Final UK Evacuation Flights Leave Port Sudan

UK military personnel preparing to leave via an RAF aircraft from Wadi Seidna Air Base bound for Cyprus, in Omdurman, Sudan, on April 30, 2023. MoD Crown Copyright via Getty Images

The last British evacuation flights have left Port Sudan for Cyprus, according to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

Two final flights took off from Port Sudan on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, the final one leaving at 1:10 a.m. local time.

According to Flightradar, the last flight touched down in Larnaca at 6:32 a.m. local time with a plane scheduled to leave the Cypriot airport for Birmingham on Thursday afternoon.

UK military personnel helping evacuees at Wadi Seidna airport in Khartoum, Sudan, on April 29, 2023. Sgt. Paul Oldfield/UK Ministry of Defence via PA Media

The airlifts were originally due to end on Monday before the extra flights were announced, but the Foreign Office said there would be no further extensions.

A statement on its website said any British nationals in need of assistance should visit the Foreign Office team at the Coral Hotel in Port Sudan, which is being used as a temporary office with the British Embassy in Khartoum closed.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said on Tuesday the evacuation had seen 2,341 leave the war-torn county on 28 flights.

He wrote on Twitter: “We’ve co-ordinated the longest and largest evacuation of any Western country. But the hard work in Sudan has not finished.”

Continued UK Presence

Hundreds of people have been killed in a bloody conflict between the Sudanese army and a powerful paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces, which broke out on April 15.

The UK government said on April 23 that the British military had evacuated UK diplomats and their families from Sudan. British Ambassador to Sudan Giles Lever has been relocated to neighbouring Ethiopia to “lead the UK’s diplomatic efforts in the region to bring fighting to an end in Sudan,” the government said.

British nationals board an RAF aircraft in Khartoum, Sudan, on April 26, 2023. UK Ministry of Defence via Getty Images

The Royal Air Force (RAF) took over the Wadi Seidna airfield from the Germans on April 25 to begin airlifting other British nationals and their immediate families who wished to leave and were able to get to the airfield. The evacuees were first flown to Cyprus and then to the UK.

After the final flight left Wadi Seidna on April 29, the government advised any remaining UK citizens seeking evacuation to travel to Port Sudan in the east of the country, where the additional evacuation flights would be arranged.

Cleverly told GB News on Tuesday, “There is still an ongoing humanitarian situation, we still have a presence at Port Sudan, both a military presence and a number of other government officials to help British nationals and their dependents leave the country.”

He added, “We will ensure that we maintain a presence to support British nationals, because the situation in Sudan, sadly, is still volatile, and it is still dangerous.”

The foreign secretary also said that the Sudan evacuation operation would have a “significant” cost to British taxpayers.

He told LBC Radio: “It has been a long, complicated, and resource-intensive operation. At some point in the future we will have to total up how much this will cost, but it will be a significant sum.”

He added: “At the moment we have a warship just off the coast of Port Sudan, we have a cross-Whitehall team of officials in Port Sudan to help British nationals leave the country. We can scale that up, or indeed scale that down, according to circumstances.”

Heavy Fighting

On Thursday, fierce fighting could be heard in central Khartoum as the army tried to push back the RSF from areas around the presidential palace and army headquarters. Heavy bombardments also rang out in the adjoining cities of Omdurman and Bahri.

Both sides had agreed to a seven-day ceasefire, but it has been violated.

Each side appears to be battling for control of territory in the capital ahead of any possible negotiations, though the leaders of both factions have shown little public willingness to hold talks after more than two weeks of fighting.

The UK Foreign Office said: “We are closely monitoring the situation in Khartoum and other parts of Sudan where there are ongoing military clashes.

“There is now fighting in various locations across Sudan. Khartoum International Airport is currently closed.”

The United Nations, meanwhile, pressed Sudan’s warring factions on Wednesday to guarantee safe passage of humanitarian aid after six trucks were looted and air strikes in the capital undermined a supposed truce.

U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths said he hoped to have face-to-face meetings with Sudan’s warring parties within two to three days to secure guarantees from them for aid convoys to deliver relief supplies.

The United Nations has warned that the conflict risks causing a humanitarian catastrophe that could spill into other countries. Sudan said on Tuesday that 550 people had died and 4,926 people wounded so far in the conflict.

About 100,000 people have fled Sudan with little food or water to neighbouring countries, the U.N. says.

PA Media and Reuters contributed to this report.