Japan on Wednesday was the first country to announce a plan to evacuate its citizens from Sudan, but there were questions about how the effort would proceed, with the main international airport in Khartoum closed and millions of people sheltering inside.
Amid five days of deadly clashes, including sometimes fierce fighting at the international airport of Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, other countries have said they cannot now or do not plan to repatriate their citizens there immediately.
On Wednesday, an attempt by Germany to rescue about 150 of its citizens failed when military planes canceled a plan to fly to Khartoum because of the violence, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported. The German air force flew three transport planes towards Sudan, until a refueling stop in Greece, when the plan was scrapped and the planes diverted back to Germany, the report said.
Among the Germans are diplomats, federal police officers, aid workers and others, the magazine said.
Although the runway at Khartoum airport is believed to be intact, paramilitaries from the Rapid Support Forces have attempted to take control of the sprawling complex, which is located near the center of the capital. On Wednesday morning, the airfield was bombarded with airstrikes, likely fired by Sudanese army fighter jets attempting to dislodge rival RSF fighters from the facility.
The US State Department has said it has no plans for a government-coordinated evacuation and on Tuesday continued to urge Americans in Sudan to take shelter. Russia has said its embassy in Khartoum is in contact with Russians trapped by the fighting and will try to get them to safety “as soon as possible”.
Japan’s top government spokesman, Hirokazu Matsuno, told a press conference on Wednesday that about 60 Japanese nationals in Sudan were safe, but that many, including diplomats and aid workers, were facing “serious” shortages of food and water.
As a result, Japan’s foreign ministry asked the country’s military to carry out a rescue mission, Mr Matsuno said, according to the Kyodo news agency. But he gave no information on how or when the rescue mission would take place.
