Embassies are gradually evacuating foreign nationals present in Sudan. After the Western countries this weekend, China announced in turn the evacuation of its nationals this Monday, April 24th.
Chinese diplomacy has evacuated an undisclosed number of individuals to undisclosed destinations. Beijing has confirmed that an initial group of individuals has been safely evacuated with the aid of an assistance team that was dispatched to the location to expedite the process.
Since the start of the conflict, the Chinese authorities “have been extremely concerned about the safety of Chinese citizens” and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent an assistance team to the scene, Mao Ning, a ministry spokeswoman, told the press. Chinese Foreign. The Chinese government can rely on its military base in Djibouti to steer operations, which reminds us of researcher Jean-Pierre Cabestan. “What they could do is to send a frigate to Port Sudan, that would be the easiest, as Saudi Arabia has done in a way, evacuating several people from Port Sudan. But the problem is leaving Khartoum. Once you have left Khartoum, it is easy to leave the country, either by Egypt, by sea, or possibly by Ethiopia, but it may be more complicated. »
China remains the first trading partner of Sudan, a country rich in minerals, with a volume of 2.5 billion dollars traded in 2021. Investments from China began in 1996. They have revived again in June 2022, with the opening of the first direct maritime line between Port-Sudan and Qingdao on the Chinese east coast.
More than 130 Chinese companies are based there, according to the website of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They operate in particular in the field of hydrocarbons and major public works sites. There were some 1,500 Chinese nationals in the country before the conflict began, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Many ex-pats returned to China due to the violence two years ago.