Some foreign nationals began evacuating from a Red Sea port in Sudan on Saturday, even as airstrikes again rocked the capital, Khartoum, after a week of fighting between rival commanders that has killed hundreds of civilians across the country.
Canadian citizens are reported to be among those who have escaped Sudan to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said its Royal Navy forces carried out an evacuation operation, transporting 91 citizens and 66 people from “brotherly and friendly” countries — including Canadians — from the Port of Sudan, on the Red Sea coast, to Jeddah.
The statement, posted on social media, did not say how many Canadian passport holders may have been on board the flight. CBC News has reached out to Global Affairs Canada for confirmation.
The Canadian government is also preparing for the possibility of removing embassy staff from the country.
Citizens of Saudi Arabia and people from other countries are welcomed by Saudi Royal Navy officials as they arrive in the port city of Jeddah after being evacuated from Sudan on Saturday. (Saudi Press Agency/Handout/Reuters)
Department of National Defence (DND) spokesperson Caroline Elie said Global Affairs Canada asked the Canadian Armed Forces to “provide military expertise and advice” and to help develop support options for Canadian-based staff at the embassy in Khartoum.
“Specifically, this includes planning in the event the situation permits the evacuation of Canadian Embassy staff,” she said in an email to CBC News.
Elie said a Canadian Armed Forces strategic advisory team and military liaison officers are deploying to the region to connect with other partner nations considering diplomatic evacuation operations.
But she said DND could not release further details at this time and “won’t speculate about potential operations in order to protect the security of those in the region.”
In a Friday night statement, Canada’s foreign affairs and national defence ministers said they were “actively monitoring the situation in Sudan.”
“In response to recent developments, Canada has deployed members of Global Affairs Canada’s Standing Rapid Deployment Team to Djibouti to enhance our ability to support and to further assess the needs on the ground,” Mélanie Joly and Anita Anand said in the joint statement.
The Canadian Embassy in Khartoum has temporarily suspended in-person operations. Canadians in need of emergency assistance are encouraged to call Global Affairs Canada’s emergency response centre.
Foreign minister says evacuations from Sudan are ‘impossible’ right now
Foreign Minister Melanie Joly says her office is keeping a close eye on the situation on the ground but evacuations are not possible right now because the airport is closed and the streets are unsafe.
Trapped inside for days
There are nearly 1,600 Canadians who are registered as being in Sudan, according to Global Affairs Canada, though registration is voluntary and the number of Canadian citizens and permanent residents in the country may be higher.
Canadians remaining in Sudan have been advised to shelter in place and to stay away from windows and keep doors locked at all times, as well as to keep phones charged and ensure passports and travel documents are secure.
Saydah Mustafa, a Sudanese Canadian medical student studying in Khartoum, told CBC News that she and her sister have been trapped in their home for the past week. She said fighting broke out shortly after she returned home from an exam and she hasn’t been able to leave since.
“We’ve kind of just been living off of what my parents [who are in Saudi Arabia] bought us. Thankfully, a few days before that, my parents sent us a care package that included all kinds of basic packaged foods [and] canned foods that we’re living off of,” she said, adding they may have enough to last another week or two at most.
Canadian student trapped in Sudan still waiting for federal support amid bombings
Saydah Mustafa is a medical student trapped inside her family home in Sudan since the fighting broke out. She says connecting to Canadian officials directly about advice or evacuation efforts has been impossible.
Mustafa said the situation is traumatizing and that she and her sister have stayed sheltered in parts of the home away from windows, but it’s impossible to avoid the sounds of gunfire, fighter jets and airstrikes.
“The building shakes whenever a bomb goes off nearby,” she said.
Mustafa said she began reaching out for Canadian consular support within the first few days of the fighting, but officials have not provided any advice on leaving the country because services are limited and the airports are closed.
Sudanese army to assist foreign evacuations
Foreign countries have struggled to repatriate their citizens as the bloody onslaught of urban warfare has trapped large numbers in the Sudanese capital. Khartoum’s airport has been repeatedly targeted, and many residents have been unable to leave their homes or get out of the city to safer areas.
Battles between the Sudanese army and rival paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have raged in and around Khartoum, an throughout the country, since April 15.
Sudan’s army said on Saturday that it was helping to evacuate foreign nationals from the country, even as its forces battled paramilitary rivals in Khartoum, including with airstrikes.
