First, the Afghanistan embassy in Kabul was emptied in 2021. Now we have a second embassy evacuation under Biden’s watch, this time in Khartoum, Sudan.
On April 22, Earth Day, President Joe Biden ordered the evacuation of the Sudan Embassy as fighting between two rival Generals has elevated fighting to an unsafe level for embassy personnel.
The two warring factions are the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by two generals that were allies at one time but are now bitter enemies fighting for power in the region.
Jake Sullivan, Biden’s security advisor, tried to downplay the evacuation as something that happens “from time to time.”
U.S. special operations forces led the evacuation, but 13 Marine security guards stationed at the Khartoum embassy played a significant role in getting the evacuees out safely. Ironically 13 Marines were killed during the Afghanistan evacuation.
Marines Security guards assisted embassy evacuations in Kabul 2021 and in Kyiv, Ukraine. One Marine, Staff Sgt. Ryan San Juan was stationed in Afghanistan in 2021 and Ukraine in 2022 and took part in both evacuations.
The Khartoum Embassy Marines safely flew back to the United States from Khartoum, Sudan, after a layover in Ramstein Aire Base, Germany.
Fewer than 100 people had to be evacuated, including a small number of diplomatic personnel from other nations, along with U.S. personnel and dependents that were assigned to Khartoum
This evacuation has critics pointing to President Biden’s second foreign policy failure in his first term. When pressured by reporters charging Biden’s with failure, Sullivan once again downplayed and repudiated the word “charge” and said this event was “insignificant” to the numbers of embassy personnel serving around the world.
A week ago, a security alert was given by the U.S. Embassy alerting all Americans to “shelter in place” until the warning was lifted.
As with Afghanistan, the Sudanese army deemed it unsafe to try evacuating private US citizens.
John Bass, Management Ambassador on the ground during the Afghanistan withdrawal, confirmed that the Biden administration would not evacuate the remaining 16,000 private Americans in Sudan.
