracted violence.
Notwithstanding, the US embassy in Khartoum has been shuttered, and a tweet on its official handle asserts that it is not safe enough for the government to evacuate private US citizens.
Meanwhile, the UK government has executed a “complex and rapid” operation to transport British diplomats and their families out of the country. However, Foreign Minister James Cleverly has conceded that options for evacuating the remaining British nationals are “severely limited.”
The ongoing power struggle has led to heavy bombardment in the capital, resulting in hundreds of fatalities and thousands more injuries. In addition to local residents, there are many foreign students from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East who are now stranded in Khartoum.
Khartoum has historically been a haven for people escaping civil wars in the far peripheries of Sudan, such as Darfur, the Nuba Mountains, and South Sudan before the latter became a country of its own in 2011. For decades, civilian and army elites have militarized and extracted resources from the margins, such as oil and gold, in order to enrich themselves, while providing just enough to placate residents in Khartoum.
However, the capital is now the epicenter of armed conflict between the army and a violent paramilitary force, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Both have set up checkpoints and clashed indiscriminately, resulting in a mounting death toll and acute shortages of food, electricity, and water.
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