LONDON — A cease-fire between the two military factions fighting for supremacy in Sudan is the best way to guarantee the safety of British nationals in the northern African country, a Foreign Office minister said, as the U.K. readies a mass evacuation.
U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is on Monday chairing an urgent meeting with ministers on the government’s response to the situation in Sudan, where about 2,000 British citizens remain trapped. The figure could be around 4,000 counting British and dual nationals, according to Andrew Mitchell, the U.K. minister for development and Africa.
“We are looking at every single possible option for extracting them,” Mitchell told the House of Commons during an urgent question Monday afternoon. “Movement around the capital remains extremely dangerous and no evacuation option comes without grave risk to life.”
British troops have reportedly already flown to Port Sudan, on the Red Sea, to carry out reconnaissance work, but Mitchell refused to confirm this.
He added: “Ending the violence is the single most important action we can take to guarantee the safety of British nationals and everyone in Sudan.”
A power struggle between Sudan’s military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, has plunged Sudan into fierce fighting.
The situation is “really worrying especially when considering the RSF’s historic links” with the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group of mercenaries, said former Foreign Office minister Vicky Ford.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also expressed Monday his “deep concern” about the Wagner Group’s alleged involvement in the Sudan conflict.
‘Fast-moving and complex’
The British government is already facing criticism for being slow to announce a plan to evacuate its nationals more broadly after it swiftly took U.K. diplomats out of the country over the weekend. Countries including France, Germany, Indonesia, Jordan, Italy, Saudi Arabia and Spain are already working to get their citizens out — with France evacuating some Britons as well.
Downing Street said Monday the U.K. was working with EU countries and the U.S. on the “shared challenges” in Sudan, and insisted that the evacuation of British diplomats from the country over the weekend was “informed by lessons learned” from the Afghanistan evacuation following the Taliban takeover of that country.
“It’s been a very fast-moving and complex situation. I think, as demonstrated over the weekend, we moved very swiftly in what was very challenging circumstances to safely evacuate the diplomats from Sudan,” the prime minister’s official spokesperson said.
Mitchell told MPs the evacuation was being hindered by the impossibility of using Khartoum’s airport, the disruption of energy supplies and communication networks, and the two fighting factions not facilitating the evacuations — unlike the Taliban, which allowed them to go ahead. But he stressed the government’s ability to support British nationals “has not been impacted by the relocation of British embassy staff.”
The minister confirmed the U.K. ambassador to Sudan was on leave in Britain when the crisis sparked, but said “the second-most senior” person in the embassy was in post during his absence. But he was later forced to clarify that by this he meant the development director rather than the deputy head of mission, who according to the Times was also on leave.
The evacuation team will continue to operate from a neighboring country with support from the Foreign Office in London, Mitchell added, urging British nationals trapped in Sudan, and especially those in Khartoum, to continue to hide indoors.
Very little food is getting into the capital, he added, warning that the situation in Sudan “is extremely grave.”
