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Over 200 Russians, CIS nationals evacuated from Sudan to Moscow — Defense Ministry

The Defense Ministry said earlier that the evacuation mission involved four Ilyushin Il-76 transport aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces

MOSCOW, May 2. /TASS/. More than 200 citizens of Russia, other CIS member states and friendly countries, evacuated from Sudan by the Russian Aerospace Forces’ aircraft, have arrived in Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Telegram on Tuesday.

"More than 200 people evacuated from Sudan have arrived in Moscow," the statement reads. "The evacuation mission involved military transport aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces," the ministry added.

According to the statement, Russian embassy personnel, Defense Ministry officials and their family members, Russian nationals and citizens of other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) nations and a number of friendly countries who had requested repatriation assistance, were evacuated from Sudan based on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision.

The Defense Ministry said earlier that the evacuation mission involved four Ilyushin Il-76 transport aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces.

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 country’s Health Ministry, several hundred people have been killed in the country since the conflict broke out.