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ESCAPE FROM HELL
First Brit evac flight leaves war-torn Sudan as UK military vows to defend escape route airfield in Khartoum airlift
THE FIRST evacuation flight carrying Brits out of war-torn Sudan has touched down in Cyprus as the UK military vowed to protect the lifeline airfield outside the devastated city of Khartoum.
UK forces have launched a daring emergency air lift to rescue some 4,000 citizens from the country which is being torn apart by warring factions.
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A flight carrying around 40 Brit civilians rescued from Sudan touched down in Cyprus at Larnaca airport this evening, the country's foreign ministry confirmed.
A Downing Street spokesperson said two more are expected to depart overnight tonight.
But officials warned the situation is fast-moving and this could change.
And they also said the military stands ready to defend Wadi Saeedna airfield - which is being used as a staging area for evac flights.
READ MORE ON BRIT CIVILIANS TRAPPED IN SUDAN
The site is currently being run by German forces, but the UK military is poised to take over.
Downing Street said efforts will be made to avoid "active engagement" with other forces - and they are also probing other evacuation routes, such as via Port Sudan.
The Prime Minister's official spokesperson said: "It's worth emphasising that international evacuations have been taking place since Sunday and we haven't seen any significant issues... or large crowds appearing."
Photos released earlier today show Royal Marines from 3 Commando Brigade and Royal Air Force military police embarking Hercules aircraft at their base in Cyprus.
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Defence sources however have grimly warned the highly dangerous situation is even more challenging than the notorious Afghan airlift from Kabul in 2021.
It comes 48 hours after an SAS mission saved embassy staff and their families from the ever-shifting warzone in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.
British forces are trying to operate in a narrow 72-hour ceasefire window brokered by the US.
There is the constant fear that such fragile peace could collapse at a moment's notice and catch Brits in the crossfire.
Defence sources said the rescue was far more complex than the Kabul airlift two years ago, as the UK had no military presence in Khartoum and there was fighting in the capital.
"This is a very, very different challenge to Afghanistan," one source told The Sun.
Operation Pitting was a military evacuation from Kabul as the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021.
It was the largest operation of its kind since World War 2 - which saw 15,000 people lifted to safety on more than 100 flights.
However, Sudan poses a whole new set of dangers.
Teams of special forces are expected to secure safe routes out for UK citizens - before passport holders are then called to the airfield.
Some 1,400 UK military personnel are understood to be involved in the operation - possibly alongside ships from the Royal Navy.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed the "large scale airlift" is being undertaken to rescue trapped Brits.
“Priority will be given to the most vulnerable, including families with children and the elderly," said Mr Sunak.
The PM vowed there will be “many more” flights evacuating British nationals from conflict-torn Sudan “into tomorrow”.
Thousands of Brits remain trapped in the country after clashes between warring army factions led to deadly street battles.
Foreign secretary James Cleverly warned of the urgency needed in the evacuation.
"It is important to remember that ceasefires have been announced and have fallen apart in the past, so the situation remains dangerous, volatile and unpredictable," he said.
Mr Cleverly went on: "It is impossible for us to predict how long this opportunity will last and we are calling people forward in priority order based on their vulnerability.
"We will maintain this airhead for as long as we can but the situation does remain dangerous and volatile."
A400M Atlas and C-130 Hercules transport aircraft will be used to ferry Brits out of Khartoum to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.
Royal Navy frigate HMS Lancaster has also set course for the Red Sea ahead of a possible evacuation from Port Sudan.
RFA Cardigan Bay - a landing dock ship from the Royal Fleet Auxiliary - is also in Bahrain and could also be deployed.
The Foreign Office said priority will be given to families with young children, elderly and those in need of medical help.
It follows a Cobra meeting last night where Sunak was warned that families stuck Khartoum risked running out of food and water.
The British Foreign Office said British nationals should not make their way to the airfield unless they are called - with the situation remaining volatile.
More than a dozen passenger jets were damaged on the tarmac when clashes erupted at Khartoum airport.
All civilian flights were halted.
A defence source said all possibilities were being considered in Sudan and there we no good options - with the situation looking even more challenging than Afghanistan.
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They said: “If you tell people to stay at home they may be less likely to get shot. But the availability of food and water in the city is increasingly limited.
“If you tell people to leave home it's towards safety. Then they get closer to food and water but they might be at increased risk.
"And that makes it very difficult to work out how we best support the people that are there.
“Kabul was the last place of safety in Afghanistan. But we had troops on the ground, really good intelligence, really good relationships with the Afghan national security forces.
"And a defined period of time given to us by the Taliban, to get people out as quickly as we could.
“So although it was a deteriorating situation we started from a position where there wasn't fighting going on in Kabul.
"We knew everything we needed to know and it was just a case of getting planes in and out.”
The ceasefire between Sudan's warring generals came into effect on Tuesday.
The country has been rocked by 10 days of urban combat which has killed hundreds, wounded thousands, and sparked a mass exodus of foreigners.
