Sudan crisis: NHS doctors told they could catch the last of the UK’s evacuation flights

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By Malu Corsino and Joe Inwood, BBC News

1 hour ago

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NHS doctor Abdelrahman Babiker was evacuated from Sudan on Friday after initially being turned away

The UK government has told NHS doctors in Sudan they can now board evacuation flights out of the country, in a shift from its previous policy.

More than 20 NHS medical workers were initially told they could not board flights because they were not British citizens – even though they had UK work permits.

The change comes just hours before the UK’s last rescue flights outside Sudan.

Fighting broke out in the capital Khartoum two weeks ago due to a power struggle within the Sudanese military leadership.

Countries have been frantically rescuing their citizens, with the latest evacuations taking place during a US-brokered ceasefire, which did not last.

And on Friday evening, the US reportedly began evacuating civilians on buses – as a convoy of about 300 people left Khartoum for the port city of Port Sudan, according to US media. It appears to be the first evacuation of non-diplomatic Americans from Sudan.

British nationals and NHS doctors hoping to leave war-torn Sudan have until midday local time (11:00 GMT) to arrive at Wadi Saidna airport, with the last flight departing at 18:00 GMT on Saturday.

They were instructed to make their own way to the airport.

The State Department said the latest flights marked “the end of a successful evacuation process with 1,573 people evacuated to date” and that it was finishing evacuations due to “reduced demand for seats”.

She added that the UK had “established a limited consular presence in Port Sudan to inform British nationals of the options available for departure”.

Stories have emerged this week of NHS doctors being turned away from Khartoum airport – and the Foreign Office has repeatedly told the BBC that only UK passport holders and their families have been able to board flights.

Anyone with a work permit was welcome in the UK, they insisted, but must make their way there.

On Friday evening, the Ministry of Health and Social Care distributed a letter to doctors in Sudan’s National Health Service, telling them to make their way to Wadi Sidna airport, north of the capital, for evacuation.

The text, seen by the BBC, tells any medical staff with permission to stay to bring dependents and proof of NHS employment.

The change comes after the case of Sudanese doctor Dr Abdel Rahman Babiker, who was initially refused a place on a British evacuation, made headlines.

He told the BBC he was “really happy” that the British government had changed its directives – but said there was “only one more day” for his colleagues in Sudan to make their final flights.

After arriving in Cyprus, he said he had “mixed feelings”, saying: “I’m glad I’m finally in a safe place, away from the war and on my way back to the UK. At the same time I’m frustrated that my family (father, mother, brother and sister) are still exposed.” endangered by this deadly fighting in my country.

“I’m thinking about them now and trying to do what I can to help them escape from the danger zone.”

The Manchester Royal Hospital doctor plans to travel to the UK at a later date and is due to return to work on Tuesday.

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Dr. Abdelrahman Babiker will return to his work at the Royal Manchester Hospital, where he has been working for four years

The British Medical Association has called on the government to “ensure the evacuation of all NHS doctors and their families, including those on UK visas”.

Those comments were echoed by Labor’s shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, who said that if there was low demand for evacuation flights while the ceasefire lasted, the government should expand its criteria to include British residents trying to flee Sudan.

He added: “It is not right for the government to applaud NHS doctors one day and then remove them from evacuations flights out of a conflict zone the next.”

British evacuations to the RAF base in Cyprus began last Tuesday.

Other countries also evacuated their citizens, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that about 33,000 refugees fled from Khartoum to refugee camps in Sudan’s White Nile state.

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People evacuate war-torn Sudan, as RAF planes ferry British nationals from Wadi Saidna airport to Cyprus

Intense fighting between the Sudanese army and its rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has left at least 512 people dead and nearly 4,200 injured.

Missiles and heavy weapons have also destroyed the country’s key infrastructure, including access to clean water and the internet. Health officials say most hospitals in conflict zones are not functioning, and more than 60% of health facilities in the capital, Khartoum, are inactive.

Despite the ceasefire, the fighting did not stop, and eyewitnesses reported that the fighting took place in Khartoum, the western region of Darfur, and other provinces.

The truce – which was set to expire at midnight local time on Thursday (23:00 GMT) – has been extended by another 72 hours.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken – who brokered the talks alongside neighboring countries, the UK and the UN – said that while the ceasefire was imperfect, it had reduced the violence.

The British Foreign Office described the evacuation effort as “the longest and largest evacuation effort of any Western country”.

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