Sudan crisis: Which countries have evacuated their citizens from Sudan amid criticism of UK’s evacuation plans
As foreign countries evacuate hundreds of their citizens from the escalating violence in Sudan, the UK government has been accused of not doing enough to extract its own nationals.
The conflict has killed 420 people and trapped millions of Sudanese citizens without access to basic services.
Elite British troops were involved in a covert mission to evacuate British diplomats and their families from the capital Khartoum under cover of darkness, Sky News revealed.
But the UK government has faced criticism over the level of assistance it is providing for the 4,000 or so other UK passport holders still in the country.
So what are other countries doing to rescue their citizens from the crisis?
The US
US special forces evacuated all US government personnel and their dependants from their embassy on Saturday using helicopters that flew from a base in Djibouti and refuelled in Ethiopia.
Washington reportedly is not planning to coordinate an evacuation of other Americans but is looking at options to help them leave.
France
Meanwhile, a French plane carrying around 100 people left Khartoum on Sunday for Djibouti with a second plane carrying a similar number also expected to take off, France said. Operations resumed on Monday.
The plane also carried the European Union delegation along with some other nationalities.
The two warring factions – the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group – each accused the other of attacking a French convoy.
Other EU countries
The Irish government also confirmed it is sending in a team to evacuate its citizens from the crisis.
Germany’s air force has also been involved in evacuations, extracting a total of 313 people from Sudan so far.
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Sky News’s Deborah Haynes reveals how elite team of British troops evacuated UK diplomats from Sudan’s warzone capital
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‘We need to get out’
An Italian air force C-130 that departed from Khartoum with evacuees landed on Sunday night at an air base in Djibouti, the defence ministry said. It added that another plane, carrying Italy’s ambassador and military personnel involved in the evacuation, was expected in Djibouti later in the night.
Spanish military aircraft flew out around 100 people out of Khartoum, including more than 30 Spaniards and the rest from Portugal, Italy, Poland, Ireland, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia and Argentina, the foreign ministry said.
Sweden and Norway have said they were each involved in efforts to evacuate citizens.
Switzerland
Switzerland says it has closed its embassy in Khartoum and transported staff and their families out.
“This was made possible thanks to a collaboration with our partners, in particular France,” the Swiss foreign ministry said on Twitter.
Citizens of Saudi Arabia and people from other nationalities are welcomed by Saudi Royal Navy officials as they arrive in Jeddah
Middle Eastern countries
Saudi Arabia took 91 Saudis and about 66 people from other countries out from Port Sudan by naval ship to the Suadi port of Jeddah, across the Red Sea.
Qatar thanked Saudi Arabia for helping evacuate Qatari citizens. Sudan’s army accused the RSF of attacking and looting a Qatari embassy convoy heading to Port Sudan. It was not clear if it was the same group that left for Saudi Arabia.
Kuwait said all citizens wishing to return home had arrived in Jeddah.
Egypt says it had around 10,000 nationals in neighbouring Sudan, 436 of whom had been evacuated.
Jordan officials said four planes landed at Amman military airport carrying 343 evacuees from Port Sudan.
Lebanon said it was working to evacuate 51 citizens from Port Sudan.
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Foreign Secretary James Cleverly says the government is committed’ to helping Brits in Sudan
Russia
Russia’s ambassador in Khartoum told state media that 140 out of roughly 300 Russians in Sudan had said they wanted to leave.
Evacuation plans were made but were still impossible to implement because they involve crossing frontlines, the ambassador said.
He added there were about 15 people, including a woman and child, stuck in a Russian Orthodox church close to heavy fighting in Khartoum.
Other countries
Around 83 Libyans including diplomats and their families, students and airline and bank employees had reached Port Sudan for onward travel home, according to Libya’s embassy in Khartoum.
South Korea said last week it was sending a military aircraft to evacuate its 25 citizens in Sudan.
Japan said three planes had landed in Djibouti to transport Japanese nationals.
