Saudi Arabia evacuates dozens of Russians from Sudan

Several dozen Russian citizens were evacuated from Sudan by warships of Saudi Arabia, informed TASS attaché, press secretary of the Russian Consulate General in Jeddah Ruslan Usmanov.

As explained in the consulate, the Russians are taken out of the port of Sudan, then they are met in the port of Jeddah at a naval base. According to Usmanov, about 40 Russian citizens have now arrived there, most of whom have returned to Russia or other countries.

Saudi Arabia is also helping to evacuate citizens of the United States and EU countries from Sudan, a spokesman for the consulate general said.

“The Saudi side, in principle, still pays them for two days of accommodation in a hotel with meals. After that, the citizens of the Russian Federation leave for Russia. If necessary, we accompany them to the airport, solve some issues, but as a rule, everything goes smoothly and clearly. So far, there are no problems,” Usmanov said.

Since April 15, full-scale battles have been going on in Sudan using all available weapons. The conflict broke out between the armed forces and the so-called Operational Support Forces (RSF, numbering more than 40,000 people, armed with armored personnel carriers and artillery), a group created on the basis of Arab militias. On April 19, the parties concluded a truce, but a few hours later the clashes continued.

On April 23, Russian Ambassador to the Republic Andrey Chernovol said that 140 out of about 300 people confirmed the desire to evacuate from Sudan to the Russian Embassy. He stressed that the list is growing not at the expense of Russian citizens, “they have all already decided”, but at the expense of citizens of the CIS and “some other countries.”