This morning,
the US has
no embassy operating in Sudan, a country
on the brink of civil war.
President Biden announcing
that US diplomatic personnel
and their families
have been evacuated from Sudan.
Secretary of State
Antony Blinken adding that operations
at the US
Embassy in Khartoum
have been temporarily suspended.
CNN's
Sam Kiley is reporting on the situation
from Djibouti for us.
And Sam, how was the extraction of U.S.
personnel carried out?
And our officials
saying why it was necessary
Well, let's start with why
it was necessary
that, Christine, you say that
Sudan is on the brink of civil war.
I think from the American
and International perspective.
It is a country in the throes
of a very violent, actual civil war.
There are, for example,
Sudanese jets bombarding positions inside
their own capital.
And it's that level of violence
that provoked
not just the United States,
but an
enormous international military effort
centered here in Djibouti or out of here
in Djibouti, mainly
to try to get international aid workers
and other people, students
and all kinds of internationals
out of that country.
Now, when it comes to the United States.
They were in the vanguard
of the evacuation operations
that began over the weekend
with a very daring raid
effectively by some 100 Americans, mostly
special forces involving three Chinook
helicopters that took off from here
in Djibouti,
flew via Ethiopia,
where they refueled in Addis Ababa
and then flew very low and slow.
They're not that fast.
Aircraft at about 100 miles an hour
all the way to the Sudanese capital
itself, the scene of violence
where a cease fire
around the idea for their
celebrations for
the end of
Ramadan were not being observed in
any serious way.
They were able to pluck out
just under 100 people, mostly
embassy staffers
plus their families
and a few internationals
who were co-located with them
and take them out of out
to safety initially.
In Ethiopia,
on the back of that,
an hour
or two later, British
special forces were on the ground.
They had anticipated or planned
for the worst eventuality,
which was having to fight
and protect British citizens and others,
that they didn't have to do that.
But they did have to do an 18 mile
30 kilometer road move to a desert
airstrip where they were able
to evacuate people alongside the French,
who were also engaged,
reportedly in some kind of brief clash,
or at least that is reported
to have been minor injuries,
perhaps on one person
being evacuated there.
Now the international effort
is getting underway
there is extreme
violence continuing in Khartoum, the
the central prison there.
That includes large number of
senior members of previous administration
have been let out
real concerns
that the place is collapsing
into violent anarchy
and more evacuations would be necessary.
A battle
for power in Sudan
at the heart of the conflict
are these two men
that are up on your screen
right there,
Sudan's military leader, Abdel
Fattah Al-burhan,
and the commander of the paramilitary
rapid support
forces are Asaf Mohammed Hamdan, Dagalo.
Now, until recently, they were allies.
They worked together
to topple Sudan's former dictator.
President Omar
al-Bashir in 2019
and played a crucial role
in orchestrating
the country's military coup in 2021.
But tensions arose over
how to integrate the RCF
into the country's military
as part of plans
to restore civilian rule.
So the key question here is
who would be subordinate to whom
under this new hierarchy will.
Sources tell CNN that these hostilities
are the culmination
of what
both parties view
as an existential fight for dominance.
So that is how we got here.
So joining us now,
the White House is National
Security Council spokesperson spokesman
and that is Mr.
John Kirby.
John, thank you so much for joining us.
I appreciate it.
So you heard Sam Kiley
there on the ground.
The US was able
to successfully get diplomats out
calling it fast and clean.
Why not do the same sort of operation
with citizens?
Can the US carry out
a large scale operation
like that for citizens?
Well,
we have military
forces still pre-positioned
nearby in the region, Don,
if they're needed.
But quite frankly,
the situation is not conducive
and not safe to try to conduct
some kind of a larger
military evacuation of American citizens.
You saw from yourself,
from Sam's reporting,
actually the violence is increasing
is more dangerous today
than it was just yesterday,
the day before.
And so the best advice
we can give to those Americans
who did not abide by our warnings
to leave
Sudan and not to travel to Sudan
is to stay sheltered in place,
stay safe
and secure
and off the streets of Khartoum.
