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

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 could not 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” to get people out.

Two NHS doctors have been denied seats on British planes evacuating Sudan, leaving them stranded in a war zone on the day the country’s fragile ceasefire comes to an end, with fears more NHS doctors could be facing the same plight, Tara Cobham reports.

Following the advice of one of their MPs, the junior doctors said they made the perilous journey to Wadi Saeedna airfield, where the British have been evacuating UK nationals during an agreed 72-hour ceasefire.

Upon arrival, Adulrahman and his fellow doctor, who are not disclosing their full names for safety reasons, said: “Even showing them that I work for the NHS, they didn’t want to talk further and they showed me the way out.” Dr Reem Taha – who is a member of the Sudanese Junior Doctors Association UK, which has a WhatsApp group of 71 Sudanese NHS doctors who have been trapped in Sudan – said there are more NHS doctors with BRPs who are making their way to the evacuation point on Friday and are “devastated” to hear the news the two had been turned away, fearful they face the same plight.

The pair, who had been visiting extended family for Eid al-Fitr, had risked their lives to travel through the night from Khartoum, which has been at the epicentre of the fighting since fierce clashes between forces loyal to the country’s two top generals erupted in the city on 15 April. Dr Taha, an NHS doctor based in South Yorkshire who has been in touch with the duo, told The Independent this highlighted how “desperate they are to be evacuated”.

She said: “You pass through at least 10 checkpoints until you get there. You have to cross a bridge that’s not safe and is a particular area of conflict. It is a dangerous journey and people try to avoid it at night. The fact that they tried to get there at night shows you how desperate they are to be evacuated.”

Africa minister Andrew Mitchell warned that an end to the ceasefire could result in a humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan.

He told the foreign affairs think tank Chatham House: “It is essential that a ceasefire is maintained and that a political process is secured.

“If not, the humanitarian consequences will be incalculable.

“The UK will continue to work tirelessly to help bring an end to the violence and provide vital humanitarian relief.”

James Cleverly has refused to get into details about the possibility of safe and legal routes for those fleeing Sudan to get to the UK.

The foreign secretary said: “There is war and conflict all over the world. There are literally millions upon millions of people who are in countries plagued by war. We recognise that we cannot host everybody who is in a country plagued by war.

“Sudan is not the only country suffering from conflict and so picking out Sudan because it happens to be in the news, I think, diminishes the suffering of other people around the world firstly, and, secondly, we have to remember there are millions upon millions of people who are fleeing conflict or who are fleeing economic privations.”

The map below shows Sudan’s location in North Africa. Khartoum, the capital, is where the most intense fighting is taking place.

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:

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: