Civilian deaths top 400 in Sudan fighting

More than 400 civilians have died in the fighting in Sudan, according to a group that monitors casualties in the country, as the battling continued over the weekend in the capital city.

The civilian death toll reached at least 411 over the weekend, according to Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate, which is monitoring deaths in the country. The intense fighting in Khartoum between the government and the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group that used to be aligned with the military, has reached its third week.

The civilian death toll continues to rise as the U.S. and other international partners work to control the fighting. A brief three-day ceasefire between the two sides last week failed to cool the tensions. The two groups, which joined forces for a military coup in 2021, now risk plunging the country into a civil war.

The U.S. has taken steps to protect its presence in the country, including suspending the U.S. embassy’s operations in Khartoum earlier this month. There are also an estimated 16,000 Americans living in Sudan, with the government pledging them support. The Biden administration launched its first mass evacuation effort for government employees and citizens in Sudan over the weekend.

An unmanned American aircraft watched over a convoy of buses that transported between 200 and 300 Americans over 500 miles to safety.

“The U.S. government has taken extensive efforts to contact U.S. citizens in Sudan and enable the departure of those who wished to leave,” a State Department spokesperson said in a release on Saturday. “We messaged every U.S. citizen in Sudan who communicated with us during the crisis and provided specific instructions about joining this convoy to those who were interested in departing via the land route.”