The UK government has urged British nationals in Sudan to head for the airfield that is being used to repatriate foreign nationals, as a partially respected three-day ceasefire approaches its scheduled end.
Britain has been criticised for rescuing fewer of its nationals from the fighting than some other European countries, and for starting flights later than some other countries.
The Foreign Office said late on Wednesday that the UK had rescued 536 people on six flights, while France has said it has rescued 936 people and Germany more than 700.
Defending the UK’s operation, foreign secretary James Cleverly on Wednesday stressed it was not certain that the ceasefire would last even until its scheduled end at midnight local time — or 10pm UK time — on Thursday.
There were “definitely” no guarantees the pause between Sudan’s armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces would be extended, he told the BBC. But he insisted planes carrying evacuees were airborne and that there was capacity to take people who reached the Wadi Saeedna airfield, 40km north of the capital Khartoum.
“Our strong advice is that people who wish to be evacuated with the assistance of the government should make their way to the air base, as many, many British nationals have done, where there’s capacity to airlift them out,” said Cleverly.
Despite the 72-hour ceasefire, fighting has continued between the SAF, led by de facto president Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF under vice-president Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemeti.
At least 457 people have been killed nationwide and more than 4,000 have been injured, according to the latest figures from Sudan’s health ministry.
The SAF said late on Wednesday that Burhan had initially agreed to extend the ceasefire for another day after speaking to the presidents of Kenya, Djibouti and South Sudan, but the RSF has yet to accept. The paramilitary force said on Thursday that the army had “attacked” its camp in the Kafouri area of Khartoum.
British military forces have signalled that they expect Thursday to be the busiest day of the airlift, which began on Tuesday, for the roughly 4,000 dual UK-Sudanese nationals and 400 UK nationals in Sudan.
Africa minister Andrew Mitchell on Monday said 2,000 British nationals had contacted the UK authorities seeking help to leave Sudan, although Cleverly declined to give an updated figure on Thursday.
Cleverly insisted it was unfair to compare the UK’s operation with those of other countries. He pointed out that the UK had more citizens than many other countries in Sudan, that they were not living in a concentrated area and that many were in households with non-UK family members.
“I know how tempting it is to say these guys have done really well, we’ve done really badly. It is not as simple as that,” he said, adding that the US, which has estimated that it has 16,000 nationals in Sudan, had repatriated only its diplomats.
Cleverly is due to give a statement on the situation in Sudan to the House of Commons on Thursday.
Flightradar24, a flight-tracking website, on Thursday showed three further scheduled arrivals over the course of the day, following a similar pattern to previous flights in the airlift. Two will use Hercules air transport aircraft, which can carry about 100 people each, while a third will use an Atlas airlifter, which can take roughly 150.
Saudi Arabia said that more than 1,600 evacuees, including British citizens, arrived in Jeddah on Wednesday by sea.
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