Sudan: German cultural workers evacuated

Four members of German cultural organization, the Goethe Institute, have been evacuated from Sudan by a German airforce plane, and arrived in Berlin on Monday.

A fifth employee is still in the embattled country and is currently leaving the region by land, said the cultural institute's spokeswoman Jessica Kraatz Magri. "We hope that this will be successful," she said. The evacuations could be facilitated by the 72-hour cease-fire Sudan's warring parties agreed upon on Monday, following US mediation efforts. 

Only employees with German citizenship and their families were able to be evacuated, the Goethe spokeswoman said. The 21 Sudanese employees of the Goethe Institute in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, were rejected.

There is only a "legal mandate for the German nationals," said a Foreign Office spokesman in Berlin. Three evacuation flights have so far taken more than 300 people out of the country, according to the German army.

"Fortunately, all 21 employees, including two seconded, are unharmed so far," the Goethe spokesperson told DW.

Sudanese employees of the now-closed German mission abroad and the German Society for International Cooperation are also not entitled to a full evacuation. 

As fighting intensifies in Khartoum, several countries have conducted similar evacuations, with two French planes transporting around 200 people of multiple nationalities to Djibouti, while Italy's Foreign Ministry said it had rescued around 300 people.

Situation in Khartoum 'extremely tense'

Among those rescued is the head of the Goethe Institute in Sudan, Maximilian Röttger, who has since arrived in Germany. The arrivals are exhausted and resting for the time being, the Goethe spokesperson said.

The security situation in Khartoum, where rival forces have been fighting for days, remains "extremely tense," said Kraatz Magri.

The situation for remaining staff also remains difficult with supplies beginning to deteriorate. "There is no electricity, supplies of water and food are limited," Kraatz Magri said. 

The German Goethe Institute has been active in Sudan since 1964. One focus of its work is on language courses and examinations. Until recently, the institute maintained a cultural program that promotes international exchange with cultural workers in the northeast African country.

This article was originally written in German.