There are understood to be around 4,000 British passport holders in Sudan – as foreign secretary James Cleverly warned the UK government is “severely limited” in its ability to help British nationals until the conflict there ends.
It comes after diplomats and staff in Sudan have been evacuated by governments around the world as rival generals battle for a ninth day with no sign of a truce that had been declared for a major Muslim holiday.
While world powers including the US and the UK airlifted their diplomats from the capital of Khartoum, Sudanese citizens have desperately tried to flee the chaos, with many of them risking dangerous roads to cross the northern border in Egypt.
Fighting has raged in Omdurman, a city across the Nile River from Khartoum, according to residents, despite a hoped-for ceasefire to coincide with the three-day Muslim holiday of Eid al Fitr.
The RSF claimed the armed forces unleashed air strikes on the upscale area of Kafouri, north of Khartoum.
Andrew Mitchell, the UK minister for International Development and Africa, told Sky News’s Kay Burley this morning that there is a “situation of chaos and enormous violence in Sudan”, adding that the “absolute number one requirement is to get a ceasefire”.
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He said: “We will do everything we can and I mean everything to get our British citizens out.”
Mr Mitchell said that an “extremely successful but complicated operation was conducted yesterday morning which got the diplomats out”.
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‘We will do everything we can’
“We have a specific duty of care for the diplomats, but I must stress that these diplomats were in acute danger because the guns were on either side of the British embassy and the British residence, and we got them out as fast as we could, as did the Americans get their diplomats out.”
He said that the focus is now on getting British citizens out of Sudan.
“Since we went into 24/7 crisis mode on the Sudan situation and tension always has been to facilitate the exit of our own citizens as soon as it is safe to do so.”
Asked how that could happen, he said: “All I can tell you is that every single option is being explored in detail and the moment that it is possible to change the travel advice and move them, we will.”
Image: In this image provided by the French Armed Forces, military personnel load belongings of evacuees onto a plane at the airport in Khartoum
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly chaired a sixth Sudan Cobra session on Sunday night to discuss the “escalation” of violence in the African nation.
Mr Cleverly said the government remained “absolutely committed to supporting” Britons in the country, but he said that until a ceasefire is reached, ministers were “severely limited in our ability to provide assistance to British nationals”.
Senior opposition MPs said they are “deeply concerned” about the welfare of British nationals still in Sudan.
Irish citizens who remain in Ireland have been urged to stay indoors, with Micheal Martin saying that further information will be communicated to them on airlift operations.
“This will take some days,” the Tanaiste and foreign affairs minister said.
“I think we’re pleased with the initial outcome in the last 24 hours but it is something that’s very, very fluid, and bear in mind that the conflict is a ferocious one.”
Violence affects operations at airports
The ongoing violence has impacted operations at the main international airport, destroying civilian planes and damaging at least one runway, with thick, black smoke rising above it. Other airports have also been forced out of operation.
Image: Smoke is seen rising from buildings during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum
US special forces swiftly evacuated 70 US Embassy workers from Khartoum to Ethiopia on Sunday following a week of battles that hindered rescues.
Other countries have also managed to remove their citizens as well as their diplomats despite American officials saying it was too dangerous for a government-coordinated evacuation of thousands of private citizens.
Meanwhile, France and Italy said they would accommodate all their citizens who wish to leave, along with those from other countries who could not otherwise join an evacuation operation.
Officials said President Emmanuel Macron and his foreign minister were given security guarantees by both sides for the evacuation.
Image: In this image provided by the Italian Defence Ministry, military personnel evacuate people from the airport in Khartoum
On Sunday, two French flights took off from Khartoum to Djibouti, carrying around 2,000 passengers from various countries, with more planned for today.
While Germany’s foreign ministry said a military plane carrying 101 German diplomatic staff, family members and citizens of partner countries who were evacuated from Sudan via Jordan had landed safely in Berlin.