We are doing what we can
to help guide people who can move out
to get out
to potentially like land convoys
that are moving.
In fact,
there are several dozen Americans
that we know of that are in a U.N.
led convoy
that's making its way to Port Sudan
over ground on.
In fact, the U.S.
military is flying
unmanned aerial assets over that convoy
so that we can maintain
some sort of situational awareness
in overwatch for them
to help protect them
as they make their way to Port Sudan.
We're also
deploying naval assets
to Port Sudan in the Red Sea
in case Americans
to get out to Port Sudan
want to be be transported
elsewhere or need any kind of care.
All right. That's in case on their own.
But I just have to ask you, because,
you know, this vast and clean mission,
you're saying that it's dangerous.
And we did hear it's dangerous
and Sam's reporting.
But Sudan's
military chief
said on Saturday morning,
John,
that his troops would help
evacuate US diplomats and citizens.
He said, and citizens.
But the US embassy said
that it was too dangerous.
Do you think that there was
a missed opportunity
to get private citizens, US citizens out?
No, sir.
In fact,
we are doing everything
we can to help guide them.
If there is a safe way to get out,
we're helping
guide them and give them information
we're in touch
with hundreds of American citizens
that are there who want
who may want to leave.
It's up to them,
of course, to decide to do that.
We're doing the best
we can to give them
the information
that they need, that
they can rely on, and to do so safely.
But honestly,
the fighting in Khartoum is not
in a situation
where we would want people
moving about to freely or to aggressively
right now.
The safest thing for many Americans to do
who didn't get out
when they were warned to get out
is to stay safe right now.
And let's
see if the situation can improve
in the meantime, Don.
And I know I'm running on here,
but we are working closely
with both military factions
and these leaders.
Now, General Hamidi,
General Beran,
to get them to put down their arms
and abide by a cease fire,
they both say they want
so that the conditions can be more safe.
Okay.
So you said
you were in touch with hundreds,
but there are
about 16,000 or so people
who have to get out of this country.
Are you able to
you're not able to get in touch
with all of them? Right.
Well, Don,
I want to push back on this idea
that there are 16,000 Americans
who want to get out.
We don't have firm
estimates of the exact number
of Americans citizens who are in Sudan.
They don't have to register with us.
They don't have to tell us
that they're there.
We think the vast majority
of these are American citizens in Sudan
and they're not all in Khartoum.
Are dual nationals.
These are people who grew up in Sudan,
who have families, their work,
their businesses there,
who don't want to leave.
So I think we need to be careful
about that number.
There's a much smaller population
of American citizens
who don't work for the government
but work
who with partner agencies
like the American School
or Fulbright Scholar program
that we are in touch with.
And we're trying to get them
the best information we can to get out.
And as I said, several dozen,
we know today are in that U.N.
convoy heading to Port Sudan. Okay.
So we talked about how dangerous it is.
Is a US in contact
with either of these leaders
of these factions that are fighting?
Yes.
And there are efforts
and there are efforts by the US
to de-escalate or mediate.
100%, Don,
we've been in touch with them
almost every day
since the beginning of this crisis.
The fighting really started a week ago
Saturday.
We've been in direct
touch with them at various levels, Don,
not just
not just at the State Department.
But even our senior military
leaders have been in touch with them
because these are two military men
to try to get them to, again,
abide by the cease fire
they both say they want.
What about the president
telling them to stop
We have been communicating
with both leaders again
at very various levels
and we'll continue to do that.
Is there anything that can be done
to target the leaders to get them
to stop the fighting
like sanctions,
targeting their wealth, etc.?
We have a lot of tools at our disposal
and we're sort of working our way
through that right now.
But again,
the focus is making sure
that we get the cease fire in place,
we get the violence to stop,
we get the tensions de-escalated
so that you can, again,
have those kinds of conversations
going forward.
I don't want to get ahead of decisions
we haven't made yet.
Our focus is really getting
the violence down
and helping
get those people who want to leave Sudan
to be able to do so safely
and provide them
the best options and
information to do that.