Sudan war: government says evacuation effort from warzone 'extremely successful', but UK mission not over yet

Good morning, the UK is to begin evacuating British nationals from Sudan today after a three-day ceasefire was agreed, Claire Schofield reports.

Military flights will depart from an airfield outside the capital, Khartoum and priority will be given to the most vulnerable, including families with children, the elderly and people with medical conditions.

Cleverly told citizens not to travel there unless they are contacted and warned the ability to carry out evacuations could change at short notice during the “volatile” truce.

He said: “The UK government is co-ordinating an evacuation of British nationals from Sudan. We have started contacting nationals directly and providing routes for departure out of the country.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Britain will work to “end the bloodshed” in Sudan and support a democratic government, Claire Schofield reports. He added: “The government has begun a large-scale evacuation of British passport holders from Sudan on RAF flights. Priority will be given to the most vulnerable, including families with children and the elderly.

“I pay tribute to the British Armed Forces, diplomats and Border Force staff carrying out this complex operation.”

Only British passport holders and immediate family members with existing UK entry clearance were being told they are eligible, Claire Schofield reports. Nationals have been warned that all travel within Sudan is “conducted at your own risk”.

The Foreign Office said other exit routes are being considered, with two British military ships – RFA Cardigan Bay and HMS Lancaster – being lined up for possible evacuations. A team of British troops is understood to have flown into Port Sudan to check out the options.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken announced that a three-day ceasefire had been brokered. It would extend a nominal truce over Ramadan that did little to stop fighting but did facilitate some evacuations.

The UK’s former ambassador to Sudan has warned the situation in the country is “precarious”, Claire Schofield reports.

Sir Nicholas Kay told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think we have to underline that it’s precarious. The security situation can change very quickly. The command and control over forces isn’t complete.

“There is no trust between the two sides and things might kick off again. So, very difficult. The geography of Khartoum makes it also very difficult, and this is one of the challenges throughout. The river Nile joins, Blue Nile and White Nile, in the centre of Khartoum.

“So there’s a lot of bridges that need to be crossed to get around the city, and each of those bridges is controlled by one of the armed groups. So moving around Khartoum can be challenging.”

The Associated Press (AP) has spoken to people in Sudan who have suggested that the 72 hour ceasefire between the country's military and rival group Rapid Support Forces is not holding universally.

Amin Ishaq, a resident of Omdurman, a city across the Nile River from Khartoum, told AP there were clashes early on Tuesday (25 April) around the state television headquarters, as well as around military bases just outside Omdurman.

“They did not stop fighting,” he said. “They stop only when they run out of ammunition.”

Meanwhile, Atiya Abdalla Atiya, Secretary of the Doctors' Syndicate, told AP that "sounds of gunfire, explosions, and flying warplanes" are still being heard across Khartoum. “They don’t respect ceasefires," she said.

A "well-placed source" has told the BBC that the airlifting of British nationals from a military base north of Khartoum is likely to begin in the next few hours.

According to the source, UK citizens are being told to "make your own way" to the airbase in a carefully "caveated" message. "It has got to be the individual’s decision," the message reportedly reads. "Once you get to the location, we will hopefully get you on a flight a soon as possible."

The source also told the BBC there was no sign that the warring parties were deliberately targeting foreign nationals. They said there was co-operation between foreign governments, rather than a "sharp-elbowed" approach to the evacuations.

Currently, British officials are looking at a 24 hour window for the airlifts - but that could be extended, depending on whether the new ceasefire holds.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has defended the government from allegations it has acted too slowly in starting evacuations of British nationals from Sudan.

Cleverly told broadcasters: “The circumstances for each individual nation are different. There are considerably more British nationals in Sudan than other countries have got.”

He also warned that the situation in Sudan remained volatile, despite the ceasefire: “This is an active conflict. The ceasefire has been announced but we know there have been pockets of violence even within previous ceasefires.

“So this does remain dangerous, this does remain difficult. We are providing what assistance we can and we are operating as quickly as we can.”

It is understood that Britons will need to make their own way to the airbase where the evacuation is being launched, without an escort.

Sky News reports that a British C130 Hercules plane has landed at an airfield just outside Sudan's capital city Khartoum.

Reporter Alistair Bunkall, who was speaking to presenter Kay Burley from RAF Akrotiri, said he had been told it had landed just before 9.13am with another plane still in the air.

He added however: “That won’t be enough by a long way to extract the 4,000 British nationals if they want to get out."

The Guardian previously reported that a C130 Hercules can hold about 120 people.

According to one estimate, there could be up to 4,000 British nationals stranded in Sudan, my colleague Alex Nelson reports.

Alicia Kearns, the Tory chairwoman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I suspect that we are well over a thousand who wish to be evacuated. Sometimes these are large families. I suspect we could be looking at 3,000, 4,000 plus.”

British tourism in Sudan is relatively limited due to the country's political and security situation, and the UK government advises against all travel to certain areas of Sudan, and all but essential travel to the rest of the country.

However, for those who do choose to travel to Sudan, there are a few tourist attractions that may be of interest, such as the ancient pyramids at Meroe and the historic city of Khartoum, where visitors can see landmarks such as the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers and the Mahdi's Tomb.

