More than 1,000 European citizens have already been evacuated from Sudan in a “complex” but “successful” operation initiated over the weekend by several countries of the European Unionreported the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell.

“It was a long and intense weekend trying to get our people out of Sudan. It was a complex operation, a successful operation,” Borrell told reporters upon arriving at the Community Council of Foreign Ministers.

The Spanish politician confirmed that more than 1,000 EU citizens have already been able to leave the African country, without specifying “precise figures”, out of the approximately 1,500 who were there at the start of the fighting which broke out on the 15th between the national army and the paramilitaries, and which have already caused at least 400 deaths and more than 4,000 injuries.

Borrell He pointed out that 21 staff members of the EU delegation in the country are already in European territory, while the head of this mission remains in Sudan but has left Khartoum.

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The High Representative expressed special thanks to France for its work in the evacuation operation and to the countries that have combined their efforts to make it possible.

Borrell said he was in contact with the two opposing generals, from Sudanese Army and Rapid Support Forces (FAR) paramilitary groupand assured that “now that the ceasefire is over, we must continue to push for a political agreement”.

“We cannot allow Sudan, which is a very populous country, to implode because it will send shock waves throughout Africa,” he added.

Borrell said the message from the international community is the same“We must stop the war, silence the guns and start looking for a political solution because there is no military solution to this,” he commented.

“Our people had to come out because they were in the middle of a war, some of them were injured. It is impossible to continue working as a diplomat,” he said.

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Spain evacuated around 30 Spaniards and 70 other European and Latin American citizens from Khartoum on Sunday.

France says it has already evacuated 388 people, mainly French citizens but also from Germany, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Romania , United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland.

The French device was also used to evacuate citizens from South Africa, Burundi, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Morocco, Namibia, Uganda, Rwanda, the United States, Canada, Japan, from India and the Philippines.

Italy, for its part, expelled 105 of its citizens and 31 foreigners from Sudan.

“We need to calm the waters, but the situation is not easy,” Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said as he arrived at the council today.

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