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AL-MUKALLA: A second group of Yemenis rescued from Sudan arrived in Jeddah on a Saudi ship on Saturday, as hundreds of their compatriots stranded in the country pleaded for immediate evacuation.
Yemen’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that the second group was transported from Port Sudan to Jeddah on the Saudi-flagged passenger vessel Amanah.
The ministry gave no details on the number of evacuees, but added that many Yemenis traveled by road from Sudanese cities to Port Sudan on the Red Sea to await rescue.
The Amanah anchored at King Faisal Naval Base in Jeddah with more than 1,900 people of 17 nationalities, including Yemenis, evacuated from Sudan.
Last week, the first group of more than 200 Yemeni evacuees arrived in the Kingdom.
The evacuees praised Saudi authorities who gave them a one-month visa and complimentary hotel rooms for two nights.
Dozens of Yemenis who arrived in Jeddah last week have begun returning by land to their war-torn country, while others are heading to other countries.
Abdul Aziz Al-Ansi, who arrived at the Al-Wadea border crossing between Saudi Arabia and Yemen on Saturday afternoon, told Arab News that he was among 100 Yemenis leaving on two buses bound for Marib and Aden.
“We’re currently at the border entry. We departed Jeddah last night. Most of us are students,” Al-Ansi said, adding that he planned to embark on another arduous journey from Marib to his native village in the province of Dhamar.
In Jeddah, another Yemeni evacuee, Sam Al-Baydani, told Arab News that he was fortunate to be one of the first Yemenis rescued from Sudan and that he planned to settle in Cairo.
“We were among the first to arrive at Port Sudan and there were few people there,” he said. “We attempted three times to flee the fighting Khartoum. Saudi Arabia greeted us with open arms. They met us at the dock, transported us on buses, gave us a month’s stay and put us up in good hotels,” Al-Baydani said.
The Yemeni Students Union in Sudan urged the Yemeni government to step up the evacuations, saying that more than 1,500 Yemenis are stranded in Port Sudan, while almost the same number are en route to the city.
Social media images and videos showed scores of Yemeni children, women, and men sleeping on bags and luggage outdoors, as others squeezed into a wedding hall.
“We’re exhausted. We don’t have any money or accommodation, and they haven’t brought us any food or water. Our family slept in the shade of a tree. What shall we do?” yelled a young man in a video that was circulated on social media.
KHARTOUM: Warplanes on bombing raids drew heavy antiaircraft fire over Khartoum on Saturday as fierce fighting between Sudan’s army and paramilitaries entered a third week, violating a renewed truce.
“There is no right to go on fighting for power when the country is falling apart,” UN chief Antonio Guterres told Al Arabiya television.
Guterres threw his support behind African-led mediation efforts.
“My appeal is for everything to be done to support an African-led initiative for peace in Sudan,” he said.
The Sudanese Health Ministry put the overall death toll, including fighters, at 528, with 4,500 wounded.
Khartoum, a city of some 5 million people, has been transformed into a front line in the grinding conflict between Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, the commander of Sudan’s military, and Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, who leads the powerful paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces.
Tens of thousands have been uprooted within Sudan or embarked on arduous trips to neighboring Chad, Egypt, South Sudan or Ethiopia to flee the battles.
Truce violations
They have agreed to multiple truces but none has taken hold as the number of dead civilians continues to rise and chaos and lawlessness grip Khartoum, a city of five million people where many have been cloistered in their homes lacking food, water, and electricity.
The latest three-day cease-fire — due to expire at midnight (2200 GMT) Sunday — was agreed Thursday after mediation led by the United States, Saudi Arabia, the African Union and the United Nations.
“We woke up once again to the sound of fighter jets and anti-aircraft weapons blasting all over our neighborhood,” a witness in southern Khartoum told AFP.
Another said fighting had continued since the early morning, especially around the state broadcaster’s headquarters in the capital’s twin city of Omdurman.
Other witnesses reported exchanges of machine gun fire across the Blue Nile in Khartoum North, while the sound of gunfire rang out in Burri in the east of the city.
As battles raged, the rival generals — who seized power in a 2021 coup — took aim at each other in the media, with Burhan branding the RSF a militia that aims “to destroy Sudan” and Dagalo calling the army chief “a traitor.”
The Sudanese Health Ministry put the overall death toll, including fighters, at 528, with 4,500 wounded.
Khartoum, a city of some 5 million people, has been transformed into a front line in the grinding conflict between Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, the commander of Sudan’s military, and Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, who leads the powerful paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces.
About 75,000 have been displaced by the fighting in Khartoum and the states of Blue Nile, North Kordofan, as well as the western region of Darfur, the UN said.
Mass exodus
The fighting has also triggered a mass exodus of foreigners and international staff.
On Saturday, a ferry with around 1,900 evacuees arrived at a Saudi naval base in Jeddah, after crossing the Red Sea from Port Sudan in the latest evacuation to the kingdom by sea.
Among the most recent evacuees were 65 Iranians.
Saudi Arabia has so far organized evacuations for almost 4,880 people from 96 countries, the Saudi foreign ministry said.
