At 3am on April 24th, nine days into the street warfare that had rocked the Sudanese capital, Elizabeth Boughey was woken up by a colleague. A British schoolteacher at the American School of Khartoum, she had been forced to flee to a hotel in the centre of the city after civil war broke out on April 15th. “Bullets came through the walls of our apartment, through the glass,” Boughey told me later. She and her fellow teachers were looking in desperation for a way out of the country. The British and American governments had airlifted out diplomats the day before, leaving others to fend for themselves. Now, her colleague told her, the French were offering the teachers what seemed like a last chance of a safe passage out. But they would need to make a dangerous dash to the French embassy.
Boughey drove a carload of teachers down little-used side roads, avoiding the main drag of Africa Street. They hung a white T-shirt from the window and hoped not to encounter snipers. “You’re just driving across glass and bullet shells and huge power cables on the ground,” she said. Several times they were stopped by militiamen manning roadblocks. Usually the drive would have taken them ten minutes; this time it took a nerve-racking three-quarters of an hour. After nightfall the teachers boarded a convoy of buses which French military vehicles escorted to an airstrip. In the early hours of Tuesday, Boughey made it onto a French military plane bound for Djibouti. She told me about her escape a few days later, while sitting in a friend’s house in the north-east of England: “The French did everything.”
**The French were offering the teachers what seemed like a last chance at safe passage out. But they would need to make a dangerous dash to the French embassy**
Boughey’s escape from Sudan was the culmination of a week of plotting by the French government to get foreigners out of the country – regardless of their nationality. Rwandans, Ugandans, Ethiopians and citizens of many other African countries, as well as Europeans and Americans, escaped with France’s help. The crucial early steps that France took – including taking control of the airstrip – enabled allies, including the British, Germans, Spanish and Turks, to conduct their own airlifts. The French led an extraordinarily effective evacuation effort at a time when other countries seemed to be scrambling. French officials spoke to The Economist’s 1843 magazine about the high-risk, secret operation, revealing the hour-by-hour details of how they did it.
The war began on April 15th when fighting broke out between two armies in Khartoum: government forces under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (rsf) loyal to Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo (a warlord who is also known as Hemedti). By lunchtime that day, diplomats at the Quai d’Orsay, which houses the French foreign service on the left bank of the Seine, were meeting at the Crisis and Support Centre, a unit that deals with emergencies.
Conditions in Khartoum were deteriorating rapidly. Water and food supplies were running short. Power was down. The sound of gunfire and shelling echoed throughout the city; Hemedti’s paramilitary forces had burst into homes and hospitals and turned them into fortresses. By Monday April 17th President Emmanuel Macron started planning for a possible evacuation. The next day the French embassy began contacting French civilians in the city, urging them to head for one of three designated meeting points as soon as possible.
Late in the night on Tuesday April 18th, four military transport aircraft – three A400Ms and one C-130 – left France for Djibouti, where the French keep a permanent military base. Among those on board were French special forces, who would be first on the ground in the event of an evacuation. Once on the base, pilots and commandos pored over maps and satellite images of Khartoum, as well as intelligence reports.
Mean people will say that France is great at running away.
I will say that France is great at saving people.
Good job France!
Amazing job, thank you France (edit: and to the soldiers wounded helping people escape)
Interesting… meanwhile the average European :
“Long live NATO ! and be the colonialist cheese eating surrender monkey french and their neo-colonial european army be damn once and for all…”
France seem to have greater chance taking over the Uk for the 2066 anniversary, than make her point go through among the continentals.
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At 3am on April 24th, nine days into the street warfare that had rocked the Sudanese capital, Elizabeth Boughey was woken up by a colleague. A British schoolteacher at the American School of Khartoum, she had been forced to flee to a hotel in the centre of the city after civil war broke out on April 15th. “Bullets came through the walls of our apartment, through the glass,” Boughey told me later. She and her fellow teachers were looking in desperation for a way out of the country. The British and American governments had airlifted out diplomats the day before, leaving others to fend for themselves. Now, her colleague told her, the French were offering the teachers what seemed like a last chance of a safe passage out. But they would need to make a dangerous dash to the French embassy.
Boughey drove a carload of teachers down little-used side roads, avoiding the main drag of Africa Street. They hung a white T-shirt from the window and hoped not to encounter snipers. “You’re just driving across glass and bullet shells and huge power cables on the ground,” she said. Several times they were stopped by militiamen manning roadblocks. Usually the drive would have taken them ten minutes; this time it took a nerve-racking three-quarters of an hour. After nightfall the teachers boarded a convoy of buses which French military vehicles escorted to an airstrip. In the early hours of Tuesday, Boughey made it onto a French military plane bound for Djibouti. She told me about her escape a few days later, while sitting in a friend’s house in the north-east of England: “The French did everything.”
**The French were offering the teachers what seemed like a last chance at safe passage out. But they would need to make a dangerous dash to the French embassy**
Boughey’s escape from Sudan was the culmination of a week of plotting by the French government to get foreigners out of the country – regardless of their nationality. Rwandans, Ugandans, Ethiopians and citizens of many other African countries, as well as Europeans and Americans, escaped with France’s help. The crucial early steps that France took – including taking control of the airstrip – enabled allies, including the British, Germans, Spanish and Turks, to conduct their own airlifts. The French led an extraordinarily effective evacuation effort at a time when other countries seemed to be scrambling. French officials spoke to The Economist’s 1843 magazine about the high-risk, secret operation, revealing the hour-by-hour details of how they did it.
The war began on April 15th when fighting broke out between two armies in Khartoum: government forces under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (rsf) loyal to Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo (a warlord who is also known as Hemedti). By lunchtime that day, diplomats at the Quai d’Orsay, which houses the French foreign service on the left bank of the Seine, were meeting at the Crisis and Support Centre, a unit that deals with emergencies.
Conditions in Khartoum were deteriorating rapidly. Water and food supplies were running short. Power was down. The sound of gunfire and shelling echoed throughout the city; Hemedti’s paramilitary forces had burst into homes and hospitals and turned them into fortresses. By Monday April 17th President Emmanuel Macron started planning for a possible evacuation. The next day the French embassy began contacting French civilians in the city, urging them to head for one of three designated meeting points as soon as possible.
Late in the night on Tuesday April 18th, four military transport aircraft – three A400Ms and one C-130 – left France for Djibouti, where the French keep a permanent military base. Among those on board were French special forces, who would be first on the ground in the event of an evacuation. Once on the base, pilots and commandos pored over maps and satellite images of Khartoum, as well as intelligence reports.
Mean people will say that France is great at running away.
I will say that France is great at saving people.
Good job France!
Amazing job, thank you France (edit: and to the soldiers wounded helping people escape)
Interesting… meanwhile the average European :
“Long live NATO ! and be the colonialist cheese eating surrender monkey french and their neo-colonial european army be damn once and for all…”
France seem to have greater chance taking over the Uk for the 2066 anniversary, than make her point go through among the continentals.
Good on France