Image: Italian citizens are boarded on an Italian Air Force C130 aircraft during their evacuation from Khartoum
An Italian air force C-130 that left Khartoum with evacuees landed Sunday night at an air base in Djibouti and around 100 people were flown out of Khartoum by Spanish military aircraft including 30 Spaniards – with the rest from Portugal, Italy, Poland, Ireland, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia and Argentina, the foreign ministry said.
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The plane took off from Khartoum airport and evacuated over 100 Italians to Djibouti.
And Jordanian officials said four planes landed at Amman military airport carrying 343 evacuees from Port Sudan, while other flights from Sudan were organised by Greece and the Netherlands.
Poland and the Netherlands have also begun evacuating their citizens.
Last week, militants attacked a US Embassy convoy and stormed the EU ambassador’s home.
Image: Jordanians evacuated form Sudan arrive to a military airport in Amman, Jordan
The power struggle between the Sudanese military, headed by Gen Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the RSF, led by Gen Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, has dealt a harsh blow to Sudan’s hopes for a democratic transition.
The rival generals rose to power following a pro-democracy uprising which prompted the removal of the former strongman, Mr al-Bashir. The generals joined forces to seize power in a coup in 2021.
A fifth of the children in Gaza City are malnourished and more than 100 people, most of them youngsters, have reportedly died of hunger there, the UN has said.
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), quoting a colleague, said on Thursday that people in Gaza, where the supply and distribution of aid is controlled by Israel, “are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses”.
Most of the youngsters the agency sees are “emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying if they don’t get the treatment they urgently need”.
Image: Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, in Gaza City. Pic: Reuters
“This deepening crisis is affecting everyone, including those trying to save lives in the war-torn enclave,” Mr Lazzirini said.
UNRWA’s frontline health workers are surviving on “one small meal a day, often just lentils, if at all. They are increasingly fainting from hunger while at work”.
“When caretakers cannot find enough to eat, the entire humanitarian system is collapsing.”
The warning comes as news organisations asked Israel to allow journalists to move freely in and out of Gaza amid fears that reporters there are facing the risk of starvation.
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BBC News, Agence France Press, Associated Press and Reuters said in a statement published on Thursday that they are “desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families”.
Image: Palestinians gather as they seek aid supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation near Rafah. Pic: Reuters
They said: “For many months, these independent journalists have been the world’s eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza. They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering.
“Journalists endure many deprivations and hardships in war zones. We are deeply alarmed that the threat of starvation is now one of them.
“We once again urge the Israeli authorities to allow journalists in and out of Gaza. It is essential that adequate food supplies reach the people there.”
Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer told Sky News that food shortages have “been engineered by Hamas”, and that there “is no famine in Gaza”.
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Sky News challenges Israel on Gaza starvation claims
Speaking on Wednesday’s News Hour with Mark Austin, Mr Mencer said aid is “flowing” into the territory but Hamas “loots the trucks [and] deliberately endangers its own people”. The fighters deny stealing food.
More than 4,400 aid trucks have been allowed into Gaza since Israel lifted its blockade in May, roughly 70 trucks a day, which is the lowest rate of the war and far below the 500-600 trucks a day the UN says is needed.
“The problem is not Israel,” he said. “The problem is Hamas.”
The UK and several other countries have condemned the current aid delivery model, known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is backed by the Israeli and American governments.
It has reportedly resulted in Israeli troops firing on Palestinian civilians in search of food on multiple occasions.
More than 800 people have reportedly been killed in recent weeks trying to reach food, mostly in shootings by Israeli soldiers posted near distribution centres.
More than 2.1 million people live in Gaza, according to the UN.
Eleven Thai civilians and a soldier have been killed in clashes between Thailand and Cambodia, officials have said, as long-standing tensions in disputed border areas boils over.
Among those killed was an eight-year-old boy, the army said in a statement.
It said most casualties occurred in Si Sa Ket province, where six people were killed after shots were fired at a fuel station.
Another 14 people have been injured in three Thai border provinces.
Thailand’s health minister Somsak Thepsuthin confirmed the fatalities to reporters, adding Cambodia’s actions, including an attack on a hospital, should be considered war crimes.