A satellite image shows destroyed airplanes at Khartoum International Airport on April 17. ( Courtesy of Maxar Technologies/Handout/Reuters)
The statement citing army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan came after promises by RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, to open airports for evacuations.
Burhan “agreed to provide the necessary assistance to secure such evacuations for various countries,” the military said.
The RSF said it was ready to partially open all airports to allow evacuations. However, Khartoum’s international airport has been caught in fighting, and the status of other airports or RSF’s control over them is unclear.
The Current16:34Fears of a civil war spread in Sudan
Sudan’s capital Khartoum erupted in violence this weekend. We discuss spreading fears of a civil war with Dr. Alaaeldin Nogoud, a surgeon who lives and works in Khartoum; and Khalid Medani, the chair of African studies and an associate professor of political science at McGill.
Fighting continues despite holiday truce
The army and the paramilitary RSF had both issued statements saying they would uphold a three-day ceasefire from Friday for Islam’s Eid al-Fitr holiday.
But sounds of fighting continued overnight, although they appeared less intense on Saturday morning than on the previous day, a Reuters journalist in Khartoum said. Live broadcasts by regional news channels showed rising smoke and the thud of blasts.
International efforts to quell the violence have focused on the ceasefire, with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling on them to honour the truce.
Joly, Canada’s foreign affairs minister, said in a Twitter post on Saturday that she had been in contact with her Kenyan counterpart to discuss support for regional efforts to resolve the situation.
I spoke with my Kenyan counterpart, Cabinet Secretary <a href=”https://twitter.com/DrAlfredMutua?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@DrAlfredMutua</a>, to discuss the crisis in Sudan. <br><br>Canada is ready to support regional efforts to resolve the conflict and we welcome Kenya’s leadership in working to facilitate mediation.
The violence was triggered by disagreement over an internationally backed plan to form a new civilian government four years after the fall of autocrat Omar al-Bashir and two years after the military coup.
Burhan and Hemedti had held the top two positions on a ruling council overseeing a political transition after the coup that was meant to include a move to civilian rule and the RSF’s merger into the army. Both sides accuse the other of thwarting the transition.
The World Health Organization reported on Friday that 413 people had been killed and 3,551 injured since fighting broke out. The death toll includes at least five aid workers in a country reliant on food aid.
Hospitals hit
The Sudanese doctors union said early on Saturday that more than two-thirds of hospitals in conflict areas were out of service, with 32 forcibly evacuated by soldiers or caught in crossfire.
Some of the remaining hospitals, which lack adequate water, staff and electricity, were providing only first aid. People posted urgent requests on social media for medical assistance, transport to hospital and prescription medication.
Doctors Without Borders appealed for safe passage to supply hospitals and allow medical staff to work freely.
Smoke fills the sky in Khartoum, near Doha International Hospital, on Friday. Gunfire continues across Sudan’s capital. (Maheen S./The Associated Press)
Thousands of Sudanese flee to Chad
The head of the United Nations World Food Program in neighbouring Chad said it expects to see more refugees fleeing across the border from Sudan to escape the fighting in Darfur, where some of the worst violence has been reported outside Khartoum.
About 10,000 to 20,000 Sudanese have already crossed the border into Chad a week after the fighting began in Khartoum and other areas of the country.
“The World Food Program is going to prepare to welcome at least 100,000. It is probable that there could be more, so we have to be ready,” Pierre Honnorat, the program’s director in Chad, told Reuters on Friday.
He added that most of those who arrived in recent days from villages along the border were women and children.
“We were surprised to see so many children crossing. It was heartbreaking to see the women and children under trees. Some of them have suffered some violence, their houses burnt, their villages destroyed and their neighbourhoods completely looted,” he said.
Honnorat said there is an immediate necessity to provide enough drinking water in the arid desert region.
People gather to get bread during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and Sudan’s army in Khartoum on Saturday. (Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A judge has blocked the head of Florida‘s state health department from taking any more action to threaten TV stations over an abortion-rights commercial they’ve been airing.
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker’s ruling Thursday sided with Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group that produced the commercial promoting a ballot measure that would add abortion rights to the state constitution if it passes in the Nov. 5 election. The group filed a lawsuit earlier this week over the state’s communications with stations.
“The government cannot excuse its indirect censorship of political speech simply by declaring the disfavored speech is ‘false,’” the judge said in a written opinion.
He added, “To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid.”
