This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/24/uk-evacuation-sudan-british-nationals

The article has changed 15 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
UK has ‘failed to learn lessons of Afghanistan’ in evacuating citizens from Sudan No assurances UK nationals will be rescued from Sudan, says minister
(about 2 hours later)
Chair of foreign affairs committee says up to 4,000 stranded British have not been told if they will be rescued Andrew Mitchell says government ‘exploring every single possible way’ of evacuating Britons from war zone
The UK Foreign Office does not appear to have learned the lessons of the evacuation from Afghanistan, judging by its communications with British nationals in Sudan, the Conservative chair of the foreign affairs select committee has said. British nationals still in Sudan cannot be given any assurances about evacuations, the UK development minister has said, as a storm gathers over the UK’s decision to rescue only its diplomats over the weekend, when other countries were evacuating diplomats and nationals.
Alicia Kearns estimated that between 3,000 and 4,000 British nationals were in Sudan, of whom at least 1,000 had asked for help to leave. Andrew Mitchell said about 2,000 Britons in Sudan had registered with the Foreign Office, and the government was “exploring every single possible way of getting them out”. But he warned: “I simply cannot give any assurances and [it] wouldn’t be responsible to do so.”
The UK airlifted its diplomats out of Sudan on Sunday, leaving British citizens behind awaiting further instructions. The UK airlifted its diplomats out of Sudan on Sunday, leaving British citizens behind awaiting further instructions. Asked why diplomats but not citizens had been evacuated, Mitchell said “we have a specific duty of care, a legal duty of care, to our own staff and our diplomats” and that there had been “a very specific threat to the diplomatic community” in Khartoum.
Kearns said if the UK decided it could not attempt to rescue the remaining nationals, it needed to communicate that decision to them so that they were not left waiting for an operation that would not happen. In a round of interviews on Monday morning, Mitchell said he could not give a timeline for when it would be possible to rescue British nationals. “The situation is absolutely desperate and a ceasefire is required,” he said. “The only advice that Britain can give to people is to stay indoors because that is the safe option.”
“We have a moral obligation to tell British nationals as soon as possible that is the judgment that has been made, because they then need to make their own decisions,” Kearns told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. However, he added: “Many of the Brits there are very creative and know the situation on the ground, and if at their own risk they determine there is a way for them to leave their own homes then of course they will take it.”
The Conservative chair of the foreign affairs select committee, Alicia Kearns, said the Foreign Office did not appear to have learned lessons from the evacuation from Afghanistan, judging by its communications with British nationals in Sudan.
Kearns estimated there could be “3,000, 4,000-plus” British nationals stuck in Sudan. She said if the UK decided it could not attempt to rescue the remaining nationals, it needed to communicate that decision to them so they were not left waiting for an operation that would not happen.
“We have a moral obligation to tell British nationals as soon as possible that is the judgment that has been made, because they then need to make their own decisions,” Kearns told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
She agreed it was unacceptable that British nationals who had registered with the Foreign Office had received just two computer-generated messages in the past week.She agreed it was unacceptable that British nationals who had registered with the Foreign Office had received just two computer-generated messages in the past week.
“That would suggest no lessons have been learned from Afghanistan and I have urged the government to make sure they are communicating regularly with British nationals. The reality is that, unlike other countries, we have thousands [of nationals in Sudan] so perhaps sometimes phoning around is terribly difficult.”“That would suggest no lessons have been learned from Afghanistan and I have urged the government to make sure they are communicating regularly with British nationals. The reality is that, unlike other countries, we have thousands [of nationals in Sudan] so perhaps sometimes phoning around is terribly difficult.”
The violence in Sudan has pitted army units loyal to its military ruler, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, who is the deputy head of the ruling council. Their power struggle has raised fears of chaos and a humanitarian disaster in the country of 45 million people, Africa’s third-largest. European countries, China and others from around the world raced to extract thousands of their citizens from Khartoum on Monday during an apparent lull in fierce fighting. France and Germany said they had evacuated about 700 people, without giving a breakdown of their nationalities. A German air force plane carrying evacuees landed in Berlin early on Monday.
Battles have been raging in the centre of the capital, Khartoum, and in its twin city of Omdurman, and a series of ceasefires have failed to hold. Several countries sent military planes from Djibouti to fly people out from the Sudanese capital, while other operations took people by convoy to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, which is about 500 miles (800km) by road from Khartoum. From there, some have boarded ships to Saudi Arabia.
The Labour party in the UK has demanded to know what the government is doing to help the remaining British nationals still in Sudan. Some Sudanese people have also expressed anger that western countries have seemingly prioritised evacuating their people over trying to stop the fighting. Indonesia said more than 500 of its citizens had been evacuated to the port and were awaiting transport to Jeddah, across the Red Sea. China, Denmark, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden said they had got nationals out, while Japan said it was preparing to send an evacuation team from Djibouti.
Kearns said she believed British citizens in Sudan were living in a state of fear and that, as a former diplomat herself, she was inherently uncomfortable about a situation in which the UK had evacuated its diplomats before other nationals. Tobias Ellwood, the chair of the Commons defence committee, called for a “clearcut plan” to get British passport holders out. “If that plan does not emerge today, then individuals will then lose faith and then start making their own way back,” he told GB News, saying that could lead to “some very difficult situations”.
She acknowledged mitigating factors, such as the complexities on the ground and the fact that other countries had also removed their diplomats owing to a direct threat to their lives. The violence in Sudan has pitted army units loyal to its military ruler, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, against the Rapid Support Forces, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti. Battles have been raging in Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman, and a series of ceasefires have failed to hold.
“The focus now has to move to getting our British nationals out using the one airstrip available for evacuations,” she said. “We do have Hercules and other aircraft that are capable of landing on land that is not a formal land strip. Some of our Arab partners are using a land convoy and a boat.” The Labour party has demanded to know what the UK government is doing to help the remaining British nationals still in Sudan.
Some Sudanese people have expressed anger that western countries have seemingly prioritised evacuating their people over trying to stop the fighting.
Kearns said she believed British citizens in Sudan were living in a state of fear and, as a former diplomat, she was inherently uncomfortable about a situation in which the UK had evacuated its diplomats before other nationals.