Sudan evacuation news: Flights ‘potentially impossible’ if fighting resumes when ceasefire ends, UK warns

Fighting flared in Sudan yesterday as Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) battled on Khartoum’s outskirts, undermining a truce in their 11-day conflict.

The fighting came as the army agreed to extending the ceasefire that is in force till today.

The army late last night said its leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, gave initial approval to a plan to extend the truce for another 72 hours and send an army envoy to the South Sudan capital, Juba, for talks, reported Reuters.

There was no immediate response from the RSF to the proposal from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional bloc.

The military said the presidents of South Sudan, Kenya and Djibouti worked on a proposal that includes extending the truce and talks between the two forces.

“Burhan thanked the IGAD and expressed an initial approval to that,” the army statement said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) expects “many more” deaths in Sudan.

The world health agency said yesterday that there could be many more deaths due to outbreaks of disease and a lack of essential services amid fighting between Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary, reported Reuters.

Since mid April, the ongoing fighting has killed at least 459 people and injured more than 4,000, according to the WHO.

The UK is pushing for an extension to the ceasefire in Sudan, the foreign secretary has said – Archie Mitchell reports.

Speaking to Sky News, James Cleverly said: “We pushed for the original ceasefire, we are pushing to have the ceasefire extended, we are pushing with our international partners and leaders in the region, to have a permanent peace settlement.

“But the point I’m making is I can’t guarantee any of those things. If they happen, that’s great, that’s what we’re pushing for.My worry is if people are having to make difficult decisions, and of course they are, if they are basing those decisions on a belief that this ceasefire will continue, and then it doesn’t, they put themselves in a more dangerous situation.

“So my strong advice is to err on the side of caution, take advantage of what we know, which is the ceasefire is currently holding, even though we don’t know whether it’ll hold for the full duration, rather than relying on what might not happen, which is an extension of the ceasefire, which of course we are pushing for.

British families fleeing Sudan have described dodging heavy gunfire and bombing in their bids to escape the wartorn country after the Foreign Office “failed” to secure safe routes out.

Many have spent thousands to escape the country safely.

Bel Trew and Tara Cobham report:

It may be “impossible” to evacuate British citizens from Sudan once the war-torn country’s fragile ceasefire ends, the foreign secretary has warned.

James Cleverly said that the UK government was unable to predict what would happen once intense fighting resumed.

He urged British nationals who may be “hesitant” or “weighing up their options” to make their way to the extraction point, where there were “planes and capacity”.

A British doctor is facing an agonising choice of either risking a deadly infection from his gunshot wound or leaving his vulnerable elderly mother to fend for herself in a war zone in Sudan.

The British evacuation mission from Sudan has lifted 536 people to safety on six flights as the military races against time to rescue citizens while a fragile ceasefire holds.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said “in a fast-moving situation” these were the figures at 9pm on Wednesday “with further flights to come”.

Air evacuations from Sudan can continue even if a fragile ceasefire breaks, military chiefs said yesterday, as the first flight carrying British nationals arrived back in Britain.

Brigadier Dan Reeve, Britain’s chief of joint force operations, said that up to 500 people a day can be flown out of Wadi Saeedna, an airfield just north of Khartoum, with transport planes available to increase that number if necessary.

“The ceasefire itself was not a condition for us launching this operation, although of course it helped and was a useful window,” he said.

Kim Sengupta, Rebecca Thomas and Kate Devlin report:

They’ve drawn most attention in eastern Ukraine, but it seems wherever war breaks out – from Syria to Sudan – this group of mercenaries can be found profiting from bloodshed, writes World Affairs Editor Kim Sengupta.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken and African Union Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat discussed working together to create a sustainable end to the fighting in Sudan, the State Department said in a statement yesterday.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the two spoke about a “collaboration to create a sustainable cessation of hostilities and end the fighting in Sudan”.

“Secretary Blinken and chairperson Faki agreed that the AU’s continued leadership remains essential in pressing the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to immediately cease military operations and allow unhindered humanitarian access,” the statement said.