State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and John Wilson, who was then the top lawyer at the health department before resigning unexpectedly, sent a letter to TV stations on Oct. 3 telling them to stop running an FPF ad, asserting that it was false and dangerous. The letter also says it could be subject to criminal proceedings.
FPF said about 50 stations were running the ad and that most or all of them received the letter — and at least one stopped running the commercial.
The group said the state was wrong when it claimed that assertions in the commercial were false. The state’s objection was to a woman’s assertion that the abortion she received in 2022 after she was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor would not be allowed under current state law.
The state hasn’t changed its position. In a statement Thursday, a spokesperson for the health department again said that the ads are “unequivocally false.”
The judge’s order bars further action from the state until Oct. 29, when he’s planning a hearing on the question.
The ballot measure is one of nine similar ones across the country, but the campaign over it is the most expensive so far, with ads costing about $160 million, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact. It would require the approval of 60% of voters to be adopted and would override the state law that bans abortion in most cases after the first six weeks of pregnancy, which is before women often realize they’re pregnant.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The blast shook the ground and its red flash of fire covered the doorway as U.S. special operations forces blew open a door during a recent training exercise.
Moments later, in their next attempt, the boom was noticeably suppressed and the blaze a bit smaller, testament to just one of the new technologies that U.S. Special Operations Command is using to limit the brain injuries that have become a growing problem for the military.
From new required testing and blast monitors to reshaping an explosive charge that reduces its blowback on troops, the command is developing new ways to better protect warfighters from such blast overpressure and to evaluate their health risks, particularly during training.
“We have guys lining up to volunteer for these studies,” said retired Sgt. Maj. F. Bowling, a former special operations medic who now works as a contractor at the command. “This is extremely important to the community. They’re very concerned about it.”
The Defense Department does not have good data on the number of troops with blast overpressure problems, which are much harder to detect than a traumatic brain injury.
Traumatic brain injuries are better known and have been a persistent problem among combat forces, including those subjected to missile strikes and explosions that hit nearby.
According to the department’s Traumatic Brain Injury Center of Excellence, more than 20,000 service members were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries last year. More than 500,000 have been diagnosed since 2000.
Josh Wick, a Pentagon spokesperson, said emerging information from evaluations of both acute blasts and repetitive low-level exposures shows links to adverse effects, such as the inability to sleep, degraded cognitive performance, headaches and dizziness.
“Our top priority remains our forces’ long-term cognitive well-being and operational effectiveness as warfighters,” said Gen. Bryan Fenton, head of U.S. Special Operations Command. “We are committed to understanding and identifying the impacts of blast overpressure on our personnel’s brain health.”
Fenton said research with academics and medical and industry experts is helping find ways to mitigate and treat overpressure. He said cutting-edge technologies are key to reducing the effects of repeated exposures, such as those many of his troops experience.
Out in a remote training area for Army special forces at Fort Liberty in North Carolina, commandos used what they call a Muchete breaching charge, specifically formed into a shape that more precisely directs the blasts and limits the harmful waves coming from an explosion. A small number of journalists were allowed to watch the training.
“The reduction on the blast overpressure coming back on the operator on average is generally between 40 and 60%,” said Chris Wilson, who leads the team at the command that oversees clinical research and other performance-related initiatives. “It really also depends on where somebody is standing. But it’s certainly a pretty dramatic reduction in the exposure. So I think that’s a win.”
Wilson said development and testing of the refined charge is ongoing but that units are using this one now in training until one gets final approval and can be more widely distributed.
Because of the extensive amount of training for special operations forces — both to hone their skills and to prepare for specific operations — troops may practice breaching a door dozens or hundreds of times. As a result, training is where they are most likely to have such repeated exposures. The command wants a better sense of how each person is affected.
During the demonstration, a number of the Army special forces soldiers were wearing small monitors or sensors to help leaders better understand the level of blast pressure that troops are absorbing. The sensors allow officials to compare readings based on where troops were standing and how close they were to the blast.
The command is evaluating a number of blast sensors on the market, and some higher risk troops are already using them. Testing and other studies are continuing with the goal of getting them out across the force in the next couple of years.
According to Wilson and Col. Amanda Robbins, the command’s psychologist, there are distinct differences between acute traumatic brain injuries and what is called long-term blast exposure or blast overpressure.
