The soldiers would be a part of the Pentagon’s plan to make the more than 500-mile land route between Khartoum and Port Sudan a feasible escape route for the thousands of Americans still in Sudan.
If necessary, the U.S. has many distinct plans in place. According to a U.S. official, one of those alternatives is deploying some American forces to Port Sudan, but a final choice has not yet been made.
According to National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, the U.S. military is already using surveillance drones close to the land route to spot possible dangers. Even though Kirby emphasized that it is “not safe right now for another evacuation attempt,” the Defense Department is seeking for ways for Americans to leave Sudan.
The Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, the two groups driving the killing, have agreed to a 72-hour truce that will begin at midnight, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. In order to “assist in the creation of a committee to oversee the negotiation, conclusion, and implementation of a permanent cessation of hostilities and humanitarian arrangements in Sudan,” Blinken stated, the U.S. is collaborating with allies and stakeholders.
The United States has sent “intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets to support land evacuation routes that Americans are using, and we’re moving naval assets within the region to provide support,” according to national security advisor Jake Sullivan on Monday. We are facilitating their further travel since American individuals have started to arrive in Port Sudan.
To assist Americans who go to Port Sudan, the Pentagon is sending ships to the area. One U.S. official claims that there is just one warship of the U.S. Navy present in the Red Sea right now.
“The idea here is to have these capabilities offshore available should we need, for example, to transport citizens to another location, should we need to provide medical care, should we need to do those kinds of things,” Defense Department spokesperson Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said on Monday.
The Military Sealift Command has a cargo ship sailing towards the Red Sea. U.S. officials said that although an evacuation strategy for Port Sudan is still being developed, hiring commercial boats to transport passengers to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia is the most probable outcome.
Over the weekend, around 87 individuals were evacuated from the American embassy in Khartoum by special forces from the United States, including the Navy’s elite SEAL Team Six. Over the course of a 17-hour operation, the soldiers flew 800 miles in helicopters from Djibouti to Khartoum and back.
North of Khartoum, at the Wadi Sayyidna airport, several nations have flown away their citizens.
On Monday, more people joined a convoy of trucks led by the United Nations to travel the nearly 525 miles from Khartoum to Port Sudan as evacuation attempts proceeded.
Numerous Americans were in the U.N. convoy, according to Kirby, who spoke to “CBS Mornings”.
The majority of American citizens in Sudan are dual nationals who have chosen to settle down and remain there, according to Blinken. “But for those who are seeking to leave, we’ll continue to engage directly with them, to see what we can do to — to help them, and as I said, with allies and partners as well to help facilitate their — their departure,” he added.
