The Biden administration confirmed it was placing troops at a naval base in Djibouti in preparation for a possible evacuation of U.S. personnel at the embassy in Sudan.
American diplomats are caught in the crossfire of a war between Sudanese Armed Forces and a rival paramilitary group that has left 185 people dead and more than 1,800 wounded.
A U.S. embassy convoy was attacked this week, but no one was harmed. There are about 70 U.S. staff at the embassy and up to 16,000 private citizens in Sudan.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. has “good accountability” on its diplomats and there was “no indication that either side is deliberately going after or trying to hurt or target Americans.”
“Obviously we’re still very concerned about the violence there, the continued fighting,” Kirby said at a briefing. “There was a so-called cease-fire last night that didn’t hold very long, and so people are still being hurt.”
Fighting broke out on Saturday between Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces, and Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who leads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
Both generals were jockeying for control of the nation after jointly leading an armed coup in 2021 to oust a longtime autocratic leader.
There were expectations for the two generals to reach an agreement that would pave the way toward a democracy, but tensions boiled over before gunfire erupted in Khartoum last week.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, along with partner nations such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have tried in vain to stop the fighting between the warring generals.
“The imperative is getting quickly to a cease-fire so that the guns stop firing,” Blinken said.
We have more coverage of the war in Sudan at TheHill.com.