Both countries accuse one another of starting the military clashes and have downgraded their diplomatic relations in the rapidly escalating dispute. Thailand has also sealed all land border crossings with Cambodia.
Early on Thursday, a Thai F-16 fighter jet bombed targets in Cambodia, according to Thailand’s army.
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“We have used air power against military targets as planned,” Thai army deputy spokesperson Richa Suksuwanon said.
Cambodia’s defence ministry said Thai jets had dropped bombs on a road near the ancient Preah Vihear temple, saying it “strongly condemns the reckless and brutal military aggression of the Kingdom of Thailand against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Cambodia”.
Image: Thai people who fled clashes take shelter in Surin province. Pic: AP
Clashes are ongoing in at least six areas along the border, the Thai defence ministry said.
Thailand’s foreign ministry said Cambodian troops fired “heavy artillery” on a Thai military base on Thursday morning and also targeted civilian areas, including a hospital.
“The Royal Thai Government is prepared to intensify our self-defence measures if Cambodia persists in its armed attack and violations upon Thailand’s sovereignty,” the ministry said in a statement.
A livestream video from Thailand’s side showed people, including children and the elderly, running from their homes and hiding in a concrete bunker as explosions sounded.
The clash happened in an area where the ancient Prasat Ta Muen Thom temple stands along the border of Thailand’s Surin province and Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province.
Image: Thai people who fled clashes in Surin province, northeastern Thailand. Pic: AP
Earlier on Thursday, Cambodia downgraded diplomatic relations with Thailand to their lowest level, expelled the Thai ambassador and recalled all Cambodian staff from its embassy in Bangkok.
The day before, its neighbour withdrew its ambassador and expelled the top Cambodian diplomat in protest after five Thai soldiers were wounded in a land mine blast, one of whom lost part of a leg.
A week earlier, a land mine in a different contested area exploded and wounded three Thai soldiers, including one who lost a foot.
Relations between the southeast Asian neighbours have collapsed after a Cambodian soldier was killed in an armed confrontation in a disputed border area in May.
Nationalist passions on both sides have further inflamed the situation, and Thailand’s prime minister was suspended earlier this month as an investigation was opened into possible ethics violations over her handling of the border dispute.
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Border disputes are longstanding issues that have caused periodic tensions between the countries. The most prominent and violent conflicts have been around the 1,000-year-old Preah Vihear temple.
In 1962, the International Court of Justice recognised Cambodian sovereignty over the temple area.
The chief of the World Health Organization (WHO) has said Gaza is suffering “man-made mass starvation” because of an Israeli blockade on aid to the enclave.
Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news conference that the population of Gaza is “facing yet another killer on top of bombs and bullets – starvation”.
The WHO said a “deadly surge” in malnutrition has caused the deaths of at least 21 children in 2025, but stressed this figure is likely to be the tip of the iceberg.
Centres for treating malnutrition are full of patients but do not have sufficient supplies for emergency feeding, it added.
In July alone, 5,100 children have so far been admitted to malnutrition programmes, said Dr Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative for the occupied Palestinian territories. Some 800 of those children were severely emaciated, he said.
Image: A child faces life-threatening malnutrition in Gaza. Pic: Anadolu/Getty Images
Image: Crowds struggle for food at a charity kitchen in Gaza. Pic: Reuters
Mr Ghebreyesus said: “I don’t know what you would call it other than mass starvation, and it’s man-made, and that’s very clear.”
“This is because of [the] blockade,” he continued, adding that 95% of households in Gaza are also facing severe water shortages.
He said the UN and its humanitarian partners were unable to deliver any food for nearly 80 days between March and May, while an aid blockade was in place, and that the resumption of deliveries has been insufficient.
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‘Gaza’s doctors treating influx of malnutrition’
There is no famine in Gaza, says Israel
An Israeli government spokesperson told Sky News the food shortages have “been engineered by Hamas”, before stating: “There is no famine in Gaza.”
