April 24, 2023 at 19:20 CET
Updated 1 hour ago
Image source, Getty Images
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People gathered at bus stations around Khartoum on Monday to flee the capital
The UK is believed to have one of the highest numbers of foreign nationals in Sudan – up to 4,000, according to the UK Secretary for International Development. For more than a week, they have been among the thousands locked in their homes, caught in intense fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Hundreds of foreigners have already been evacuated, but the UK is facing growing criticism from many of its citizens who say they have essentially been abandoned.
While the British Foreign Office said over the weekend it had managed to evacuate embassy staff from the capital Khartoum, hundreds of other citizens are feared to be trapped.
In dozens of conversations with the BBC, those stuck on site complained about poor communication from the Foreign Office’s crisis center.
A small British military reconnaissance team is in Sudan to study evacuation options, according to BBC News.
And on Monday, Secretary of State Andrew Mitchell warned that the Khartoum movement “remains extremely dangerous and no evacuation option comes without serious danger to life”.
He said a member of France’s special forces was “seriously ill” after being shot while trying to evacuate French diplomats.
However, some British citizens say they have waited too long for help.
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Soldiers from the Sudanese army in Khartoum last week
A British national named William told the BBC he had received virtually no help from government officials since the conflict began more than a week ago.
He was forced to brave street fighting to flee Khartoum after his situation became “unbearable”.
“We’ve had absolutely nothing but nonsense from the government,” he told the Today program on Monday.
“Not even nonsense, we had nothing. The last communication was that the government itself will not do anything, so we had to choose that option.”
His story mirrored that of other British citizens who watched in dismay as their international counterparts were evacuated by other governments.
“We feel let down,” Edinburgh-based Fatima Osman, who was visiting the family when the violence began, told the BBC from Khartoum.
“It’s very traumatizing here and the situation is very bad, it’s getting worse. The clashes, the fights and there are dead bodies everywhere. And everybody’s trying to flee and flee the country, and you can see the country really going into a civil war.”
Her husband, Amar Osman, said her experience of trying to seek advice from the Foreign Office infuriated him.
“I filled out the location form on the [Foreign Office] website and I received an email saying they received my form,” he told the Today program as the sound of gunfire echoed nearby.
“But nothing else. It’s an automatic response after you submit your form and that’s it.”
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Watch: Europeans squeeze into evacuation planes from Sudan
While British nationals tried – often to no avail – to get instructions from the Foreign Office crisis center and the embassy in Khartoum, a host of other nations managed to evacuate their citizens.
On Monday, India’s Foreign Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said more than 500 Indian citizens had reached Port Sudan on the Red Sea, some 850 km (528 miles) and a 13-hour drive east of Khartoum. Two Air Force planes and a Navy ship stood ready to evacuate the group.
And long lines of United Nations vehicles and buses were seen on Sunday leaving Khartoum, also heading east towards Port Sudan and carrying “citizens from all over the world,” a Sierra Leonean evacuee told AFP.
One of the first nations to evacuate citizens was Saudi Arabia. On Sunday, 91 citizens of the Kingdom and 66 nationals of 12 other “friendly countries” were flown from Port Sudan across the Red Sea to the city of Jeddah.
Stefano Rebora – president of the Italian NGO Music for Peace – was evacuated on an emergency flight from the Italian embassy on Sunday.
“At 0.30 a.m. the call came from the crisis management team [of the Italian foreign ministry]’ he told the BBC. “They said they would attempt an airlift the next day and told us to go to a meeting point.”
After meeting other Italian nationals at the embassy, Mr Rebora traveled in a convoy to an airfield about 20 km (12 miles) from Khartoum.
“We needed four hours for 20 km,” he recalls. “We’ve seen bodies everywhere along the way – there’s no security, so nobody dares to collect them – but there’s also complete destruction.”
Elizabeth Boughey, a British teacher at the Khartoum American School, was evacuated to Djibouti by the French embassy along with 200 other people of various nationalities.
She said the group – which included a number of British nationals – were taken to an airfield in northern Khartoum and flown out on two specially chartered military planes.
