The federal government has conducted its first evacuation flight from war-torn Sudan, National Defence Minister Anita Anand says.
Anand did not share details other than saying the evacuation flight occurred on an RCAF C-130 Hercules aircraft. She promised further details will come in an announcement Thursday morning in Enfield, N.S.
“We’re operating almost in real time, and we want to make sure that we have all the details in place,” she said.
“We needed to make sure that conditions are safe and secure on the ground, and that we had space on the airfield – that’s actively occurring right now and will continue to occur, making sure that we have the conditions that are in place for not only the flight that I have mentioned, but additional evacuations that we are planning over the next number of days.”
About 200 members of the Canadian Armed Forces have deployed to the region along with military planes and ships for evacuation operations.
Hundreds of people have been killed in nearly two weeks of conflict between the army and a rival paramilitary force, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which are locked in a power struggle threatening to destabilize the wider region.
A shaky 72-hour ceasefire has allowed nations to evacuate their citizens, but it’s set to expire Thursday night. The United States and African nations are trying to secure an extension.
“We are pursuing all options. The situation is extremely dangerous in Sudan and the civilian infrastructure is necessary for any evacuation of non-combatants,” Anand said.
Much of the fighting has been focused in the capital Khartoum, where RSF fighters have embedded themselves in residential areas, and the western province of Darfur, where conflict has simmered ever since civil war erupted there two decades ago.
Anand said most Canadians are in Khartoum.
“The power, the communication, are intermittent. Food and water shortages are widespread, and so it requires our Canadian Armed Forces planners to consider all options for evacuation other than by aircraft,” she said.
“All options are on the table. Planning is occurring as we speak to ensure the maximum number of Canadians can be evacuated as soon as possible.”
Roughly 180 Canadians have been evacuated from the country out of 700 who have requested assistance, according to updated government figures.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said that more than 1,800 Canadians in Sudan are registered with the federal government. As of Tuesday night, at least 1,700 had been contacted by the government.
Fighting broke out in Africa’s third largest country on April 15 between the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the RSF, led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. The conflict has derailed a transition to civilian democracy after a 2021 military coup.
Many foreign nationals remain stuck in Sudan despite the exodus — one of the largest such evacuations since the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces from Afghanistan in 2021. Sudanese civilians, who have been struggling to find food, water and fuel, continued to flee Khartoum on Thursday.
At least 512 people have been killed and close to 4,200 wounded by the fighting.
The crisis has sent growing numbers of refugees across Sudan’s borders. The UN refugee agency has estimated 270,000 people could flee into South Sudan and Chad alone.
Thousands of people, mainly Sudanese, have been waiting at the border to cross into Egypt, Sudan’s neighbor to the north.
France said on Thursday it had evacuated more people from Sudan, including Britons, Americans, Canadians, Ethiopians, Dutch, Italians and Swedes. Britain said it might not be able to continue evacuating nationals when the ceasefire ends, and they should try to reach British flights out of Sudan immediately.
The conflict has also limited food distribution in the vast nation, where a third of the 46 million people were already reliant on humanitarian aid.
An estimated 50,000 acutely malnourished children have had treatment disrupted due to the conflict, and those hospitals still functioning face shortages of medical supplies, power and water, according to a UN update on Wednesday.
The Sudan Doctors’ Union said 60 out of 86 hospitals in conflict zones had stopped operating.
— with files from Global News’ Mercedes Stephenson, Alex Boutilier and Reuters.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
More Stories
What Trudeau’s podcast appearances say about the Liberals’ next ballot box question
ANALYSIS | In videos and podcasts, Poilievre and Trudeau are eager to explain themselves — at length | CBC News
South Africa celebrates 30 years since end of apartheid, but discontent grows – National | Globalnews.ca