MOSCOW, May 2. /TASS/. Russian Aerospace Forces airlifted from Sudan more than 200 people, who are the nationals of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Bangladesh, Sudan and Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

"On the morning of May 2, special flights of the Russian Aerospace Forces from Sudan to Moscow’s Chkalovsky Airport delivered more than 200 citizens of Russia and Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Bangladesh, Sudan and Ukraine that had found themselves in the area of hostilities in Khartoum. The notification of the people about the evacuation and the operation itself were conducted as furtively as possible, given extremely high security risks," the ministry said.

The ministry said Russian government agencies made efforts that made it possible to avoid the incidents that befell almost all Western evacuation missions. It also said the Russian embassy in Khartoum will continue working.

The Russian Defense Ministry said earlier that more than 200 citizens of Russia, the CIS and friendly countries had been evacuated from Sudan to Moscow onboard Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft.

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, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (also known as Hemedti), who is al-Burhan’s deputy on the council. The main points of contention between the two military organizations are related to the timeline and methods of forming unified armed forces of Sudan, as well as who should become the commander-in-chief of the army: a career military officer, which is an option supported by al-Burhan, or an elected civilian president, as Dagalo insists. 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 country’s Health Ministry, several hundred people have been killed in the country since the conflict broke out.