US to send more troops to Djibouti in case of Sudan evacuation, official says

Representational photo: U.S. Marines with Battalion Landing Team 1/4, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, conduct shooting drills aboard the amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA-6), in the Philippine Sea, Feb. 27, 2023. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. William Wallace via U.S. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is preparing to send a large number of additional troops to its base in Djibouti in case of an eventual evacuation from Sudan, a U.S. official said as renewed heavy gunfire erupted on Thursday and the latest of several ceasefires broke down.

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, declined to elaborate.

Forces commanded by two previously allied leaders of Sudan's ruling council began a violent power struggle last weekend that has so far killed more than 330 people, tipping a nation reliant on food aid into what the United Nations calls a humanitarian catastrophe.

"We are deploying additional capabilities nearby in the region for contingency purposes related to securing and potentially facilitating the departure of U.S. Embassy personnel from Sudan, if circumstances require it," the Pentagon said in a statement, without providing more details.

The State Department previously told U.S. citizens in Sudan to remain sheltered in place indoors, and said the uncertain security situation in Khartoum and closure of the airport made it unsafe to undertake a U.S. government-coordinated evacuation.

A State Department spokesperson said Washington does not provide numbers of U.S. citizens living in or traveling to a particular country and for security reasons declined to say how many embassy staff are in Sudan.

The fiercest battles between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been around Khartoum, one of Africa's largest urban areas, and in Darfur, still scarred by a brutal conflict that ended three years ago.

Sudan's military ruler, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, heads a ruling council installed after the 2021 military coup and the 2019 ouster of veteran autocrat Omar al-Bashir. Paramilitary leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti, who analysts say may command more than 100,000 fighters, was his deputy on the council.

The latest violence was triggered by disagreement over an internationally backed plan to form a new civilian government. Both sides accuse the other of thwarting the transition.

A group of four countries known as the Quad - the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia - have pushed international efforts to find a political solution in Sudan, along with the United Nations, the African Union and African trade bloc IGAD.

Sudan has been a focus of U.S. diplomatic efforts in Africa as Washington works to counter Russian influence in the country and the wider region. Russia is investing in gold mining in Sudan and has been trying to finalize an agreement to establish a naval base on Sudan's Red Sea coast.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart and Daphne Psaledakis, Editing by Franklin Paul, Chizu Nomiyama, Don Durfee and Mark Porter)