US convoys assist over 700 people in Sudan: State Dept.

By Rabia Iclal Turan

WASHINGTON (AA) - The US on Monday announced that three US gov-led convoys had arrived in Port Sudan since Saturday, assisting over 700 individuals, their family members, and nationals from partner countries, according to State Department Deputy Spokesman Vedant Patel.

The US is working "tirelessly and around the clock" to ensure those who seek US assistance in Sudan aware of all options for evacuation, Patel said during a daily press briefing.

He said that the US evacuated approximately 1,000 people since the beginning of the violence in Sudan, he said, while the US has communicated to fewer than 500 American citizens so far.

Noting that parties in Sudan extended the 72-hour ceasefire, he called on the ceasefire to be "adhered", "respected" and to be "extended even further" so that the US can "continue to work towards a durable cessation of hostilities".

At least 528 people have been killed and more than 4,500 injured in fighting between two rival generals in Sudan – army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander Mohammed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo – since April 15, according to Sudan's Health Ministry.

A disagreement had been fomenting in recent months between the army and the paramilitary force regarding the RSF’s integration into the armed forces, a key condition of Sudan's transition agreement with political groups.

Sudan has been without a functioning government since October 2021, when the military dismissed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s transitional government and declared a state of emergency in a move decried by political forces as a “coup.”

Sudan’s transitional period, which started in August 2019 after the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir, was scheduled to end with elections in early 2024.