MOSCOW, May 2. /TASS/. Almost all employees of the Russian diplomatic mission in Sudan remain in the country, and the embassy continues its operations, Russian Ambassador to the Northeast African nation Andrey Chernovol told TASS on Tuesday.
"The diplomatic mission is staying almost in its entirety, with a few exceptions. <...> Women and children have been evacuated, and the embassy remains where it was, continuing its operations," the diplomat said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said earlier on Tuesday that over 200 citizens of Russia, other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries and a number of friendly nations, evacuated from Sudan by a Russian Aerospace Forces emergency airlift operation, had arrived in Moscow. Among the evacuees are Russian embassy personnel, Defense Ministry officials and their family members, Russian nationals and citizens of other member states and a number of friendly countries who had requested repatriation assistance.
The situation in Sudan escalated amid disagreements between the army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who also heads the ruling Sovereignty Council, and the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemedti), who is al-Burhan’s deputy on the council. On April 15, armed clashes between the rival military factions erupted near a military base in Merowe and in the capital, Khartoum. According to the Sudanese Health Ministry, several hundred people have been killed in the country since the conflict broke out.