Sudanese Army Says Not Controlling Airport In Countrys Capital

The Sudanese armed forces control all airports in the country, except for the Khartoum International Airport and the Nyala Airport in South Darfur, Abdel Fattah Burhan, the head of the Sudanese military, said on Saturday.

On Saturday, the Sudanese armed forces said that the process of evacuating the diplomatic missions of those countries that had requested it from Sudan would begin in the coming hours. The United States, the United Kingdom, France, and China will evacuate their diplomats and citizens on military transport planes from Khartoum, the military added. At the same time, the media reported that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group agreed on Friday to partially open all of Sudan's airports to allow other countries to evacuate their nationals.

"(All airports are under) the army's control except the airports of (the capital) Khartoum and Nyala," Burhan told the Al Arabiya broadcaster.

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 None of the diplomatic missions has been able to evacuate from Sudan, Russian Ambassador to Sudan Andrey Chernovol told TASS on Saturday.

"Other countries announce it (their readiness to evacuate from Sudan - TASS). Nevertheless, as far as I know, not a single mission has managed to evacuate their staff members from Khartoum, and in general, from Sudan. Some of them have gone as far as Port Sudan, but we do not yet have such an opportunity," he said.

Chernovol added that Russia has made lists for evacuation from Sudan and will also evacuate citizens of CIS countries. "We have draft lists for evacuation. Should such evacuations take place, we, as usual, will be evacuating citizens of CIS countries along with our citizens, as their lists are also being made," he said.

Chernovol also noted that Russia is ready to evacuate Russian nationals from Sudan, but it is still impossible. "It is not yet possible to talk about crossing the engagement lines between the parties. And without it, any talk of evacuation makes no sense," he said.

"However, we are ready for evacuation. As soon as such a chance turns up, we will carry that out unless the situation in the Sudanese capital changes drastically for the better before that," Chernovol stressed.