Merhdad Malekzadh, a 28-year-old Iranian who had been living in Khartoum since he was a child, said no one had expected the fighting to become so intense, and his escape had also been a surprise.
“Because of our nationality, we had never imagined we would come to Saudi Arabia when we were evacuated,” said Malekzadh, whose family runs an oil lubricants business in the Sudanese capital.
“Fortunately, they really helped us. They put their differences aside and worked together. They saved lives,” he added, according to AFP.
Those who were brought to Jeddah by ship on Saturday included a second group of Yemenis.
“The Kingdom worked to provide all the necessary needs of foreign nationals in preparation for facilitating their departures to their countries,” said the Foreign Ministry.
A US-organized convoy carrying American citizens, local staff, and nationals from allied countries arrived in Port Sudan Saturday to join the exodus across the Red Sea, the State Department said.
And the UK Foreign Office said just under 1,900 Britons have been taken out on 21 flights, including a final one which was due to depart on Saturday.
The World Food Programme has said the violence could plunge millions more into hunger in a country where 15 million people — one-third of the population — already need aid to stave off famine.
About 70 percent of hospitals in areas near the fighting have been put out of service and many have been shelled, the doctors’ union said.
‘Horrible’ violence in West Darfur
In West Darfur state, at least 96 people were reported to have been killed in the city of El Geneina this week, the UN said.
“What’s happening in Darfur is terrible, the society is falling apart, we see tribes that now try to arm themselves,” Guterres said.
Sudan’s former prime minister Abdalla Hamdok warned that the conflict could deteriorate into one of the world’s worst civil wars if not stopped early.
“God forbid if Sudan is to reach a point of civil war proper… Syria, Yemen, Libya will be a small play,” Hamdok told an event in Nairobi.
“I think it would be a nightmare for the world.”
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said there were reports of widespread looting, destruction, and burning of property, including at camps for displaced people. It said one of the hospitals it was supporting was even looted.
MSF deputy operations manager for Sudan, Sylvain Perron, said the fighting had forced the agency to stop almost all its activities in West Darfur.
“The current fighting has forced us to stop almost all our activities in West Darfur. Our teams have not been able to reach the hospital.
We are incredibly worried about the impact of this violence on people who have lived through waves of violence in previous years.”
Darfur is still scarred by a war that erupted in 2003 when then hard-line president Omar Al-Bashir unleashed the Janjaweed militia, mainly recruited from Arab pastoralist tribes, against ethnic-minority rebels.
The scorched-earth campaign left at least 300,000 people dead and close to 2.5 million displaced, according to UN figures. Bashir was charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide by the International Criminal Court.
The Janjaweed later evolved into the RSF, which was formally created in 2013.
The 2021 coup that brought Burhan and Daglo to power derailed the transition to elective civilian rule launched after Bashir was ousted following mass protests in 2019.
The two generals later fell out, most recently over the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army.
Blockade in Gaza Strip
Palestinians embraced at the Egyptian border with the blockaded Gaza Strip as students returned home. Gaza’s Crossing and Border Authority said “172 students arrived in the homeland through the Rafah border crossing.”
With ordinary Sudanese caught in the crossfire, the civilian death toll jumped Saturday to 411 people, according to the Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate, which monitors casualties.
In some areas in and around the capital, residents reported that shops were reopening and normalcy gradually returning as the scale of fighting dwindled after the shaky truce. But in other areas, terrified residents reported explosions thundering around them and fighters ransacking houses. Now in its third week, the fighting has wounded 2,023 civilians, the syndicate added, although the true toll is expected to be much higher.
ISTANBUL: Turkish defense firm Baykar aims to begin production of its new unmanned combat aerial vehicle or UCAV next year which is already attracting international interest, its chairman Selcuk Bayraktar said.
Baykar has come to prominence internationally in recent years because of the company’s light drone TB-2, which has been used in Ukraine, Azerbaijan and North Africa and has been a huge export success, catapulting the firm to becoming one of the largest Turkish defense exporters.
Named Kizilelma, the drone expands the company’s product range from slow, ground attack drones to fast and agile autonomous ones that work alongside fighter jets.
“It is designed to be a highly autonomous, under human purview of course, air-to-air combat vehicle” said Bayraktar, who led the design of the 15-meter-long jet-powered UCAV.
“In a sense, the Kizilelma expresses a whole new future for combat aviation.”
Baykar plans to begin production in small quantities next year. Kizilelma made its first flight in December and began formation flight tests with Baykar’s other drones this month.
The craft is ready to begin test flights alongside piloted jets. Deployment on Turkiye’s amphibious ship is scheduled for next year.
There is already demand from abroad for the new drone, though its specialized capabilities mean it can be sent to fewer export markets.
Bayraktar, who is married to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s daughter, spoke on the sidelines of an aerospace and technology festival organized by his own foundation.
High-profile military projects have figured prominently in Erdogan’s election campaign and Bayraktar said he sees the drone as the culmination of a national aspiration and a product “where we tell the world that our country is not only a player but also a game maker.”
