An elite SAS rescue team reportedly reached in Sudan on Sunday evening (April 24 – just as a ceasefire was being announced.
However, fears are still rising for 4,000 trapped Brits. A C-17 transport aircraft travelling to Port Sudan on the Red Sea was spotted on a flight tracking website 500 miles from capital Khartoum, The Sun reports. This comes following news that Giles Lever, Britain’s ambassador to Sudan, was holidaying when fighting began and the Brits were stranded.
It was believed that as the conflict erupted RFA Cardigan Bay, which is currently in Bahrain, and HMS Lancaster, in India, would provide possible flights out of Sudan.
However, it was uncertain how their entrance to the nation could assist Brits with the gruesome clash between Sudan’s army and Rapid Support Force rebels continuing.
Read more: Sudan forces agree nationwide ceasefire after days of bloodshed
420 people, including 246 civilians, have died in Khartoum during the bombardment over the past week, with 3,500 more left injured and power and water supplies severed. The distance between Khartoum and Port Sudan is over 500 miles, with the route passing through areas affected by the intense fighting.
With pressures growing, Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said the military was preparing to present options to safely assemble and airlift the Brits out of Sudan to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Andrew Mitchell, UK minister for International Development and Africa, said: “We will do everything we can – and I mean everything – to get our British citizens out.”
This comes following the agreement between the warring parties to a 72 hour ceasefire, which began at midnight (April 25).
US Secretary of State Andrew Blinken has urged the nationwide agreement to be upheld, adding that the US and its partners would seek to bring about a permanent deal. Additional news has also emerged that the aforementioned Lever was one of numerous diplomats that took leave over the Muslim month of Ramadan, thinking conflict was unlikely during the period.
He had been the UK’s head of mission in Kabul, Afghanistan, where an evacuation disaster took place in 2021.
Furthermore the Brits were infuriated on Sunday when diplomatic staff were airlifted to safety by the military while other countries ensured their citizens were saved.
Yasmin Sholgami, 30, whose grandfather, 89, and grandmother, 75, both British nationals, live just 100 yards from the embassy, said: “They’ve been without food or water for a week with no way of getting out.
“They live in the same block as the British Embassy. Next thing we know all British diplomats and embassy workers have evacuated.”