Antony Blinken is having another of those oh, no, not again, kind of weeks as Sudan collapses in chaos. Blinky is making certain to get his diplomatic staff out first. Unfortunately stranded Americans and allies are advised to “shelter in place” and stand by for help. He hopes he can send it. Anyone daring to say the word “Saigon” where he can hear it is likely to get hit upside the head with a paperweight flung from across the room.
Blinken bugs out again
Antony Blinken informed the media that “all U.S. personnel and their families had been evacuated.” Beyond that, all operations at our Khartoum Embassy have been “temporarily suspended.”
According to a statement issued by the Sudanese army on Saturday, April 22, they’re “coordinating efforts to evacuate foreign citizens and diplomats.” They have military aircraft set aside for that “as the bloody fighting that has engulfed the vast African nation entered its second week.” Things remain tense, despite a temporary cease fire.
As related by chief General Abdel Fattah Burhan, he would personally “facilitate the evacuation of American, British, Chinese and French citizens and diplomats from Sudan.” He described phone calls with “the leaders of several countries that had requested help.”
Biden leaves Americans behind in Sudan but evacuates the American diplomats.
I can’t believe another US Embassy abandons Americans.
This is not the Foreign Service way….the State Department is better than this chaos. https://t.co/qvhw56IYU9
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) April 24, 2023
He’ll provide all the help he can, the general insists, knowing full well there’s not much he can do. Blinken notes the “widespread fighting” posed “an unacceptable risk to our Embassy personnel.” He also added that “suspending operations at one of our embassies is always a difficult decision, but the safety of our personnel is my first responsibility.” He learned that lesson in Kabul.
Meanwhile, “most major airports have become battlegrounds and movement out of the capital, Khartoum, has proven intensely dangerous.” General Burhan’s troops have been battling “a rival powerful paramilitary group.”
Violent conflict rages “in and around Khartoum.” Worse, it’s happening “in residential areas.” That has Blinky Blinken and his counterparts in allied nations struggling “to repatriate their citizens, many trapped in their homes as food supplies dwindle.”
No plans for American citizens
Antony Blinken made it crystal clear that after the diplomats are out, everyone else is on their own. He didn’t make that announcement himself. Neither did Joe Biden, who did read something his handlers shoved in front of him. The bad news came from the National Security Council.
On Friday, they formally admitted the Biden administration has “no plans for a government-coordinated evacuation of the estimated 16,000 American citizens trapped in Sudan.” Call Rent-a-Camel and hope for the best, they advise.
Prince Happy Cat, Mohammed bin Salman, sent a ship to rescue his citizens. Their officials announced “the successful repatriation of some of its citizens on Saturday.” Antony Blinken can only look at the twitter video and blink. They shared “footage of Saudi nationals and other foreigners welcomed with chocolate and flowers as they stepped off an apparent evacuation ship at the Saudi port of Jeddah.”
DEVELOPING: Americans stranded in Sudan with no evacuation plans by @JoeBiden. There are 16,000 Americans registered in Sudan, many others do not register. People contacting me to say their relatives and colleagues and pastors are stranded in Sudan. Saudi Arabia and others have… pic.twitter.com/CQwZxkuqmx
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) April 23, 2023
They aren’t giving many details but seem to have well prepared ahead of time, unlike our officials. “the Saudi diplomats and nationals had first traveled by land to Port Sudan, the country’s main seaport on the Red Sea.”
Meanwhile Blinken is laser focused on evacuating diplomats first but the Pentagon claims they are “moving additional troops and equipment to a Naval base in the tiny Gulf of Aden nation of Djibouti to prepare for the effort.”
Apparently, if the woke Pentagon wants to shake their booty out of there, they need Sheikh Djibouti to approve the paperwork. Both sides agreed to a “cease-fire for the three-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.” Even so, “explosions and gunfire rang out across Khartoum on Saturday.“
