"Human drama": Bundeswehr soldier reports on deployment in Sudan
Wunstorf - Who can go, who has to stay in Sudan? Under difficult conditions, the Bundeswehr in the civil war country has tried to carry out the evacuation as orderly as possible. A military police officer reports on the situation at the airfield.

The rescue mission in embattled Sudan demanded a great deal from the Bundeswehr soldiers involved.
As Lieutenant Konstantin Brabsche (40), who was responsible for the security airlock at the airfield near the capital Khartoum with the military police, reported on his return on Friday evening, the troops had to work quickly and in a highly complex manner under improvised conditions in sweltering heat.
Especially at the beginning, the rush for the planes was enormous. "On the first day there, the need was naturally very great," said the military police officer from the 9th company in Fritzlar, Hesse, his G36 rifle still around his neck and his P8 pistol in a holster.
Over time, however, the situation had become more manageable, allowing the Bundeswehr to "control the flow of refugees a little". Anyone who wanted to come along had to have their passport checked and was searched for dangerous objects.
There was a clear order of priority as to who should be flown out of the country. "We have a priority list. Germans first, then the EU and, broadly speaking, NATO," said Brabsche.
Bundeswehr brought more than 700 people to safety within four days

This has also meant that people have had to be turned away: "Of course, this is often a human drama. However, our situation is such that we always have our neighbor in mind. Of course that's bitter for the individual. But we also know that behind one person who is turned away, there are ten others who are entitled."
In total, the Bundeswehr brought more than 700 people from more than 40 nations to safety within four days. For the people who were unable to board the German aircraft, they tried to find accommodation with other nations, emphasized the 40-year-old military police officer.
However, the lieutenant was only marginally aware of the dangerous situation in Sudan . "We noticed relatively little because we weren't that close to the capital," he said. He did hear muffled noises. "But it was nothing that would have hindered us in our daily work."
The sweltering heat in the African country, on the other hand, was a problem for him. "It was actually a personal challenge to land there. With the equipment, it was over 50 degrees," said Brabsche. During the four days there, however, he got used to it.
The evacuation from Khartoum was also organized by the former Permanent Representative at the German Embassy in Sudan, Michael Sonntag.

German ambassador turned his home into a crisis office
"The fighting was the worst-case scenario. From the very first second, we were busy organizing first the security and then the departure of German citizens in this dramatic situation - non-stop," Sonntag told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND/Saturday). He and his embassy colleagues had set up a crisis office in his home.
There was always the risk of being shot at. Bullets had landed on his property. The water tank on the roof was destroyed.