The United States and European, Middle Eastern, African and Asian nations launched emergency missions to bring to safety their embassy staff and Sudan-based citizens by road, air and sea.
But millions of Sudanese are unable to flee what is one of the world's poorest countries, with a history of military coups.
They are trying to survive acute shortages of water, food, medicine and fuel as well as power and internet blackouts.
Britain requested an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Sudan, which was expected to take place Tuesday.
And it has come as it emerged Britain’s ambassador to Sudan, Giles Lever, was away on holiday when Brits were stranded as the fighting erupted.
Mr Lever was among diplomats who took leave over the Muslim month of Ramadan, wrongly believing fighting was unlikely during the period.
The dad-of-two, whose second-in-command stayed behind, had been the UK’s head of mission in Kabul, Afghanistan, where another evacuation shambles unfolded in 2021.
Anger mounted as Brits living nearby were left behind on Sunday when troops airlifted diplomatic staff to safety and other nations successfully rescued their citizens.
Yasmin Sholgami, 30, whose British national grandad, 89, and grandma, 75, live 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.”
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.”
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The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) agreed to the ceasefire "following intense negotiations", Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement shortly before the truce took effect last night.
Previous bids to pause the conflict failed to take hold, but both sides confirmed they had agreed to the three-day halt.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned earlier that Sudan was on "the edge of the abyss" and that the violence "could engulf the whole region and beyond".
The fighting has pitted forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against those of his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the RSF.
A UN convoy carrying 700 people completed an arduous 530-mile road trip to Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast from the capital, where they left behind gunfire and explosions.
The United Nations head of mission Volker Perthes said the convoy arrived safely.
A UN statement separately said he and other key staff will "remain in Sudan and will continue to work towards a resolution to the current crisis".
With Khartoum airport disabled after battles that left charred aircraft on the tarmac, many foreigners were airlifted from smaller airstrips to countries including Djibouti and Jordan.
US special forces swooped in with Chinook helicopters Sunday to rescue diplomats and their dependents, while Britain launched a similar rescue mission.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said more than 1,000 EU citizens had been taken out during a "long and intense weekend" involving airlift missions by France, Germany and others.
China said it had "safely evacuated" a first group of citizens and would "try every means to protect the lives, properties and safety of 1,500 plus Chinese compatriots in Sudan".
Japan said it had evacuated 45 of its nationals and their spouses and temporarily closed its embassy in Khartoum.
The capital, a city of five million, has endured "more than a week of unspeakable destruction", Norway's ambassador Endre Stiansen wrote on Twitter after his evacuation.
Nearly 200 people from more than 20 countries arrived in the Saudi port of Jeddah Monday night after crossing the Red Sea in a naval frigate.
"We travelled a long way from Khartoum to Port Sudan. It took us around 10 or 11 hours," Lebanese national Suhaib Aicha told AFP as his young daughter cried on his shoulders.
"It took us another 20 hours on this ship from Port Sudan to Jeddah."
Those Sudanese who can afford to are also fleeing Khartoum on crowded buses for the more than 900-kilometre desert drive north to Egypt.
Among the 800,000 South Sudanese refugees who previously fled civil war in their own country, some are choosing to return, with women and children crossing the border, said the UN refugee agency.
In the capital, street battles have left the sky often blackened by smoke from shelled buildings and torched shops.
"There was a rocket strike in our neighbourhood... it is like nowhere is safe," said resident Tagreed Abdin, an architect.
Experts have long drawn links between the RSF and Russian mercenary group Wagner. Blinken earlier on Monday voiced "deep concern" that Wagner risked aggravating the war in Sudan.
The military toppled Bashir in April 2019 following mass citizen protests that raised hopes for a transition to democracy.
The two generals seized power in the 2021 coup, but later fell out, most recently over the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army.
Former joint operational commander in the British Armed Forces, Ash Alexander Cooper, warned news of the ceasefire may not have reached local commanders.
He said: "It is a really complex time and very unstable, even though we have very welcome news of this ceasefire potentially up to 72 hours - the last 10 days shows it might not hold for that long.
"The trouble is this country is so large there are no really good options."
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He went on: "At the highest level, if the commanders have agreed one thing that's great - but as we understand communication is particularly difficult in country now, so the risk to life is still very high.
"It is a risk calculus not just for those on the ground, but also for the British government."
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PLANE SAILING
By HARRY COLE
A DARING mission to evacuate dozens of Brits from war-torn Sudan risked total collapse.
The Army, RAF and special forces rescued scores of British diplomats on Sunday.
But the airlift was halted by a row with Sudanese officials over flying out a diplomat’s spouse — a Sudanese citizen.
The man had to wait to be evacuated later on a French flight out of Khartoum.
One senior diplomatic source said the dispute risked “collapsing” the entire rescue.
A Downing Street spokesman insisted: “The plane left without any major incident.”
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