It's worth noting that Sudan is not a mainstream tourist destination and does not have the same level of infrastructure and amenities as other popular tourist destinations.

As such, the majority of those British nationals currently stuck in Sudan will be those who have chosen to live in the country.

The reasons for emigrating to Sudan vary depending on the individual, but some common reasons include working for international organisations, such as the United Nations or non-governmental organisations (NGOs), or for British companies with operations in Sudan.

Some may also have family or personal connections to the country. In recent years, Sudan has also been a destination for aid workers and refugees fleeing conflict and instability in neighbouring countries.

An RAF C-130 transport carrier has been seen on flight trackers leaving an airbase north of the Sudanese capital, apparently ferrying evacuees to the UK’s Akrotiri airfield in Cyprus.

Around 2,000 citizens having registered with the Foreign Office to be evacuated.

Rishi Sunak authorised the evacuation of British nationals late last night, Downing Street has said.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “The Prime Minister made the decision late last night. This is something that the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary and others have been working on for some time now.” He added that just over 2,000 British nationals have registered in Sudan with the Foreign Office.

UK passport-holders evacuated from Sudan will be first taken to Cyprus before being brought back to the UK, Downing Street has said.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “They will bring British nationals to Cyprus and then we will be facilitating their travel on to the UK.”

He said evacuation flights will go on for “as long as possible”, “with consideration to the risk of both UK personnel and British nationals”.

Although civil unrest in Sudan has a long history, dating back to its independence from Britain and Egypt in 1956, most of it has occurred in isolated tribal regions far from Khartoum, my colleague Alex Nelson reports.

The chaotic scenes of fighting with tanks, truck-mounted machine guns, artillery, and warplanes in densely populated areas of the capital are unprecedented.

A power struggle between General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, commander of the Sudanese armed forces, and General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, is the reason behind the sudden eruption of violence in the country.

The two were once close allies, and worked together to plan the military takeover of Sudan in October 2021, which short-circuited the country’s democratic transition. Recently, talks to resume the path towards democracy had been in progress.

Generals Burhan and Dagalo agreed to a framework agreement with political parties and pro-democracy organisations under international pressure, but the agreement was ambiguous on crucial issues of contention, like how the RSF would be incorporated into the armed force and who would have ultimate control.

The agreement’s signing was repeatedly delayed due to escalating hostilities between the two men, and now, both have remained steadfast, declaring that they will not negotiate.

A British dual national stuck in Sudan has said there is “no law and order” in Khartoum as he waits to hear from the Foreign Office about the evacuation.

Musab told the BBC’s World At One radio programme that officials had said they would firstly take elderly people, people with medical conditions and those in families.

Asked about his own situation, he said: “It all depends on the ceasefire, whether it will hold or not.

“The one thing I didn’t like is they (the Foreign Office) asked people to come to the airport which is very risky because you should have main meeting points in the specific areas people can go to and then they can get on a bus and go to the airport, but if you ask people to go the the airport by themselves its very risky.”

The Foreign Office has urged British passport holders and their family members to head to Wadi Saeedna airfield, located to the north of Khartoum, “as soon as possible” in order to board evacuation flights.

Initially, ministers said British nationals should not travel to the evacuation site until they are asked to do so by the Foreign Office.

Around 120 British military personnel are at the airfield near Khartoum to help with the evacuation effort, but reports suggest that no flights have taken off yet.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: “As of 11am this morning, the processing centre, the reception team of Border Force and Foreign Office, were now up and running on the airfield in Sudan.”

He added: “Currently the airfield is run by the German military and, depending on how long they stay, we will stand ready and prepared to take over from them should they decide that their evacuation is finished.”

Sami Atabani, who lives in Cambridge, told NationalWorld late editor Amber Allott that he had been going backwards and forwards with the UK Foreign Office for days now, trying to work out how to best help seven family members in Khartoum.

He told NationalWorld these family members included his 88-year-old aunt, her 67-year-old son who is disabled, another son and his wife, and their three young children. All but his sister-in-law were British nationals.

“They’re running out of food… It’s not acceptable. You can’t leave an 88-year-old woman like this,” he said.

Mr Atabani registered them with the Foreign Office this morning, but said despite government messaging that priority would be given to the most vulnerable - including families with children and the elderly - they had not been contacted for evacuations. The family are now one of many resorting to Plan B, he said, and are currently waiting on a bus which will take them out of the city, across 1,000 kilometres to the Egyptian border.

“My cousin is incredibly distressed as to whether he’s making the right decision… He feels abandoned,” Mr Atabani said. “Their life has been completely turned upside down, but the most dangerous part is yet to come. They still need to make their way out of the city”.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said communication is “very patchy” with British dual nationals in Sudan, but insisted efforts are being made “where possible” to invite them to the airport.

Asked about the evacuation efforts, he told the Defence Committee: “Communication is very patchy and very small. They are being called forward by the Foreign Office.”

Wallace added that “blanket conditions” were being produced to assist people in determining whether they should head to the airport, because direct communication is proving so challenging.