RAFAH: Palestinians embraced at the Egyptian border with the blockaded Gaza Strip as students returned home after fleeing the eruption of violence in Sudan.
Gaza’s Crossing and Border Authority said “172 students arrived in the homeland through the Rafah border crossing, as the first batch of students coming from Sudan.”
There were hugs and tears at the southern gateway to Gaza as relatives greeted young Palestinians fleeing the fighting.
“The situation was really difficult, it hit everywhere in Khartoum,” university student Nasser Qishta said.
Wael Al-Masri, a medical student, said the situation was akin to a ‘civil war.’
“The Palestinian Embassy in Sudan contacted us, gathered up the students and transferred us to Gaza,” added Qistha, who remained determined to return to the Sudanese capital “when conditions improve.”
Governments have rushed to extract their citizens from Sudan amid the deadly violence.
Wael Al-Masri, a medical student, said the situation was akin to a “civil war.”
“I thank everyone who helped us return,” he said at the Rafah crossing, which was opened especially for their arrival by Egyptian authorities.
Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have lived through multiple wars fought between Palestinian militants and Israel since Hamas took control in 2007.
An Israel-led blockade has since been imposed and obtaining the necessary permits and funds to leave the territory is nigh on impossible for the majority of residents.
JEDDAH: Iranian evacuees have thanked Saudi Arabia after they escaped the fighting in Sudan aboard a Saudi-flagged ship carrying the largest number of people since evacuations from Sudan began.
The people rescued, including Iranians and others of different nationalities, arrived on Saturday morning in Jeddah from Sudan on board the Saudi ship, “Amana.”
Hassan Zarnegar Abarghouei, Iran’s charge d’ affaires in Saudi Arabia, thanked the Kingdom for its efforts in evacuating Iranians from Sudan.
“We are thankful for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, minister of foreign affairs and the army of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for cooperating to transfer the Iranian people from Port Sudan to Jeddah,” he told Arab News in an interview.
Asadullah, an Iranian evacuee, praised the evacuees reception upon arrival in Saudi Arabia and described the dire situation in Sudan before leaving the country.
“The situation was very difficult (in Sudan); complete lack of security, no transportation as well as many other issues, like lack of water and electricity supply,” he told Arab News.
Lida Saeedi, another Iranian evacuee who lived in Sudan with her husband who works for a company there, also thanked Saudi Arabia for its efforts.
“Thank you for everything you did for us, we were so afraid of what was happening in Sudan, it’s very dangerous . . .”
“They said Saudi Arabia has sent a ship for us and we were so happy because we didn’t know how were we going to get out,” she said.
Later on Saturday, an Iranian airplane landed at the King Abdullah Air Base to transport 65 evacuees from Saudi Arabia to Iran.
The passengers were seen off at the military base by Saudi Maj. Gen pilot Ahmed Al-Debais, commander of the Western Region and Maj. Gen. Abdullah Al-Zahrani, commander of the air base. Al-Debais wished the passengers a safe trip back to their country.
He pointed out that all the efforts the Saudi authorities are doing come as an implementation of King Salman’s directives to do all they can to evacuate Saudi citizens as well as people from Islamic and friendly countries from Sudan.
It was announced that Saudi Arabia had carried out the biggest evacuation from Sudan since the start of its operations on Saturday when a ship carrying 20 Saudi citizens and 1,866 nationals of other countries arrived in Jeddah.
The new arrivals brought the number of evacuees since the start of the Kingdom’s mission to 4,879 people, made up of 139 Saudi citizens and 4,738 nationals of other countries.
WASHINGTON D.C.: A US-organized convoy carrying American citizens, local staff, and nationals from allied countries arrived Saturday in Port Sudan, the State Department said, as an exodus from war-torn Sudan continued.
From that Red Sea port, the statement added, “we are assisting US citizens and others who are eligible with onward travel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where additional US personnel are positioned to assist with consular and emergency services.”
The statement, from State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, did not specify how many people were in the convoy but said that hundreds of Americans have left Sudan in addition to the diplomats pulled out in a military-led airlift a week ago.
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said Friday that fewer than 5,000 people have been in touch with the State Department about efforts to leave Sudan, although it was impossible to verify how many were in the country and wanted to go.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that “dozens” of US citizens hoped to leave and that most who remained in Sudan were dual nationals.
“We messaged every US citizen in Sudan who communicated with us during the crisis and provided specific instructions about joining this convoy to those who were interested in departing via the land route,” the State Department said.
The statement encouraged any US citizens who still want to leave to contact the State Department.
“Intensive negotiations by the United States with the support of our regional and international partners enabled the security conditions that have allowed the departure of thousands of foreign and US citizens,” the statement said.
The Pentagon meantime said it had “deployed US intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets to support air and land evacuation routes, which Americans are using.”
“We are moving naval assets within the region to provide any necessary support along the coast,” said the statement from Sabrina Singh, the deputy Pentagon press secretary.
Fighting since April 15 between Sudan’s army chief and paramilitary fighters led by his former deputy has killed more than 500 people, wounded thousands and displaced some 75,000, authorities say.
It has triggered a mass exodus of foreigners and international staff.