2023-04-28 22:28:38
The United Kingdom is completing evacuations by military aircraft of its nationals and their relatives caught up in the fighting in Sudan, the British government has announced.
“People should be prepared that within 24 hours, by 18:00 UK time (1700 GMT) (Saturday), we will end these evacuations” of British nationals, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden told British media.
He added that “more than 1,500 people”, most of them Britons, were evacuated with their families from Wadi Sedna airport near Khartoum.
More than 2,000 British citizens have told the authorities they want to be evacuated.
For its part, the Foreign Ministry said that those wishing to evacuate must go to the airport by 10:00 GMT on Saturday morning.
Dowden explained that this scheduled halt in evacuations was caused by the “significant drop” in the number of British nationals who go to the airport from which evacuations depart. He denied any desire to abandon the British there, saying that the authorities would maintain “diplomatic support” at various exit points from the country, such as Port Sudan.
On Tuesday, the United Kingdom began evacuating its nationals from Sudan on a military plane, in light of the ceasefire concluded between the warring parties, after its diplomatic staff and their families had left the country last Sunday.
The government continues to be heavily criticized, as it is accused of taking longer to evacuate its citizens than in other countries.
The British media widely reported the testimonies of doctors working in the British public health system who were unable to leave because they do not hold British citizenship.
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