UK to end evacuation flights Saturday 28th April 2023
The United Kingdom announced on Friday that it would stop evacuating its citizens and their relatives from Sudan on Saturday, after airlifting over 1,500 people out of the war-torn country this week.
The British flights from the Wadi Saeedna airfield near the Sudanese capital Khartoum, which began on Tuesday, will end on Saturday at 17:00 GMT, deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden told British media.
In a separate statement, the Foreign Office instructed British nationals and their eligible immediate family to arrive at the airport by 1000 GMT on Saturday for departure processing.
Dowden reported a "significant decline" in the number of British nationals requesting evacuation in the previous twenty-four hours.
"Within the next 24 hours, or by tomorrow evening at six o'clock UK time, we will cease these flights," he added.
Dowden denied that London had abandoned any British nationals or their dependents in Sudan, stating that "every single British national who came forward and their eligible dependents have been put on a plane safely."
He noted that the United Kingdom will continue to provide consular support in the east African nation at north-to-south exit points and in the eastern city of Port Sudan.
The Foreign Office reported that 1,573 people, the vast majority of whom were British nationals and their eligible dependents, had been evacuated as of late Tuesday.
The airlifts began after warring parties in Sudan agreed to an initial three-day ceasefire brokered by the United States. The ceasefire has since been formally extended, but fierce fighting has resumed.
The Foreign Office pledged to "press all diplomatic levers to secure a long-term ceasefire and end to the bloodshed in Sudan."
"Ultimately, a stable transition to civilian rule is the best way to protect the security and prosperity of the Sudanese people," the report continued.
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