Canadian military evacuation flights grounded in Sudan: sources – National | Globalnews.ca

Two Canadian military evacuation flights are grounded in Sudan after gunfire erupted on a runway near Khartoum, sources tell Global News.

One of the Canadian planes had been grounded due to a mechanical issue, while another is currently stranded waiting for clearance to take off after a Turkish evacuation plane was shot at, according to one source.

“We had planned for two flights to leave this morning, but the situation on the remains volatile and one of our planes experienced a mechanical issue which has been resolved … Flights will resume as soon as possible,” Defence Minister Anita Anand told reporters Friday morning in Dartmouth, N.S.

“We are now ensuring that the conditions do exist for safe passage out of Sudan … The situation is evolving.”

The BBC, Al Jazeera and The Guardian have reported that Sudan’s army accused the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces of opening fire on the Turkish aircraft as it landed at Wadi Seidna airport outside the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.

The gunfire shut down the runway and scrambled the planned queue for evacuation flights. The runway has now been reopened but it’s not known when the Canadian flight will be able to leave. Sources told Global News the confusion is over whether the original takeoff order will be followed or if those who missed their window will have to go to the back of the line.

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1st Canadian evacuation flight from Sudan has departed: Anand

Neither of Canada’s two planned evacuation flights that had been expected to depart Sudan on Friday have taken off yet, and two sources confirmed to Global News that it’s unclear at this point whether any Canadian evacuation flights will leave Khartoum on Friday.

The setback complicates an already complicated mission of evacuating Canadians and diplomatic staff from Sudan, as the bloody conflict between two rival military factions approaches three weeks of fighting.

Global News reported Wednesday that Canadian officials were warned weeks ago that Sudan was descending into conflict, and the Canadian Armed Forces had both military assets and contingency plans drawn up for a possible evacuation.

Global News spoke to multiple sources who had direct knowledge of the evacuation planning, but were not authorized to speak on the record.

The Canadian government has come under criticism for delays in evacuating citizens and diplomatic staff from the country, relying on allies to shuttle Canadians to safety.

Global’s sources pointed to two “failures” to secure speedy evacuations, including not making timely decisions to pre-position military assets and a failure to secure landing strips that would’ve allowed Canadian planes to conduct evacuations.

One senior source faulted a “slow decision-making process that needlessly endangered embassy staff.”

But the outbreak of gunfire at the airport makes the situation more dire. Multiple countries – including the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – have been able to conduct multiple evacuation flights since the fighting began 13 days ago.

Some of those flights included the roughly 245 Canadian citizens and permanent residents who have been evacuated so far, according to the latest numbers provided by Global Affairs Canada on Thursday night.

The department said it was providing assistance to 447 Canadians and their families as of that time, with 1,739 Canadians having registered with the department’s listing of Canadians abroad.

– More to come.

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