UK Launches Large Scale Evacuation Of Citizens From Sudan

• The UK begins large scale evacuation of citizens trapped in Sudan.

• This is due to the 10-day-long urban combat that has resulted in hundreds of deaths.

• This comes hours after a 72-hour ceasefire was brokered by the United States between Sudan’s warring generals.

EKO HOT BLOG reports that the United Kingdom has launched a large-scale evacuation of British citizens trapped in Sudan due to the 10-day-long urban combat that has resulted in hundreds of deaths.

The move came hours after a 72-hour ceasefire was brokered by the United States between Sudan’s warring generals, and following criticism in the UK that the government had abandoned its citizens there.

 

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that the government had begun the evacuation of British passport holders from Sudan on Royal Air Force (RAF) flights, and that priority would be given to the most vulnerable, including families with children and the elderly. Sunak also paid tribute to Britain’s armed forces, diplomats, and others involved in what he called a “complex operation” and added that the UK would continue to work towards ending the bloodshed in Sudan and support a democratic government.

On Sunday, the UK carried out a military operation to withdraw its diplomats as deadly battles raged in the capital city of Khartoum.

However, citing the dangers on the ground, it had held off on extracting its citizens more widely despite Western allies evacuating hundreds of their own passport holders. Foreign Office Minister Andrew Mitchell said on Monday that approximately 4,000 Britons with dual nationality and 400 with UK-only passports were in Sudan, while 2,000 people had registered with the ministry seeking help to get out.

A Foreign Office statement announcing the new evacuations said that UK military flights were scheduled to depart from an airfield outside Khartoum.

It also cautioned UK citizens not to make their way to the airfield unless they were called and added that the situation remained volatile, and their ability to conduct evacuations could change at short notice.

The UK’s decision to evacuate its citizens from Sudan came after days of criticism and comparisons to the chaotic evacuation of Britons from Afghanistan’s Kabul after the Taliban took control in 2021.

 

The UK government has been under increasing pressure to act as the situation in Sudan continues to deteriorate, with violent clashes between government forces and opposition groups resulting in a rising death toll.