First British evacuees from Sudan set to return to UK today
The first British evacuees from Sudan are set to finally touch down on UK soil later today, as the first two flights take off from the embattled north-east African country.
After completing the danger-fraught journey from their homes to the airport, the UK nationals have been transported across the Mediterranean Sea to Larnaca Airport in Cyprus.
The first charter flight to London is due to depart later today, with a third plane planned to rescue more people from war-torn capital city Khartoum by this morning.
Around 260 people were believed to have been evacuated on the first three flights, with 40 on board the first plane which left the country yesterday morning.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged ‘many more’ will follow, as he warned of a ‘critical’ 24 hours.
According to the government’s own estimates, there are at least 2,000 UK nationals in Sudan, though there have been suggestions the number could be above 4,000.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told LBC Radio there is ‘some risk that some of the planes are not full’, as there are ‘not thousands at the gate’ like during the 2021 airlift from Afghanistan.
The government has told British nationals to make their own way to the airfield, but some fear they will not make it due to a petrol shortage.
Birmingham-born Samar Eltayeb, 20, was concerned her supply would not be sufficient for the one-hour car journey from the outskirts of Khartoum to the airport.
She said: ‘I’m trying to get there. But the problem is the vehicles that we have have no gas, and the petrol stations are empty.
‘There’ll be constant flights within the next few days, but if I can’t find gas to get there, then I’m stuck.’
Samar compared the scenes of devastation in Khartoum to the horror film ‘The Purge’.
She said: ‘She said: ‘Imagine the movie, Purge – it’s just like that. The prisoners got released from the prison yesterday.
‘So there’s murderers and people who’ve committed manslaughter and thieves everywhere.’
Meanwhile, Scottish mum-of-four Jennifer McLellan described the terrifying journey from the relative safety of home to the place where she could catch the plane.
She told Metro.co.uk: ‘It is a 30-minute journey to the airbase, and I have been on the back seat without my phone as I am worried what is going to happen.
‘There is just destruction on the roads everywhere. It feels like anything could happen, there is a lot of tension in the area. Even though there has been a ceasefire we don’t know what will happen.’
British forces will take charge of the Wadi Saeedna airstrip near the capital later today, Mr Wallace said.
They will be taking over control from Germany, after Berlin said its final evacuation flight would leave last night.
Speaking yesterday, the defence secretary said: ‘The Germans are leaving tomorrow, and we will take over the facilitation at the airfield.
‘And the reason the Germans are leaving is people have stopped coming in large numbers.’
In an apparent swipe at the UK’s prioritisation of embassy staff, German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said Berlin would not leave civilians ‘to their own devices’, ‘unlike in other countries’.
At the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) crisis centre, Mr Sunak defended the arrangement, saying diplomats ‘were being targeted’.
He added: ‘The security situation on the ground in Sudan is complicated, it is volatile and we wanted to make sure we could put in place processes that are going to work for people, that are going to be safe and effective.’
Yesterday, he announced that families with children or elderly relatives, or individuals with medical conditions, would get priority on the first flights out of the country.
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