05/05/2023 23:17 (act. 05/05/2023 23:20)
Another Austrian was evacuated from Sudan as part of an EU action. This was confirmed by the APA’s Vienna Foreign Ministry on Friday night, upon request. Thus, the Austrian managed to leave the country “on a Spanish ship.” “A handful of Austrian citizens who are not willing to leave the country” are still registered with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as their place of residence in Sudan.
According to a spokesman for the European External Action Service (EEAS), a total of 162 EU nationals were taken to safety on the Spanish military ship. Italian news agency ANSA reported that they are citizens of Italy, France, Germany, Sweden and Austria. So far, a total of 2,500 EU and non-EU nationals have been evacuated from the country through joint European actions. As of late April, around 50 Austrians abroad were reportedly evacuated, about half of them children. The evacuation took place with Dutch and German aircraft.
Meanwhile, the Sudanese army says it has sent negotiators to Saudi Arabia to negotiate a ceasefire. The envoys would meet in Jeddah to “discuss the details of the ceasefire”, which has been extended several times but never maintained, the army said on Friday. The RSF militia commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, which fights the country’s regular army, initially declined to comment on the statement.
A Saudi diplomat said representatives from Britain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States would also attend talks in Jeddah on Saturday.
The UN envoy for Sudan, Volker Perthes, said days ago that both warring parties were ready to negotiate a ceasefire and pointed to Saudi Arabia as a possible location for talks.
In Sudan, army units under the command of military ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan have been fighting the RSF militia for more than two weeks. According to official figures, more than 500 people have been killed in the fighting. According to the UN, hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee.
The warring parties have already agreed to several ceasefires, which have been repeatedly broken. On Friday, eyewitnesses again reported airstrikes and explosions in Khartoum, including near the airport.