Much like the country’s State Department destroyed passports and other personal documents at its embassy in Kabul during its chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, similar scenes are now being reported from the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
An unspecified number of passports belonging to Sudanese nationals and citizens from other countries have been destroyed by the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, the State Department confirmed on Friday.
Standard operating procedure
“It is standard operating procedure during these types of situations to take precautions to not leave behind any documents, materials, or information that could fall into the wrong hands and be misused,” a State Department spokesperson told CGTN.
“Our Embassy in Khartoum had passports of Sudanese and other third country nationals who were in the process of applying for visas and passports of U.S. citizens applying for consular services.
“Because the security environment did not allow us to safely return those passports, we followed our procedure to destroy them rather than leave them behind unsecured.”
The move has drawn criticism, with some affected saying they are now stuck in the war-torn country.
“Due to the war situation, my passport has been seized and destroyed, leaving me stranded in Sudan,” Twitter user Alhaj Sharaf tweeted.
“I am stuck in Khartoum. It’s miserable here. I hear bombings everyday. I cannot leave my country,” 26-year-old Sharaf subsequently told CGTN Europe by phone.
Sudan has been in a state of turmoil since April 15 when fierce fighting broke out between Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Within days several Western embassies closed down and diplomats were taken by helicopter out of the capital Khartoum.
Since then, ordinary Sudanese citizens have spoken of being rendered stateless and not being treated as human after the embassies left without returning their passports.
CGTN has reported on earlier, similar, cases of Sudanese people left in limbo by European embassies.
Many are marooned in the war-torn country, unable to flee.
According to the UN, more than 936,000 people have been displaced by the conflict, including 736,200 people displaced internally and a further 200,000 who have crossed into neighbouring countries.
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