A Swiss envoy described a narrow escape during a French-assisted evacuation mission from Sudan, with air strikes shaking an evacuation bus carrying diplomats to a military base. “The evacuation was quite a difficult exercise because the fighting continued even during the evacuation,” Ambassador Christian Winter told reporters on the tarmac in front of the Swiss army plane that flew them home from Djibouti. “We heard shooting, even jets that bombed a few neighbourhoods near to where we were passing. We heard it and even the bus was trembling. It showed that it was close and dangerous.” (https://neuters.de/world/swiss-envoy-describes-how-bus-trembled-narrow-escape-sudan-2023-04-25/) Switzerland has already shut its embassy and evacuated all Swiss staff and their families over the past few days. The Swiss Foreign Ministry said a total of seven staff and five accompanying persons were evacuated. Local embassy staff were not evacuated with the Swiss, Winter said. “What is weighing heavily on our minds is what is happening to our local colleagues,” he said. Unlike in Afghanistan where Switzerland evacuated a total of 230 Afghans in 2021, the criteria for extracting locals had not been met in Sudan, a Swiss foreign affairs ministry spokesperson said. He added that Bern continued to provide them with support.