28 April 2023 , 20:20
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The final evacuation flight for Britons fleeing war-torn Sudan will leave tonight, No10 has announced.
Deputy PM Oliver Dowden said rescue operations would cease at 6pm after a “significant decline” in people coming forward to escape the conflict.
The RAF has evacuated more than 1,500 people from Wadi Seidna airfield near the capital of Khartoum, but thousands more UK nationals may remain.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said people must get to the airbase – where troops were seen helping babies – before midday to catch the last flight.
The decision comes after a three-day ceasefire extension was rocked by explosions and gunfire yesterday. There has also been criticism of the pace of the British evacuation.
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Paramedic carrying a baby at the airfield (PA)So far, hundreds of people have died in the conflict between the army and the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. But Mr Dowden denied No10 would “abandon” the Britons unable to get to the airfield.
He said: “Every single British national that has come forward and their eligible dependants have been put safely on a plane. We are seeing those numbers decline significantly and, just like other countries, we have put an end date on this.”
Mr Dowden said consular assistance will remain available at other exit routes. But No10 has rejected calls from Labour to widen the eligibility for evacuation beyond British passport holders and their immediate family.
Brits waiting to board RAF aircraft at Wadi Seidna Air Base in Khartoum (PA)Meanwhile, a British family living in Sudan told how their home was looted before they fled the country.
Mohamed Zahir, 19, his parents and three siblings flew to Cyprus yesterday as attacks in Khartoum and Omdurman intensified.
But before they left, they returned to their home in the Sudanese capital to find food, laptops, TVs and clothes had been stolen.
Marine carries baby at airfield (PA)
Mohamed Zahir fled to Cyprus (Humphrey Nemar.)Student Mohamed, who was waiting for an onward flight to the UK at Larnaca airport, said: “I enter the house, there is nothing… it was like a nightmare.” Elsewhere, a Leeds woman who fled Sudan said she feared she would die as her bus was hit by bullets.
Alaa Sanhouri and nine other Britons travelled to Wadi Seidna on April 15.
At home, she told the BBC : “It was horrible. Everyone was crying.”