UK’s Cleverly urges nationals in Sudan to move now as end of ceasefire nears
Britain may not be able to continue evacuating its nationals in Sudan when a ceasefire ends – something due to happen later on Thursday – and they should try to reach British flights out of the country immediately, foreign minister James Cleverly said.
“Now is the time to move because when the ceasefire ends, my ability to give the kind of limited assurance I can give now might go and we might not be able to evacuate,” Reuters reports Cleverly told Sky News television in the UK.
Key events
France’s foreign ministry has tweeted about the arrival of the frigate Lorraine in Jeddah, specifying that nationals from 50 nationalities were on board, including people from the US, UK, Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Sweden.
La frégate Lorraine de la Marine nationale est arrivée à Djeddah le 26/04/23 en provenance de Port-Soudan, d’où elle était partie la nuit précédente.
Cette nouvelle opération a permis d’évacuer du #Soudan 398 personnes, dont 5 🇫🇷 & des ressortissants + de 50 nationalités… pic.twitter.com/YoGZenhoum
— France Diplomatie🇫🇷🇪🇺 (@francediplo) April 27, 2023
Saudi Arabia says that it has evacuated a further 187 people to Jeddah, including citizens from 25 nationalities.
The ministry of foreign affairs said that it included people from the Netherlands, Russia, Lebanon, Norway, US, Turkey, Serbia, Poland, Germany, India, Georgia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Sweden, Uzbekistan, UK, Ireland, Kenya, the Philippines, Ethiopia, Armenia, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Paraguay and Pakistan.
In continuation of the evacuation efforts made by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under the directives of the Kingdom’s Leadership, several evacuees arrived in Jeddah this morning from the Republic of #Sudan, which included 187 individuals. pic.twitter.com/Hin6vWYJ2y
— Foreign Ministry 🇸🇦 (@KSAmofaEN) April 27, 2023
Saudi Arabia now says that in total it has “2544 people, including 119 Saudi citizens and 2425 individuals belonging to 74 nationalities.”
Foreign secretary James Cleverly has defended the pace of the UK’s evacuation response in Sudan during his morning media appearances, insisting that comparisons between states was not possible.
“We’ve worked in close coordination throughout. Different countries are operating evacuations in different ways,” PA Media report he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
He said: “Different countries have different sets of circumstances. Their nationals in countries don’t all behave the same way. Countries where their nationals tend to live in a close expat community who are geographically co-located, it’s easier for them to move en masse, it’s easier for them to be evacuated.
“British nationals, the pattern that we have seen is they tend to be more distributed around the city, often have Sudanese nationals as part of their families.”
Having said “I know it’s very tempting to do these international comparisons” Cleverly went on to say “I know how tempting it is to say these guys have done really well, we’ve done really badly. It is not as simple as that. The US for example, with all their might, with all their wealth, have only evacuated through their government channels their diplomats.”
Here are some of the latest images we have received over the news wires of evacuees from Sudan around the world.
The UK’s foreign secretary James Cleverly has been defensive about criticism of UK evacuation efforts from Sudan affecting and delaying efforts by Germany and other European nations to evacuate people.
The BBC has reported that German authorities told it that the British operation to rescue diplomats at the weekend “jeopardised” the efforts of other nations, because it didn’t have the permission of the Sudanese authorities to take place. Cleverly told listeners:
My understanding is we did have permissions for those overflights. I will, of course, look at the circumstances of that. My understanding is we’ve had permissions for those flights. We enjoy a very, very close professional relationship with the German government and the German armed forces that have been on the on the ground.
Chief political correspondent at the BBC, Nick Eardley, has also cited a source at the Ministry of Defence saying “It is complete nonsense to claim that we landed in Sudan without permission from the Sudanese army. We had permission.”
Senior German political sources had told the BBC that British forces landed in Sudan without permission as other European nations were hoping to airlift citizens to safety. They allege the “unannounced British military presence” angered the Sudanese army and caused them to delay access to the airfield for other nations.
