According to the Beijing defense ministry on Thursday, China has sent its navy to Sudan to rescue residents from the country’s ongoing turmoil.
Hundreds of people have been murdered in combat between the army and paramilitaries in Sudan, which has resulted in severe shortages of water, food, medication, and gasoline. Several nations have hurried to remove embassy staff and nationals from Sudan by land, air, and sea.
Rescue efforts have increased recently after a 72-hour ceasefire went into effect on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, however, there were reports of minor fighting across the nation, with witnesses citing “heavy air strikes” east of Khartoum as the cause.
Tan Kefei, the spokesman for the Chinese defense ministry, stated that “recently, the security situation in Sudan has continued to deteriorate.”
He said, “In order to protect the lives and property of Chinese people in Sudan, the navy was deployed on Wednesday.” He omitted to mention how many vessels were engaged.
China estimated that approximately 1,500 of its residents were in Sudan and said on Monday that it had safely evacuated a first batch of citizens.
More than 1,100 Chinese nationals, including residents of Hong Kong, had been evacuated, state broadcaster CCTV was informed by Wu Xi, head of consular affairs at the foreign ministry, on Wednesday evening.
China claims to be Sudan’s greatest trading partner, and as of mid-2022, more than 130 businesses had invested there.
800 Chinese nationals will be transported from Sudan by sea between April 25 and 27, according to Mao Ning, a spokesman for the foreign ministry.
She continued by saying that more than 300 other people had entered Sudan’s neighboring countries by land.
According to the Sudanese health ministry, the violence has left more than 4,000 people injured, at least 512 dead, and some areas of greater Khartoum in ruins.
Civilians from Sudan were reportedly “fleeing areas affected by fighting, including to Chad, Egypt, and South Sudan,” according to UN agencies.
Groups of foreigners have been airlifted out of Khartoum after hostilities that damaged numerous aircraft and the city’s international airport inoperable.
Other evacuations were also occurring at Port Sudan, which is located 850 kilometers (530 miles) away from Khartoum.
According to a tweet from the foreign ministry on Thursday, an Indonesian military plane transported 110 Indonesian citizens on Wednesday from Port Sudan to the Saudi city of Jeddah.
As a result, 667 Indonesians have now been evacuated from Sudan since hostilities began.