Speaking on the News Hour with Mark Austin, David Mencer continued: “There is a famine of the truth and Israel will not stop telling it.”
He said aid is “flowing” into the enclave but Hamas “loots the trucks [and] deliberately endangers its own people”. The fighters deny stealing food.
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Sky News challenges Israel on Gaza starvation claims
Mr Mencer said Israel has allowed more than 4,400 aid trucks to enter Gaza since it lifted the blockade in May, adding that more than 700 are waiting to be picked up and distributed by the United Nations.
That is an average of around 70 trucks a day, which is the lowest rate of the war and far below the 500-600 trucks a day the UN says is needed.
“The problem is not Israel,” he said. “The problem is Hamas.”
Supplies in Gaza ‘totally depleted’
The comments came after more than 100 aid and rights groups warned of mass starvation in Gaza on Wednesday morning – saying supplies have become “totally depleted”.
Large amounts of food, clean water and medical supplies are sitting untouched just outside Gaza, but the groups blamed Israel for its “restrictions”, which they say is creating “chaos, starvation, and death”.
The situation has become so bad, aid agencies warned they were seeing even their own colleagues “waste away before their eyes”.
Israel, which controls all supplies entering Gaza, has denied it is responsible for shortages of food and other supplies.
Image: Pic: Reuters
Image: Pic: Reuters
In a statement signed by 111 organisations, the groups said: “As the Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families.
“With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organisations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes.
“The government of Israel’s restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death.”
The groups called for governments to demand the lifting of all restrictions and for the restoration of a “principled, UN-led humanitarian response”.
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Gaza: ‘My colleagues are getting thin’
The Norwegian Refugee Council, which backed the statement and is one of the largest independent aid organisations in Gaza, said it has no more supplies to distribute and some of its staff are starving – and accused Israel of paralysing its work.
“Our last tent, our last food parcel, our last relief items have been distributed. There is nothing left,” Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the council, told the Reuters news agency.
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Gaza is a ‘horror show’, says UN’s Secretary-General
United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres said “starvation is knocking on every door” in the Palestinian territory, describing the situation as a “horror show”.
Officials in the Hamas-run strip said at least 101 people are known to have died of malnutrition during the conflict in Gaza, including 80 children, most of them in recent weeks.
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Israel wants to ‘finish off’ Gaza
Some food stocks in Gaza have run out since Israel cut off all supplies in March and then lifted the blockade in May with new measures it said were needed to prevent aid from being diverted to militant groups.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry has accused the organisations of “echoing Hamas propaganda”.
The UK and several other countries have condemned the current aid delivery model, which is backed by the Israeli and American governments.
Gaza deteriorating by the day – but what will be done?
Analysis by Lisa Holland, in Jerusalem
The urgency of the call for action by aid and human rights groups screams out from the words in the letter.
It feels like the situation is deteriorating by the day – the letter comes hours after the United Nations secretary-general described aid distribution and food shortages in Gaza as a “horror show”.
There is certainly momentum in the demands for a ceasefire and for aid supplies backed up in neighbouring countries to be allowed into Gaza.
But will it have any impact?
Israel acknowledges there has been a significant drop in the amount of aid reaching Gaza.
But the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation – now in charge of almost all aid distribution in Gaza – has fiercely hit back about its handling of the situation.
However, Israel has given no public sign that it plans to do anything to alleviate the plight of hungry Gazans any time soon – instead shifting blame to the door of the UN.
The UN used to run most aid distribution, but Israel stopped that in May claiming aid was falling into the hands of the militant group Hamas.
So if there’s – as yet – no sign of the aid chain being unblocked, what of the calls in the letter for a ceasefire?
People say watch for movement by Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff.
He is currently in Europe and if he goes on to Doha, where indirect talks are taking place between Hamas and Israel, that could signal some sort of progress towards a ceasefire.
It has reportedly resulted in Israeli troops firing on Palestinian civilians in search of food on multiple occasions.
More than 800 people have reportedly been killed in recent weeks trying to reach food, mostly in shootings by Israeli soldiers posted near distribution centres.