Traumatic brain injuries, they said, are acute injuries that are relatively well documented and diagnosed. They said repetitive blast exposure needs more attention because there are lots of questions about the impact on the human brain. The damage is far more complex to diagnose and requires more study to establish links between the repetitive blasts and any damage or symptoms.
To aid the research, Special Operations Command is looking at doing more routine testing throughout service members’ careers. One test is a neurocognitive assessment that the command does every three years. Officials also want warfighters to be assessed if they have had a concussion or similar event.
The Defense Department more broadly will require cognitive assessments for all new recruits as part of an effort to protect troops from brain injuries resulting from blast exposures. New guidance released in August requires greater use of protective equipment, minimum “stand-off distances” during certain types of training, and a reduction in the number of people in proximity to blasts.
The other test being done by Special Operations Command is a more subjective comprehensive assessment that catalogs each person’s history of injuries or falls, even as a child. It’s done early to get a baseline.
Robbins said what they have seen is that new, younger operators and those with 20 or more years of experience are more amenable to doing the testing.
“The challenge is going to be in the midcareer operators who may be more concerned about self-reporting potentially having a perceived negative impact,” she said.
She added that the assessment is a way to take into account incidents that may not be in their medical records, so that problems can be identified early on and people can get treatment.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge on Friday delayed an order requiring Google to open up its Android app store to more competition until an appeals court decides whether to block the shake-up because of legal questions surrounding a jury’s verdict that branded Google as an illegal monopolist.
The delay granted during a court hearing in San Francisco comes less than two weeks after U.S. District Judge James Donato issued a decision that would have forced Google to make sweeping changes to its Play Store for Android smartphones starting Nov. 1.
The mandated changes included a provision that would have required Google to make its library of more than 2 million Android apps available to any rivals that wanted access to the inventory and also distribute the alternative options in its own Play Store.
Google requested Donato’s order be stayed until the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals could examine the handling of a monthlong trial that led to the December 2023 verdict, which framed the Play Store as an illegal monopoly that stifles innovation and drives up consumer prices.
In Friday’s hearing, Donato scoffed at the notion that Google could succeed in overturning the trial verdict. “The verdict in this case was amply supported by a mountain of evidence about Google’s anti-competitive conduct,” the judge said.
But he decided the Ninth Circuit should be given a chance to consider a postponement until a panel of judges can decide can consider Google’s appeal of the 2023 trial focused on antitrust claims lodged by video game maker Epic Games.
Donato said he wouldn’t be surprised if the Ninth Circuit imposes an even longer delay on his ruling, “but that is for someone else to decide.”
In a statement, Google said it was pleased Donato hit the pause button while it tries to extend the delay even further.
“These remedies threaten Google Play’s ability to provide a safe and secure experience and we look forward to continuing to make our case to protect 100 million U.S. Android users, over 500,000 U.S. developers and thousands of partners who have benefited from our platforms,” Google said.
Epic pointed to Donato’s critical comments about the merits of Google’s appeal in a statement that described the stay as a “procedural step.”
It’s unclear how long the Ninth Circuit will take to decide on Google’s request for a permanent stay of Donato’s ruling while its appeals unfolds — a process that could take more than a year.
In 2021, the Ninth Circuit delayed a provision of another federal judge’s order mandating that Apple allow links to alternative payment systems with apps made for the iPhone as part of another antitrust case brought by Epic.
Although Apple avoided being labeled an illegal monopolist in a trial involving the iPhone app store, it unsuccessfully fought the provision requiring the company to allow alternative payment links within apps. But delaying that requirement preserved Apple’s exclusive control of a payment system that has generated commissions ranging from 15% to 30% on some e-commerce occurring within apps. Apple exhausted its avenue of appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year.
Google also pockets billions of dollars annually from a similar commission system within its Play Store for Android phones — a setup that is allowed to continue as long as Google can prevent Donato’s ruling from taking effect.
In its arguments for delaying Donato’s order, Google said it wasn’t being given enough time to make the drastic changes it framed as “a Herculean task creating an unacceptable risk of safety and security failures within the Android ecosystem.” In its Friday statement, Epic blasted Google’s tactics as “fearmongering.”
Google also argued the shake-up would saddle it with unreasonable costs, a contention Donato also brushed aside during Friday’s hearing.
“I don’t want to be glib about it, but the expense that Google might incur appears to be a drop in the bucket compared to the profits it reaps annually from the Play Store,” Donato said.