Meanwhile, as of 08:04 local time (10:04 BST) on Sunday, satellite photos appeared to show a Hercules C-130 transport aircraft on the ground at Port Sudan Airfield.
Online reports suggest the plane could have been either a Jordanian or a South Korean plane known to be in the area at the time.
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The C-130 jet on the ground in Port Sudan
Some British nationals have turned down alternative offers of evacuation from friends, family and other nations, believing they had received promises of evacuation from British officials.
dr Javid Abdelmoneim told the BBC his elderly father has spent the past week at his home in Garden City, near Khartoum, where he is observing the month of Ramadan.
During a conversation with officials from the Foreign Office, the family of Dr. Abdelmoneim informed that his father “would be put at the top of the evacuation list as he is older and lives alone”.
But he said Sunday’s announcement that the British embassy in Khartoum had been evacuated surprised the family.
“We dutifully waited and said no when our cousins left [in a convoy] to Port Sudan and Egypt. Our working assumption was that Dad would go with the British Embassy,” said Dr. Abdelmoneim.
“My sister called the crisis team after the announcement on Sunday. She asked them directly if they were planning an evacuation for British citizens and they didn’t answer the question.
“All they (the FCDO) had to do was tweet that British citizens are not being evacuated. Your communication has increased his chance of taking damage and decreased his chance of being safe.”
Amar Osman told the BBC that amid the confusion and ongoing fighting on Monday he was considering taking the perilous route out of Khartoum by road himself.
Thousands of Sudanese have already taken this dangerous route out of the capital. Last week the BBC saw hundreds of people boarding buses and pickup trucks at bus stations across the city.
But this option is fraught with dangers.
Image source, Getty Images
The RSF is said to have set up roadblocks on major roads around Khartoum.
Ms Boughey told the BBC her group were stopped by RSF troops and robbed of around $500 (£402) as they were wandering around town last Wednesday.
Still, the risk hasn’t stopped people from leaving on the streets.
A Briton – who asked not to be named – told the BBC that she and her relatives hired a bus and drove to the Egyptian border after not hearing from the British embassy in Khartoum.
“British citizens have not received information, power to mobile networks and the internet is now down to the point where people are unable to receive information,” she said.
“Meanwhile, Dutch nationals, Greek nationals, Italian nationals and people we know are being flown to safety from runways outside Khartoum. These are citizens, not even embassy officials.
“And because communications have so broken down, it turns out that British citizens would have been able to board those flights, but have been advised by the British government to stay indoors.”
Yousra – a London-based accountant who was in Khartoum for her wedding – fled the capital by bus.
She managed to find transport from the neighboring town of Omdurman to the northern city of Dongola before waiting 24 hours in the scorching heat to cross the Egyptian border.
Speaking to the BBC on Monday, the Chair of the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Alicia Kearns MP, accused the government of failing to learn ‘lessons’ from Afghanistan’s chaotic 2021 evacuation.
“The reality is we have to get British nationals out,” she told the Today programme.
“However, if there should not be an evacuation because it is too dangerous… then we have a moral obligation to tell UK nationals as soon as possible that that is the judgment that has been made because then they must be able to do so make their own decision.”
In a statement to the BBC, a government spokesman defended the Foreign Office’s efforts, saying officials were “working with international partners and doing everything possible to ensure the safe passage of our citizens in what remains a very challenging context”.
Mr Mitchell told Parliament the situation on the ground remained “extremely serious” but promised to explore all options to get British nationals out of Sudan.
But the overwhelming feelings expressed to the BBC on Monday were anger and frustration.
“Every day we have received nothing other than the government update which still says protections are in place, which is a joke,” Ms Boughey told the BBC.
“Compared to what we’ve seen at other embassies, including some much smaller embassies, I don’t know what the British have done other than pull out some of their own.”
Kayleen Devlin, Laura Gozzi, Chris Bell, Olga Robinson and Natasha Booty also contributed coverage for this story.
Graphics by Jana Tauschinski and Tural Ahmedzade.
Edited by James Stringer.