As the United States and other Western nations evacuate their diplomatic staff and other nationals from Sudan, a small number of Israelis are still in the country, according to Israeli search and rescue organization Magnus International Search and Rescue.
“The Israelis in Sudan are safe,” Hilik Magnus, founder and chief rescue officer for the organization, told the Tazpit Press Service on Sunday.
“There are some Israelis, mainly working in agriculture,” he said. “In Khartoum there are problems, but there are no Israelis in Khartoum,” he confirmed to the news outlet.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry told JewishPress.com this weekend that they were unaware of any Israeli nationals present in Sudan.
US military personnel extracted dozens of staff members and a number of diplomatic professionals from other countries from the American embassy in Khartoum, following orders from President Joe Biden, as an attempted coup enters its second week, turning the streets of Sudan into a war zone.
In his statement, the president thanked Djibouti, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia, saying they were “critical to the success of our operation.” Ethiopia, which borders Sudan, enabled overflight by US aircraft in its airspace, and allowed them to refuel on its territory.
Slightly more than 100 special operations forces carried out the evacuation, led by US Africa Command in coordination with the State Department, according to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
“Widespread fighting . . . posed an unacceptable risk to our Embassy personnel,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. “Suspending operations at one of our embassies is always a difficult decision, but the safety of our personnel is my first responsibility.”
According to Undersecretary of State for Management John Bass, “We do not have any US government personnel remaining in Khartoum at this time,” but he added that the US does not “foresee coordinating a US government evacuation for our fellow citizens in Sudan at this time or in the coming days.”
As with the evacuation in Afghanistan, Sunday’s extraction did not include non-governmental Americans who were in the country.
President Biden said he was receiving “regular reports” on the “ongoing work to assist Americans in Sudan, to the extent possible.” State Department officials estimated there could be up to 16,000 American citizens still in Sudan, although a large number are dual nationals.
In the wake of Sunday’s extraction operation, the State Department upgraded its travel advisory for Sudan to Level 4: Do Not Travel.
“The US government cannot provide routine or emergency consular services to US citizens in Sudan,” the advisory warns.
Although the violence began with an attempted coup d’etat, the United States appears to be applying the same moral equivalency standard it uses with Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
“We remind both belligerents of their obligations under international humanitarian law, including obligations related to the protection of civilians,” Blinken said.
Israelis and other nations around the world are watching the situation in Sudan very closely, in part because the country has a long Mediterranean coastline. Forty percent of European imports pass through the Red Sea, in addition to 15 percent of all international oil shipping.
Moreover, Iran regularly smuggles its weapons to terrorists in Gaza through the Red Sea, unloading the cargo in Sudanese ports and then transporting the ordnance either via small boats directly to Hamas frogmen, or via overland routes to terrorist smuggler tunnels leading from the Sinai to Gaza.
“The region is the epicenter of radical Islam now, in a strip running from Mauritania to Sudan. If we can cooperate with Sudan to stymie the tide of young people joining terror organizations, that will reflect well on the rest of sub-Saharan Africa,” Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) director-general Dr. Yechiel Leiter explained to TPS.
Sudan signed the Abraham accords in January 2021 as part of an arrangement with the US to get itself removed from a list of countries designated as state sponsors of terror. Unlike the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, however, Sudan has not made any moves to normalize ties, such as exchanging embassies.
“The Sudanese public isn’t ready” for overt diplomatic ties with Israel, Leiter explained. “Making peace between countries has to trickle down to the street and they need for the street to agree. Not enough of the general public is on board.”
Although Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen traveled to Khartoum this past February, where he and his Sudanese counterpart completed the text of a normalization agreement to be signed when the government transitioned to a civilian democracy, the current conflict has placed that plan in doubt.
Nevertheless, Leiter said Khartoum has around 40 million people to feed and is in “desperate need” of Israeli agritech and assistance.
“Israel’s know-how in terms of sustainable greenhouse technology is critical to Sudan,” he said.
Tazpit Press Service (TPS) and Pesach Benson contributed to this report.
