- Trillian Clifford and her daughter, Alma, have been sheltering in their apartment in Khartoum, Sudan
- Her family is calling for the US to take action and get them back safely, but the US has said it has no plans to evacuate American civilians
- One American has already been killed in the civil war
A Massachusetts teacher and her 18-month-old daughter are among thousands of Americans trapped in war-torn Sudan.
Trillian Clifford, of Ashland, and her daughter, Alma, have been hiding from the sound of machine guns outside their apartment in the capital of Khartoum, where Trillian teaches the children of U.S. Embassy officials at the Khartoum International American School.
Her family back home is now calling for the US to take action and get Clifford and her daughter out of the third largest African nation as government officials evacuated nearly 100 embassy officials over the weekend.
But the White House has said it has no plans to evacuate the estimated 16,000 US citizens stuck in Sudan, even as it issued a travel advisory warning of ‘armed conflict, civil unrest, crime, terrorism and kidnapping.’
One American has already been killed in the conflict, and the World Health Organization estimates that 413 people have been killed and 3,551 have been injured since the civil war broke out earlier this month.
On Friday, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said US citizens must ‘make their own arrangements to stay safe in the difficult circumstances.
‘Americans should have no expectation of a US government-coordinated evacuation at this time,’ he said. ‘And we expect that that’s going to remain the case.’
The US Embassy also issued an alert Saturday cautioning that ‘due to the uncertain security situation in Khartoum and closure of the airport, it is not currently safee to undertake a US government-coordinated evacuation of private US citizens.
‘If evacuation of private US citizens becomes necessary, this announcement will be made public by Travel Alert and Travel Advisory,’ it said.