The RSF forces in Sudan have issued a statement this morning via the @RSFSudan Twitter account and on Telegram, claiming that Sudan’s army has attacked one of their bases in violation of the ceasefire. It writes:
The extremist putschist forces have attacked the camp of the RSF in the Kafouri area with aviation and artillery. Our forces confronted the aggressor forces … and inflicted heavy losses … and seized their military equipment. The attacks of the putschists and the remnants of the former regime on the camps of our forces come during the humanitarian truce that was allocated to open humanitarian corridors for citizens and residents of brotherly and friendly countries.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Cleverly unable to say how many British people stranded in Sudan the government has contacted
The UK’s foreign secretary James Cleverly has been unable to clarify how many British citizens in Sudan it has been able to contact in what he repeatedly described as “an active war zone” where communications were “inconsistent”. On the BBC’s Today programme he said that the government had been making every effort to contact people in Sudan, telling listeners:
I understand how frustrating it must be when you are not able to get communication, or get updates of what’s happened. We’ve got to remember the mobile phone coverage in Khartoum has been inconsistent and patchy. We have been broadcasting messages. We have been sending out through social media channels. We have been sending out into organically constructed WhatsApp groups of the British national community.
We’ve been making direct calls with people of whom we have phone numbers. Often those calls do not get through because the mobile phone coverage is inconsistent.
I’ve seen examples of this, I’ve gone to the crisis response centre, where we’ve established communications with people at one point in the day, and then lost those communications at other points in the day.
So you say “how many?”
People have to understand that this is an active war zone where the internet is not consistent.
Previously the UK government has said that it estimated there were 4,000 British nationals in Sudan. They have been asked to register their presence in the country via a form on the UK government’s website.
France says it has evacuated 936 people from Sudan, including US and British nationals
Reuters has a quick snap that the French foreign ministry says it has now evacuated 936 people from Sudan. It says the latest evacuation operation, using the ship Lorraine, was also carrying British and US nationals, as well as French nationals. France again called for an end to the fighting.
Here is our latest video report on the evacuations from Sudan:
Cleverly: we cannot guarantee that we will be able to airlift UK citizens from Sudan after ceasefire ends
UK foreign secretary James Cleverly has told UK nationals in Sudan that he cannot guarantee that the UK will be able to provide them assistance after the ceasefire ends on Thursday night.
He told viewers of Sky News:
We had always planned to evacuate under whatever circumstances on the ground. The ceasefire that we had called for in conjunction with our international allies has made it considerably easier.
We cannot predict exactly what will happen when that ceasefire ends, but what we do know is it will be much, much harder, potentially impossible.
So, what we’re saying to British nationals is if you’re hesitant, if you’re weighing up your options, our strong, strong advice is to go through Wadi Saeedna whilst the ceasefire is up and running.
PA Media reports Cleverly added “There are planes, there is capacity, we will lift you out. I’m not able to make those same assurances once a ceasefire has ended.”
UK’s Cleverly urges nationals in Sudan to move now as end of ceasefire nears
Britain may not be able to continue evacuating its nationals in Sudan when a ceasefire ends – something due to happen later on Thursday – and they should try to reach British flights out of the country immediately, foreign minister James Cleverly said.
“Now is the time to move because when the ceasefire ends, my ability to give the kind of limited assurance I can give now might go and we might not be able to evacuate,” Reuters reports Cleverly told Sky News television in the UK.
Sudan’s army says it is willing to extend ceasefire amid plans for talks
Sudan’s army expressed willingness to extend the three-day ceasefire that is due to expire on Thursday night, amid sporadic fighting around the capital, Khartoum, Reuters reports.
The army said late on Wednesday its leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, had given initial approval to a plan to extend the truce for another 72 hours and send an army envoy to the South Sudan capital of Juba for talks.
The Sudanese armed forces and its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), previously agreed to a three-day ceasefire that is due to expire late on Thursday. There was no immediate response from the RSF to the proposal from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional bloc.
The military said the presidents of South Sudan, Kenya and Djibouti have worked on a proposal that includes extending the truce and talks between the two forces.
“Burhan thanked the IGAD and expressed an initial approval to that,” the army statement said.
Any ceasefire extension could help international evacuation efforts. UK military chiefs said evacuation flights would continue as long as conditions were safe, though the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said the UK “cannot guarantee” how many further evacuation flights will depart once the ceasefire ends.
Read more here: Sudan conflict – army says it is willing to extend ceasefire amid plans for talks
Blinken and African Union Commission chair hold talks
Helen Sullivan
US secretary of state Antony Blinken and African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat spoke on Wednesday about the crisis in Sudan.
