UK ends Sudan evacuations after extracting over 2,450 people

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UK ends Sudan evacuations after extracting over 2,450 people

1:38 CAT | 05 May 2023

FILE - British nationals waiting to board an RAF aircraft in Sudan. [File photo: Reuters]

The UK said Thursday it had ended its evacuation efforts from Sudan after extracting more than 2,450 people on dozens of flights during an eight-day operation.

The foreign office said the last of 30 flights in that period departed late Wednesday from the eastern city of Port Sudan, “concluding the longest and largest evacuation of any Western nation”.

It added that the “vast majority” of those airlifted out of the war-torn east African country were British citizens and their dependents.

More than 1,200 people from other nations, including the US, Ireland, Netherlands, Canada, Germany and Australia, were also taken out.

The UK government has repeatedly denied abandoning anyone in Sudan, after it was accused by opposition parties of an initially sluggish response to the crisis there and repeating the mistakes of its chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.

London on Thursday also announced it will provide an initial £5 million ($6.3 million) of life-saving aid “to help meet the urgent needs of those fleeing the violence in Sudan”.

The aid will ensure practical items such as food, shelter, medical care and clean water for tens of thousands of people,” the foreign office said.

“We remain focused on supporting those who are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance and continue to press for a long-term ceasefire,” Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a statement.

Deadly urban combat broke out on April 15 between Sudan’s de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who commands the regular army, and his deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The United Nations said Thursday it was planning for an outflow of 860,000 people, adding that $445 million would be needed to support them just through October.

Source: AFP