The only people surprised that rival generals were marshaling forces to battle for supremacy in Sudan were the U.S. State Department and its Africa desk, Republican and Democratic senators alleged during a May 10 hearing on “options for an effective policy response” to the unfolding catastrophe.
As a result, senators said, when fighting exploded April 15 in Khartoum between the Sudanese army led by Gen. Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan and Gen. Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo, leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), there was confusion and delay in organizing evacuations of U.S. citizens.
The chaotic departures of more than 700 Americans on British, French, German, and Saudi aircraft in the days after the violence erupted and the April 28-29 departure of another 600 U.S. citizens in overland convoys to Egypt prompted several senators to reference another recent evacuation many say the Biden administration bungled….