MOSCOW, August 1. /TASS/. Russia has evacuated some of its diplomats along with other Russian nationals willing to return home from Sudan amid the ongoing unrest in that country, the Russian foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

"In view of the high security risk amid the ongoing clashes in Sudan, some of the employees of the Russian embassy, which was transferred from Khartoum to Port Sudan, as well as Russian nationals and their family members, who asked for help to return to the homeland, were evacuated from Port Sudan," the ministry said, adding that the Russian embassy continues operating routinely in Port Sudan.

According to the ministry, those evacuated arrived in Moscow’s Chkalovsky airport onboard a special Russian defense ministry plane.

The Russian foreign ministry said on July 28 that Russia’s embassy in Sudan had been relocated from Khartoum to Port Sudan.

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. The main points of contention between the two military organizations pertain to the timeline and methods for unifying the armed forces of Sudan, as well as who should be appointed as commander-in-chief of the army: a career military officer, which is al-Burhan’s preferred option, 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 Sudanese health ministry, more than 3,000 people have been killed and at least 6,000 have been wounded since the violence outbreak.