Beijing: According to the Beijing defence ministry on Thursday, China has sent its navy to Sudan to rescue citizens from the country's ongoing conflict.
As a result of fighting between the army and paramilitaries in Sudan, which has resulted in hundreds of deaths and severe shortages of water, food, medicine, and fuel, numerous nations have rushed to evacuate embassy staff and citizens by land, air, and sea.
As of Tuesday, there will be a 72-hour cease-fire, rescue efforts have stepped up recently. According to Tan Kefei, a spokesman for the Chinese defence ministry, "the security situation in Sudan has recently continued to deteriorate.
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He continued, "In order to protect the lives and property of Chinese people in Sudan, the navy was deployed on Wednesday."
China announced on Monday that a first batch of its citizens had been safely evacuated. It estimated that 1,500 of its citizens were in Sudan.
Tan did not state how many vessels were involved. China claims to be Sudan's largest trading partner, and as of mid-2022, more than 130 companies had invested there.
800 Chinese nationals will be transported from Sudan by sea between April 25 and 27, according to Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry. She continued by saying that more than 300 other people had entered Sudan's neighbouring countries via land.
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According to the Sudanese health ministry, the fighting has left more than 4,000 people injured, at least 512 dead, and some areas of greater Khartoum in ruins.
According to UN agencies, civilians from Sudan are "fleeing areas affected by fighting, including to Chad, Egypt, and South Sudan."
Many foreigners have been airlifted out of smaller airstrips because the international airport in the capital Khartoum has been rendered inoperable due to battles that have damaged numerous aircraft.
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Other evacuations were also occurring in Port Sudan, which is located 850 kilometres away from Khartoum. According to a tweet from the foreign ministry on Thursday, an Indonesian military plane transported 110 Indonesian citizens on Wednesday from Port Sudan to the Saudi city of Jeddah. As a result, 667 Indonesians have now been evacuated from Sudan since hostilities began.