Evacuating British nationals

UK starts evacuating British nationals amid shaky cease-fire

UK also considering seaborne evacuation from Port Sudan, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace tells MPs.

BY ROSA PRINCE AND CRISTINA GALLARDO

Rishi Sunak ordered the evacuation of British nationals from Sudan amid a shaky cease-fire between warring sides in the northeast African nation.

“We have started contacting nationals directly and providing routes for departure out of the country,” Foreign Secretary James Cleverly tweeted early Tuesday.

The U.K. government has faced some criticism for the speed of its help to British nationals, but has insisted it cannot safely escort people out of the country without a pause in hostilities.

A power struggle between Sudan’s military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as “Hemeti,” has plunged Sudan into fierce fighting. Around 500 people have died so far, with fighting across the African nation.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced overnight that the two groups had agreed to a 72-hour nationwide cease-fire, beginning at midnight. On Tuesday the RSF claimed that the Sudanese army had breached the agreement, saying in a statement that its opponents had “violated the ceasefire by continuing to attack Khartoum by planes” on Tuesday morning. The claims have not been independently verified, but news agencies have reported gun fire in Sudan’s capital Khartoum and the city of Omdurman.

A spokesperson for the U.K. prime minister confirmed at lunchtime that U.K. passport holders evacuated from Sudan will first be taken to Cyprus before making the onward journey to Britain. Evacuation flights would, No.10 Downing Street said, continue “for as long as possible,” factoring in the risk to “both U.K. personnel and British nationals.”

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said flights would be open to people with British passports and that priority would be given to families with children, the elderly or individuals with medical conditions. Pressure had been growing on the U.K. government to act, following the removal of embassy staff at the weekend and as other nations pressed on with their own extractions.

A processing center set up jointly by the U.K. Border Force and Foreign Office to help British evacuees is now up and running at the Wadi Saeedna airfield, located to the north of Khartoum, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told MPs Tuesday. An estimated 4,000 civilians now face a tense few hours, as they wait to leave.

Wallace said around 120 British service personnel are currently at the airfield supporting the evacuation of both British nationals and dual nationals.

New Foreign Office advice

The U.K. is also considering a seaborne evacuation from Port Sudan — “a more benign environment” — in addition to taking people out of the country via the airfield, Wallace said.

The airfield is being run by the German military, but may soon be handled by British forces, Wallace said, although he would not be drawn on any timetable. “Depending on how long they stay, we stand ready to take over from them should they decide that their evacuation is finished,” Wallace said.

The U.K. defense secretary warned that the evacuation may soon shift to a humanitarian operation amid food and water shortages, and said the U.K. may draw on a Royal Navy ship already in the Red Sea to assist with such a shift.

The Foreign Office on Tuesday urged British passport holders and their immediate relatives to head to the airfield to board evacuation flights. It had previously told them not to travel to the airfield until they were called forward.

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden is chairing the latest meeting of the government’s COBRA crisis committee Tuesday afternoon, with the U.K. also convening a meeting of the U.N. Security Council to discuss the crisis in Sudan.