Sudan live: ‘large-scale evacuation’ of British nationals under way

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The Guardian’s diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour reports:

The planned airlift of British citizens is fraught with dangers notably the fear that the 72 hour ceasefire will break down, meaning British nationals are travelling to the designated airfield while fighting has restarted. There have also been regular reports of robberies of foreigners during the fighting, requiring a degree of leadership from the two factions to keep troops under control.

There is also concern that British nationals once they know the airfield to which they are to travel will press ahead without waiting to be called, risking there is a rush for the planes. The prioritisation process in Afghanistan proved difficult partly because politicians at the foreign office struggled to stick to clear criteria and responded to lobbying by Downing Street or MPs acting in the wake of their constituent’s pleas.

It has also been made clear that Home Office staff will assess hard cases in which those who arrive lacking the correct paperwork. Dual nationals will be permitted on the flights; non-citizen dependents will not be treated as a priority, risking families will be divided at least temporarily. The UK aid minister Andrew Mitchell has already told MPs that no one will be deported back to Sudan whilst the fighting is underway.

Sky News Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall is in Cyprus, where the British mission to evacuate diplomats and their families was launched from on Sunday. He has tweeted that an RAF A400M military transport aircraft appeared to set off for Sudan earlier.

He said there is around a three and a half hour flight time between RAF Akrotiri and its destination.

Former joint operational commander of the British armed forces Ash Alexander-Cooper has been speaking to the media in the UK, and said that a 72-hour ceasefire, if it holds, is not a large amount of time to evacuate the number of people wanting to leave the country, and that “every minute and every hour counts”. He told viewers of Sky News:

If we’ve learned one thing from Afghanistan and that withdrawal – although the situations are different – is that every minute and every hour counts. We can’t be complacent and hope that the ceasefire lasts longer than 72 hours. We must plan that every hour is our last and do everything we can.

He also suggested that, while British nationals might be spread far and wide across Sudan, there would be coordination among the rescue attempts.

This is not a solely a British effort, you know. We work very closely in partnership with our allies, the US and others who have a bigger presence in the region. So I would imagine that there’s a lot of coordination going on between the Brits and all those other countries in the EU, the US and elsewhere, to ensure that if there’s capacity or options to help get people out, if there’s space, then we’ll be working very much hand in glove with them.

Here is a roundup from Associated Press of some of the international efforts to evacuate citizens from Sudan as fighting has taken hold over recent days:

US: White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday that Washington has begun facilitating the overland departure of private US citizens who want to leave Sudan with the use of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets.

UK: Britain’s Africa minister, Andrew Mitchell, has said about 2,000 UK citizens in Sudan have registered with the embassy. The country this morning announced an evacuation would begin.

Egypt: Egypt’s state-run MENA news agency says the country is urging the more than 10,000 Egyptian citizens in Sudan to head to Port Sudan and Wadi Halfa in the north for evacuation. Buses carrying an undisclosed number of Egyptian citizens crossed into Egypt from the Arqin border crossing on Monday.

France: Officials say France has evacuated 491 people, among them citizens from 36 countries including Irish citizens. Others included three wounded individuals, the German ambassador and several other foreign ambassadors.

Germany: Four German military transport planes flew more than 400 people from Sudan to Jordan from where they’ll head to their home countries.

Canada: Canada’s foreign minister says Ottawa is working with “like-minded countries″ to help at least 1,600 citizens formally registered in Sudan flee the country.

Italy: Italian air force C-130 transport aircraft airlifted 200 people out of Khartoum airport Sunday.

Spain: Spain said it had evacuated approximately 172 people from Djibouti so far.

The Netherlands: A pair of Dutch air force C-130 Hercules flew from Sudan to Jordan Monday carrying an undisclosed number of Dutch and other evacuees.

Turkey: The Turkish government says it’s evacuating “hundreds” of its citizens by land to Ethiopia, from where they are scheduled to be flown to Istanbul.

South Africa: The South African government says at least 77 South African nationals, including embassy staff, are on their way out of the Sudanese capital.

Kenya: Kenya’s foreign ministry says 29 Kenyan students have crossed into Ethiopia and are en route to Nairobi. Another two aircraft are expected to ferry 300-400 Kenyans to Jeddah.

Here is a map of Sudan from our graphics team, which indicates the main routes by which people are fleeing the country.

The UK government’s Foreign Office has published more detail about how the evacuation of UK passport-holders from Sudan will be carried out. It continues to warn against travel to Sudan for security reasons, and cautions people specifically against joining independent conveys. Its advice reads:

The British Government will support the departure of British passport holders from Sudan from 25 April on a prioritised basis.

Seats will be allocated on a priority basis, starting with family groups with children and / or the elderly or individuals with documented medical conditions. We can only evacuate British passport holders and immediate family members (defined as a spouse/partner and children under 18 years old) with existing UK entry clearance. Travel within Sudan is conducted at your own risk and plans may change depending on the security situation.

We will contact those who are eligible for evacuation directly – please do not make your way to the airfield unless you are called.

If you have already registered your details, we will try to contact you and you do not need to contact us again. If you have not registered yet please use this link: register your presence in Sudan.

If you have registered with the FCDO and have now left Sudan please call us on this number +44 (0)190851666.

We are continuing to work up other options to assist British nationals wanting to leave Sudan, including at other points of exit.

British nationals may be aware of unverified reports of independent convoys planning to depart Khartoum towards Port Sudan. The British Embassy has no involvement with these convoys and any British nationals who attempt to travel in one would do so at their own risk.

British nationals will also have seen that we have now evacuated the embassy due to the specific threat to diplomats. We will no longer be able to provide in-person or in-country consular support.

Here are the tweets from UK government officials announcing the move. Foreign secretary James Cleverly said:

The UK government is coordinating an evacuation of British nationals from Sudan. We have started contacting nationals directly and providing routes for departure out of the country.

The British prime minister also tweeted. Rishi Sunak said:

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. The UK will continue to work to end the bloodshed in Sudan and support a democratic government.

UK government 'coordinating an evacuation of British nationals from Sudan'

The UK government has announced it is “coordinating an evacuation of British nationals from Sudan”, as a US-brokered ceasefire between the warring Sudanese armed forces and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has officially started in Sudan, where hundreds have been killed and thousands have fled since the fighting began.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak has said “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.”

The British Foreign Office said British nationals should not make their way to the airfield unless they are called, and warned the situation remained volatile, meaning the ability to conduct evacuations could change at short notice.

Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) had said the US and Saudi Arabia mediated the truce. US secretary of state Antony Blinken had announced the agreement first and said it followed two days of intense negotiations. But the two sides have not abided by several previous temporary truce deals.

Blinken said the US would coordinate with regional, international and Sudanese civilian interests to create a committee that would oversee work on a permanent ceasefire and humanitarian arrangements.