Second American dies in Sudan amid unrelenting battles despite cease-fire

The Biden administration on Wednesday confirmed a second American citizen was killed in Sudan amid an outbreak of heavy combat between competing military generals in the capital Khartoum.

A three-day, U.S.-brokered cease-fire has decreased fighting, National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby told reporters while confirming the death of the American. Kirby said President Biden has “asked for every conceivable option to help as many Americans as possible.”

Following the outbreak of fighting, the State Department last week estimated there are about 16,000 Americans, largely dual U.S. and Sudanese citizens, in the country — a number that is highly approximate given Americans are not obligated to register their travel or their location with U.S. missions abroad.

At least 500 American citizens had contacted the embassy as of last week, a congressional source told The Hill, with about 55 asking for direct U.S. assistance to leave Khartoum.

The Biden administration greenlighted a high-stakes evacuation of about 100 embassy staff from Sudan’s capital over the weekend, and Kirby said on Wednesday that the U.S. is “actively facilitating the departure of a relatively small number of Americans who have indicated to us that they want to leave.” 

Sudanese, American and other foreign nationals fleeing Khartoum, the center of the fighting between warring military factions of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces, are reported to be traveling by convoys from the capital to the Port of Sudan. 

Kirby said that U.S. “intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets” are stationed along the land evacuation route and are moving naval assets in the region to help U.S. and other civilians exit the country. 

While fighting has continued following the implementation of the cease-fire, which took effect Monday at midnight local time, combat has decreased, Kirby said, adding the U.S. is in direct contact with both heads of the warring parties.

“We urge both military factions to fully uphold the cease-fire and to further extend it. We’ve said this many, many times, but the violence is simply unconscionable, and it must stop,” Kirby said. 

The intense military conflict broke out nearly two weeks prior, between Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of Sudan’s Armed Forces, and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, who has control of the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces.

The heavy combat — including airstrikes, shelling and gun battles in the street — has paralyzed the capital city, killing hundreds, wounding thousands and plunging it into a humanitarian crisis by threatening access to water, electricity, internet, food, medicine and health care.

The fighting between Burhan and Hemedti has highlighted the failure of years of U.S. and regional diplomacy to help realize Sudanese ambitions to transition to a democratic, civilian government. 

Burhan seized power of the country in 2021 in a military coup and that suppressed a transitional, civilian-military government in place since a grassroots revolution ousted longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir from power in early 2019.