Evacuees from Sudan wait for their flight at Larnaca International Airport, Cyprus. Photo / AP
Evacuees from Sudan wait for their flight at Larnaca International Airport, Cyprus. Photo / AP
The UK will halt evacuation flights from Sudan today, its government has said.
Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, said operations would cease following a “significant decline” in the number of British nationals seeking to flee the strife-torn country.
Downing Street has rejected calls to widen the eligibility for evacuation beyond British passport holders and their immediate families. It comes amid criticism of the pace of the UK evacuation, which was bought more time after a three-day extension to the ceasefire was agreed.
Concerns have been raised that the deadline could mean families are split up or some members are left behind. Labour has called on ministers to use the longer window to extend eligibility for evacuation before it is “too late”.
Updated guidance on the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) website urged those wishing to leave Sudan to arrive at Wadi Saeedna airfield by noon local time yesterday to be processed for the last flight.
With the embassy in Khartoum closed and British diplomats evacuated, the Government acknowledged that passports of visa applicants were left behind when diplomats evacuated the embassy in Khartoum amid heavy fighting last weekend, but declined to say how many people were affected.
A Whitehall spokesman said: “Any documents held by the UK government are stored securely. It is not safe to access the UK visa application centre in Khartoum, which is in an area ... at the centre of the fighting, and we are [unable] to retrieve passports held there.”
”We recognise that this is an extremely difficult situation. We will continue to monitor the situation closely. The UK government is working to identify solutions for those affected.”
British Nationals board a Royal Air Force aircraft for evacuation of civilians to Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus at Wadi Saeedna military airport, 22 kilometres north of Khartoum, Sudan. Photo / AP
The UK began a large-scale evacuation operation from the airfield on Tuesday when British troops took over its management from Germany after it had completed its own evacuations.
The Royal Air Force has evacuated 1,573 people since Tuesday. The government said it had “decided to end the flights ... because of a decline in demand, as well as the risk of renewed conflict in Sudan”.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly yesterday urged Britons to make their way to the airfield immediately, as evacuations could be halted by fighting.
”Now is the time to move, because when the ceasefire ends, my ability to give the kind of limited assurance I can give now might go and we might not be able to evacuate,” he said.
It came as gunfire struck a plane landing at the Sudanese airfield where British troops were managing evacuations, wounding a crew member, Sudan’s army said.
The Turkish plane landed safely at Wadi Saeedna airfield north of the capital, Khartoum, with a damaged fuel supply, the Sudanese army said. It held the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces responsible for the incident, but the group said the area was not under its control and blamed Sudan’s military.
