Second US warship arrives off Port Sudan as pressure builds to evacuate citizens

WASHINGTON — The second of two US Navy ships deployed to Sudan’s Red Sea coast has arrived, a US official confirmed to Al-Monitor on Tuesday, as the Pentagon remains ready to facilitate a potential evacuation of American citizens from the country.

The arrival of the USS Lewis B. Puller support ship off Port Sudan came after USS Truxtun reached the area on Monday.

The Pentagon deployed the ships in anticipation of potential orders by the Biden administration to help evacuate American citizens who reached the coastal city after fleeing violence that broke out last week.

The Biden administration was one of the first foreign governments to retrieve its diplomatic personnel from Khartoum when American special operations forces launched an evacuation of the embassy overnight on Saturday.

Yet by the tenth day of fighting between forces aligned with rival Sudanese generals, the US remained one of few countries that had not launched an effort to evacuate its other citizens from the country.

Thus far France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Japan, Spain, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey and others have initiated efforts to ferry their citizens to safety. 

The UK government became the latest to do so on Tuesday, seizing upon a 72-hour ceasefire that took effect at midnight on Monday to establish Royal Air Force flights out of an airfield near Khartoum in a bid to evacuate those of the estimated 4,000 UK citizens in Sudan who want to leave.

A spokesperson for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office was cited by Reuters as saying UK forces could take control of the airfield if need be. “The situation remains volatile and our ability to conduct evacuations could change at short notice,” a statement released by the UK’s foreign office read.

The US naval base at Camp Lemonnier, in Djibouti, has emerged as a hub for international evacuations. The Pentagon’s top headquarters for its forces in Africa has been helping to coordinate logistics, officials said.

Yet nearly a day into the spotty ceasefire, the State Department has not called on the Pentagon to evacuate American citizens.

“We are in close communications with US citizens and individuals affiliated with the US government to provide info on all available departure routes,” State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters Tuesday. 

“We are coordinating with regional and international partners and Sudanese civilian stakeholders,” Patel said. 

While it remains unclear how many Americans have reached Port Sudan, of the estimated roughly 16,000 US citizens remaining in the country, only “dozens” of Americans were seeking to leave, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday. The USS Puller and the Truxtun each have ample space to accommodate those numbers. 

“The international community should insist that the airport be designated a demilitarized zone, both to allow foreign nationals to depart without having to make the perilous journey to the Port of Sudan and to allow humanitarian assistance, critical food and fuel to come in,” said Michael Mulroy, the Pentagon’s former top Middle East policy official.

But such a move seemed unlikely as of Tuesday, as memories of the chaotic US evacuation from Afghanistan were renewed in Washington amid news of the death of the Islamic State official behind the Abbey Gate bombing that killed 13 American troops and 170 civilians.

The deployment of the Truxton, an Arleigh-Burke class destroyer, was intended in part as a deterrent to forces that may seek to harm US or other civilians, a second official said.

“It is not standard practice for the United States to send in the US military” to extract citizens from conflict zones, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Monday.

“We didn’t do it in Libya. We didn’t do it in Syria. We didn’t do it in Yemen, and no, we didn’t do it in Ukraine,” Sullivan told reporters from the White House podium on Monday.

“Afghanistan was a unique case involving the end of the 20-year war that the United States was centrally involved in,” he said.

Fighting in Sudan exploded on April 15 between forces loyal to rival generals Abdel Fatah el-Burhan, who heads the Sudanese Armed Forces, and Mohamed Hamadan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, who leads the estimated 100,000-strong Rapid Support Forces militia, which has ties with Russia’s Wagner mercenary group.

The conflict erupted as talks broke down between Hemedti and Burhan over integrating the RSF into a unified Sudanese military under future civilian control. US State Department personnel were closely involved in mediating those negotiations, sources familiar with the effort told Al-Monitor.

Sullivan on Tuesday said the Biden administration is weighing “every conceivable option” to help US citizens escape Sudan. The Pentagon has also considered sending troops ashore in Port Sudan to facilitate evacuations, CBS reported Monday.

The Pentagon began deploying forces to Djibouti early last week in preparation for potential evacuation efforts.

On Tuesday, US Africa Command (AFRICOM) released the first photos of US embassy staff as they landed at Camp Lemonnier on Sunday following the evacuation. Among those on photographed on the tarmac was John Godfrey, whom Biden appointed last year as Washington’s first ambassador to Khartoum in more than 25 years.