Thousands of Americans are still trying to flee Sudan after embassy staff were evacuated

For more than a week, the Sudanese capital Khartoum has been the scene of urban fighting – with gunfire in the city center and fighter jets thundering over apartment blocks.

A truce had been agreed for the weekend, but with no guarantee it would hold, US special forces launched a dangerous operation to evacuate the Americans.

Troops, including the Navy’s SEAL Team 6, left Camp Lemonnier, the US military base in Djibouti, on Saturday. After refueling in Ethiopia, they landed in the Sudanese capital late at night.

It took less than an hour on the ground Airlifted nearly 90 people from US premises before heading back to Djibouti at 185 km/h, protected by attack aircraft.

The United Nations evacuated aid workers along with other foreign nationals, including Americans, overland – a journey of more than 500 miles to the port of Sudan. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the US would help ease the rest of their trips.

“We have deployed US intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance assets to support land evacuation routes that Americans are using, and we are moving naval assets within the region to provide assistance,” he said.

But there are still hundreds of US citizens trapped in Sudan. Mohammed Ahmed was in the country for his father’s funeral and was trying to get a bus ticket to Egypt, his wife Jacee said.

“You know when he’s scared, he doesn’t show it,” she told CBS News. “There are times when he has to make me feel better. Then I feel bad. But he’s Sudan strong.”

For the citizens of Sudan affected by the violence, there is no possibility of a quick escape.

Rival generals are embroiled in a struggle for power that turns Khartoum into a personal battleground and sparks a humanitarian crisis amid fears of an ongoing civil war

There are currently no plans to send US peacekeepers to Sudan, and Sullivan said the US is not even considering putting American boots on the ground.