Ghana and Kenya said they were working to help their nationals get out, while Nigeria said had asked for a safe corridor to evacuate 5,500 nationals, mostly students.
Donald Trump has threatened Russia with more sanctions after a series of deadly strikes across Ukraine, as he said of Vladimir Putin: “What the hell happened to him?”
The US president appeared aghast at the conduct of his counterpart in the Kremlin after drone and missile attacks in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities left 12 people dead and dozens more injured.
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Speaking to reporters at an airport in New Jersey ahead of a flight back to Washington, Mr Trump said: “I’m not happy with Putin. I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”
“He’s killing a lot of people,” he added. “I’m not happy about that.”
Mr Trump – who said he’s “always gotten along with” Mr Putin – told reporters he would consider more sanctions against Moscow.
“He’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all,” he said.
Ukraine said the barrage of strikes overnight into Sunday was the biggest aerial attack of the war so far, with 367 drones and missiles fired by Russian forces.
It came despite Mr Trump repeatedly talking up the chances of a peace agreement. He even spoke to Mr Putin on the phone for two hours last week.
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Hundreds of drones fired at Ukraine
‘Shameful’ attacks
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine is ready to sign a ceasefire deal, and suggested Russia isn’t serious about signing one.
In a statement after the latest attacks on his country, he urged the US and other national leaders to increase the pressure on Mr Putin, saying silence “only encourages” him.
Mr Trump’s envoy for the country, Keith Kellogg, later demanded a ceasefire, describing the Russian attacks as “shameful”.
Three children were among those killed in the attacks, explosions shaking the cities of Kyiv, Odesa, and Mykolaiv.
Ukrainian siblings Tamara, 12, Stanislav, eight, and Roman, 17, were killed in Russian airstrikes. Pic: X/@Mariana_Betsa
Before the onslaught, Russia said it had faced a Ukrainian drone attack on Sunday. It said around 100 were intercepted and destroyed near Moscow and in central and southern regions.
The violence has escalated despite Russia and Ukraine completing the exchange of 1,000 prisoners each over the past three days.
Donald Trump says he will delay the imposition of 50% tariffs on goods entering the United States from the European Union until July, as the two sides attempt to negotiate a trade deal.
It comes after the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a post on social media site X that she had spoken to Mr Trump and expressed that they needed until 9 July to “reach a good deal”.
The US president had last Friday threatened to bring in the 50% tariffs from 1 June, as European leaders said they were ready to respond with their own measures.
But Mr Trump has now said that date has been put back to 9 July to allow more time for negotiations with the 27-member bloc, with the phone call appearing to smooth over tensions for now at least.
Speaking on Sunday before boarding Air Force One for Washington DC, Mr Trump told reporters that he had spoken to Ms Von der Leyen and she “wants to get down to serious negotiations” and she vowed to “rapidly get together and see if we can work something out”.
The US president, in comments on his Truth Social platform, had reignited fears last Friday of a trade war between the two powers when he said talks were “going nowhere” and the bloc was “very difficult to deal with”.
Mr Trump told the media in Morristown, New Jersey, on Sunday that Ms Von der Leyen “just called me… and she asked for an extension in the June 1st date. And she said she wants to get down to serious negotiation”.
“We had a very nice call and I agreed to move it. I believe July 9th would be the date. That was the date she requested. She said we will rapidly get together and see if we can work something out,” the US president added.
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Shortly after, he wrote on Truth Social: “I agreed to the extension – July 9, 2025 – It was my privilege to do so.”
On his so-called “liberation day” last month, Mr Trump unleashed tariffs on many of America’s trade partners. But since then he’s backed down in a spiralling tit-for-tat tariff face-off with China, and struck a deal with the UK.
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Much of his most incendiary rhetoric on trade has been directed at Brussels, though, even going as far as to claim the EU was created to rip the US off.
Responding to his 50% tariff threat, EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said: “EU-US trade is unmatched and must be guided by mutual respect, not threats.
“We stand ready to defend our interests.”
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