WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has dispatched two Navy ships to Sudan’s eastern coast to facilitate the evacuation of US citizens who have already reached Port Sudan, top officials said Monday.
The USS Truxtun, an Arleigh-Burke class destroyer, has arrived off Port Sudan, while the floating base USS Puller remained en route, Pentagon Press Secretary USAF Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters on Monday afternoon.
The United States evacuated nearly 70 personnel from its embassy in Khartoum on Saturday night. An estimated 16,000 US citizens remain in Sudan, though US officials said relatively few Americans are looking to leave the country.
Why it matters: The two vessels will remain off Sudan’s coast awaiting further orders from Washington for evacuation assistance, Ryder said.
“The idea here is to have these capabilities offshore, available should we need, for example, to transport citizens to another location, [or] should we need to provide medical care,” he said.
Earlier on Monday, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby advised US citizens in Sudan to shelter in place amid rampant fighting between rival factions that threatens to plunge the country into civil war.
US special operations forces launched a daring evacuation of US Embassy personnel from Khartoum on Saturday night, but officials say that a general evacuation of American citizens from Sudan remains unfeasible in the coming days given the risks.
Still, the Pentagon continues to plan for ways to facilitate further evacuation efforts should they be ordered, Ryder said.
What’s next: “We are still looking at options,” Kirby said during an interview with MSNBC earlier on Monday. “We’ve got military assets still in the region should they be needed, but this is not the time to be conducting some sort of mass operation.”
Dozens of Americans were included in a UN-led convoy that headed to Port Sudan under the watchful gaze of US unmanned drones and other aerial reconnaissance, officials said Monday.
The US Navy ships off Port Sudan are there to facilitate the potential evacuation of those Americans who have already arrived.
US Africa Command (AFRICOM) based in Stuttgart is helping to coordinate the logistics efforts of various governments seeking to evacuate their personnel from Sudan, officials said.
High-power optics: US officials said the Pentagon’s choice of military hardware deployed to Sudan was determined by the urgency of the moment and what ships were available nearby, rather than any overt messaging.
“I would look at it less as a destroyer and more as a … ship that comes with it a variety of capabilities, to include transport,” Ryder told reporters.
The United States and Russia have been in quiet competition for access to Port Sudan since rival generals Abdul Fattah al-Burhan and Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo — known as Hemedti — led the overthrow of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019.
In 2021, the US Navy deployed the destroyer USS Winston Churchill to Port Sudan just a day after a Russian frigate arrived there. Just a week prior, the US Navy support ship Carson City transport ship became the first US vessel to dock in Sudan in decades.