Blinken’s spokesperson, Matthew Miller said the pair had discussed, “collaboration to create a sustainable cessation of hostilities and end the fighting in Sudan” and had agreed that the “AU’s continued leadership remains essential in pressing the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to immediately cease military operations and allow unhindered humanitarian access.”
Welcome and what we know so far …
Helen Sullivan
Welcome back to our live coverage of the crisis in Sudan.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken and African Union commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat discussed working together to create a sustainable end to the fighting in Sudan, the state department said in a statement on Wednesday.
Evacuations from Sudan by sea, land and air are ongoing as the last day of a three-day ceasefire begins.
The UK’s foreign secretary James Cleverly is doing domestic media appearances, and we’ll have the latest lines from him.
My colleague Martin Belam will have more on the latest from Sudan shortly. In the meantime, here are the key recent developments:
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Six UK flights have evacuated 536 people from war-torn Sudan, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said. UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has said the UK “cannot guarantee” how many further evacuation flights will depart once the 72-hour ceasefire in Sudan expires on Thursday night.
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A sixth RAF transport plane carrying evacuees is about to land in Cyprus, well short of the total number originally expected by this time but indicative of the pick up in pace of the rescue mission. It is not known how many British nationals who are believed to include women and children are on the A400M plane but, as has been the case thus far, they will be processed in Larnaca before embarking on onwards journeys.
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On Wednesday, Nigeria started evacuating around 3,500 of its nationals, mostly students. “The evacuation of our citizens has commenced. Seven buses have left Khartoum and they are heading to Egypt,” Manzo Ezekiel, spokesman for Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) told AFP.
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A second American has died in Sudan, the White House said on Wednesday, and U.S. authorities are helping a small number of citizens seeking to leave the country during a ceasefire that has curbed fighting. While sporadic violence continues, the ceasefire announced by the United States on Monday appears to be holding, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.
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Omar al-Bashir is in custody in a military hospital amid reports of RSF prison breaks, with Reuters reporting that Sudan’s army said the ousted former president was being held in a military hospital under police custody. It claimed that the formerly jailed Bashir and about 30 others were moved to the hospital on the recommendation of medical staff in Kober prison before fighting broke out in the country.
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The British Red Cross has warned that the “desperate” humanitarian need in Sudan risks becoming “catastrophic”. Sam Turner, head of east and southern African region, said: “We expect the humanitarian need will only grow in the coming days and weeks, including in neighbouring countries as people flee their homes to seek safety.”
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The AFP newswire reports that Ahmed Harun, a leading figure of the regime of deposed dictator Omar al-Bashir, has said he has escaped prison. It reports: “Harun, who led the regime’s infamous counter-insurgency campaign in the western Darfur region in the mid-2000s and is wanted for war crimes by the international criminal court, said he had broken out of the capital’s Kober prison.”
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A truce in the 11-day conflict has been undermined by Sudan’s army and paramilitary force. Reuters reports: “Sudan’s army and a paramilitary force battled on the outskirts of the capital on Wednesday, undermining a truce in an 11-day conflict that civilian groups fear could revive the influence of ousted autocrat Omar al-Bashir and his loyalists.”
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Crowds of families have been growing at Sudan’s border crossing with Egypt, desperately trying to escape their country’s violence and sometimes waiting for days with little food or shelter, witnesses said on Wednesday. People have been making exhausting drives across the desert to access points out of the country, including the Arqin crossing into Egypt at the northern border, where families have been spending nights outside in the desert, waiting to be let in.
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Sudanese authorities and the RSF have traded accusations over the release of prison inmates in Sudan. Thousands of convicted criminals, including some sentenced to death, were held in the vast Kober prison in Khartoum, along with senior and lower-ranking officials from the Bashir regime, which was toppled four years ago.
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Cyprus’s foreign ministry spokesperson Theodoros Gotsis told the Guardian that some of the evacuees who had arrived on the first flights had spent Tuesday night in an army training camp in Larnaca. “We have activated our non-combatant national evacuation operation and as part of that all facilities at our disposal are being used,” he said ahead of a fourth RAF flight arriving at the island’s main international airport.
