Russia’s armed forces said on Tuesday they were evacuating more than 200 people from Sudan on four military transport planes.
The defence ministry said in a statement the evacuees
included diplomats, military personnel and other Russian nationals as well as
citizens of “countries of the former Soviet Union and other friendly countries
who asked for help”.
The fighting in Sudan has killed more than 500 people,
displaced tens of thousands and triggered an exodus of foreigners and
international staff.
The conflict is between the forces of army general Abdel
Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who heads
the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
Moscow and Khartoum have historically good relations.
Russia supplied weapons to Sudan during the three-decade-long
rule of former president Omar al-Bashir, especially after the United Nations
imposed sanctions on the country in 2005 over the Darfur conflict.
After the fall of al-Bashir in 2019, relations between Sudan
and Russia became more distant but strengthened again following a military coup
in 2021.
Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group has been in Sudan for
years and helps guard the country’s gold mines.