Sudan: The second evacuation flight of Britons lands in Cyprus

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By Caroline Holly and Cathy Long in Larnaca and Andre Roden-Poole from London, BBC News

1 hour ago

Image source Ministry of Defence

photo caption,

British nationals disembark the first RAF flight from Sudan to Larnaca Airport in Cyprus

A second evacuation flight has landed in Cyprus to rescue British nationals from war-torn Sudan.

The passengers and 39 others from a previous rescue flight on Tuesday are expected to be given the opportunity to fly to the UK from Larnaca Airport at a later date.

British forces are trying to get UK nationals out of the East African country during a 72-hour ceasefire.

The BBC has been told that 39 people have been taken on board the first RAF aircraft – and three rescue flights are scheduled in total.

The trapped British subjects were told to make their own way to an airstrip near Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, once it became clear that a ceasefire that began at midnight local time (22:00 GMT) on Monday had held.

RAF military aircraft are used to pick up British passport holders from the airstrip and take them to Lanarca Airport where their documents are checked. The RAF aircraft then refueled, before returning to Sudan to receive the next batch waiting at the airstrip.

The total number of passengers on the flights is expected to reach 260, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet confirmed the number of people who boarded the second plane, which arrived in Larnaca in the early hours of Wednesday.

The Foreign Office said its aim is for evacuees to be in Cyprus for less than 48 hours before they can make the option to travel to the UK.

It is believed that there is only a small window of relative safety for these evacuation efforts to exploit.

Among the first group of evacuees to arrive in Cyprus were families with young children, some of them newborns, who were received by the Cyprus Red Cross who provided food and hygiene items.

They have spent the night in Larnaca and are going to fly to London on a charter flight, which is scheduled to depart in the morning.

A British man whose sister managed to evacuate at night told the BBC it felt an overwhelming sense of relief to be able to escape a city where food and water became scarce because it became unsafe for people to leave their homes.

At one point, he said, she and 13 others had only four dates and one egg left over to share with them.

It is not clear why there are no more UK passport holders on flights yet, but we do know of an NHS doctor visiting an elderly mother, who herself does not hold a UK visa, so there is a reluctance to leave her behind. .

About 120 British soldiers are supporting the evacuation at Wadi Saida airstrip.

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The young children were among the British nationals who arrived at Lanarca International Airport

Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told LBC radio earlier that there was “some risk that some of the planes are not full” as “there weren’t thousands at the gate” like the evacuation from Afghanistan two years ago.

The government is also considering evacuating Bahra from Port Sudan, 500 miles from the capital. HMS Lancaster and RFA Cardigan Bay were sent to the area.

A relative of an elderly British-Sudanese couple told BBC Radio 4 that the couple risked being shot if they left the house, but risked starving if they stayed.

Yasmine Shalgami, from west London, said it had been 10 days since she had been able to speak with her grandparents, who live in front of the British embassy in the Sudanese capital.

She said when she spoke to her British grandfather, 89, grandmother, 75, and his wife, they had no food, water or electricity.

She described where they lived as a “hotspot for fighting” and that it would be “impossible for her grandparents to move”.

More than 2,000 British nationals in Sudan are registered with the Foreign Office.

Families with children or elderly relatives, or individuals with medical conditions, are given priority on flights.

Only UK passport holders and immediate family members with an existing UK entry permit have been told they are eligible for evacuation flights.

And on Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visited the Foreign Office’s crisis center in London, which is overseeing the evacuation effort. “The next 24 hours are very critical,” he told staff.

Speaking to the media, he added, “The security situation on the ground in Sudan is complex, and it’s volatile, and we wanted to make sure we could put in place procedures that would work for people, that would be safe and effective.”

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