Sudan: Warring military factions agree ceasefire extension as foreign secretary urges Britons to leave
Sudan’s warring military factions have agreed to extend a 72-hour ceasefire as Foreign Secretary James Cleverly urged Britons to “proceed to the airport as quickly as possible to ensure their safety”.
First the country’s army, then its rivals in the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) agreed to the three-day extension brokered by the US and Saudi Arabia, it was announced on Thursday evening.
But violence continues in the capital Khartoum and the western Darfur region – with armed groups in the city of Genena battling each other while looting homes and shops, according to eyewitnesses.
The truce extension started at midnight local time (11pm UK time) to allow more citizens and foreign nationals to flee the fighting.
The British evacuation mission has rescued at least 897 people, as the White House said it was concerned by ceasefire violations and warned the situation “could worsen at any moment”.
Eight British flights had left Sudan as of 4pm on Thursday, with the Foreign Office promising “further flights to come”.
Mr Cleverly warned Britons stranded in Sudan it could be “impossible” to evacuate them when the ceasefire expired – as he urged people to head to the airfield north of Khartoum as soon as possible.
More than 2,000 British nationals in Sudan have registered under the evacuation plans. Earlier this week, the UK government said around 4,000 British passport holders were in the country.
British military chiefs say they have the capacity to evacuate at least 500 people per day out of the Wadi Saeedna airfield.
British nationals walk to board an RAF aircraft
Mr Cleverly tweeted on Thursday evening: “The ceasefire in Sudan has just been extended. The UK calls for its full implementation by the generals. British evacuation flights are ongoing.
“I urge all British nationals wishing to leave to proceed to the airport as quickly as possible to ensure their safety.”
Mr Cleverly earlier told Sky’s Kay Burley: “We cannot predict exactly what will happen when that ceasefire ends, but what we do know is that it will be much much harder – potentially impossible.”
“There are planes, there is capacity – we will lift you out. I’m not able to make those same assurances once the ceasefire has ended.”
“So if you’re planning to move, move now,” he said.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Rescue may be ‘impossible’ when truce ends
Only British passport holders and immediate family members with existing UK entry clearance are eligible for evacuation.
However, Mr Cleverly said a “few nationals of other countries” had also been allowed on its planes out of Sudan.
RAF planes are evacuating Britons using an airstrip near Khartoum
At least 512 people have died and thousands injured since the power struggle between generals heading the army and RSF descended into fighting almost two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Office said the UK ambassador to Sudan, Giles Lever, has been deployed to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
He will lead the UK’s diplomatic efforts in the region “to bring fighting to an end in Sudan”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Sudan: Relief and joy to be back
The ambassador was not in Khartoum when the fighting broke out with newspaper reports saying he was on holiday at the time.
RAF planes are evacuating people to Cyprus, where they are met by Foreign Office officials and medics, before being flown to London Stansted on commercial jets.
UK officials and medics are meeting the evacuees at an airport in Cyprus
The government is also working on a sea evacuation route from Port Sudan and the HMS Lancaster has been dispatched. Other countries have been using the city to get people out.
Read more:
How can British nationals get to the RAF base?
Traumatised Sudan evacuees describe ‘horrendous’ scenes
Explainer: What’s behind the Sudan fighting?
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Evacuees face risky journey to get to air strip
Some have criticised the government for being too slow to start its evacuation plan, with countries such as Germany completing evacuations on Tuesday night.
UK diplomats and their families were evacuated from Sudan in a mission involving elite troops at the weekend.
Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts
The fighting has pushed Sudan’s population to near breaking point, with food becoming scarce, electricity cut off across much of the capital and other cities, and many hospitals shut down.
Multiple aid agencies have had to suspend operations and the UN refugee agency said it was gearing up for potentially tens of thousands of people fleeing to neighbouring countries.
World
Biden adding ‘fuel to fire’, Kremlin says – as Ukraine allowed to fire US missiles into Russia
The Kremlin has criticised President Joe Biden for adding “fuel to the fire” after giving Ukraine permission to launch US missiles into Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “It is obvious that the outgoing administration in Washington intends to… continue adding fuel to the fire and provoking further escalation of tensions around this conflict.”
Russia‘s Foreign Ministry added that the action by Mr Biden‘s administration would fundamentally alter the nature of the war and trigger “an adequate and tangible” response.
The UK has refused to reveal if it plans to follow suit, for example extending the use of British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles by Ukraine to hit targets inside Russia.
Follow latest: Ukraine war live updates
Britain’s Defence Secretary John Healey told the House of Commons commenting would “compromise operations and security”, adding that he will speak with the US and Ukrainian defence secretaries on Monday evening.
At the G20 Summit in Brazil, Sir Keir Starmer gave a similar response: “I’m not going to get into operational details because the only winner, if we were to do that, is [Vladimir] Putin, and I’m not prepared to do that.”
For over a year Ukraine has been calling on America changes its policy on the use of long-range missiles.
Joe Biden attends the G20 Summit. Pic: AP
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has given a muted response to Mr Biden’s decision to expand the use of the American-made Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS).
“Strikes are not made with words… the missiles will speak for themselves,” he said.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘The missiles will speak for themselves’
Biden risks triggering ‘World War Three’
The US has eased restrictions on the use of ATACMS, which has a range of up to 190 miles, after Russia began deploying North Korean ground troops to supplement its own forces in the conflict.
Donald Trump Jr, the son of president-elect Donald Trump, suggested in a post on X that Mr Biden was risking a third world war “before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
The use of tactical missile systems for Ukraine
Hungary: Policy is ‘astonishingly dangerous’
There has been a strong, but mixed, reaction across Europe to America’s change of policy.
Hungary’s foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, said the decision was “astonishingly dangerous” – although the country’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has a close and often sympathetic relationship with Moscow.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Why has US let Ukraine use its missiles?
Click to subscribe to Politics at Jack and Sam’s wherever you get your podcasts
Slovakia’s leader Robert Fico, who has also fostered a stronger relationship with his Russian counterpart, said it was an “unprecedented escalation of tensions” and “a decision that thwarts hopes for the start of any peace talks”.
But other countries have been more positive.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said: “This decision was very necessary… Russia sees that Ukraine enjoys strong support and that the West’s position is unyielding and determined.”
Meanwhile, Estonia’s foreign minister Margus Tsahkna was equally positive. He said easing restrictions on Ukraine was “a good thing”, adding: “We have been saying that from the beginning – that no restrictions must be put on the military support [for Ukraine].”
Missiles are ‘not a game changer’
Former British ambassador to Russia Sir Toby Brenton has told Sky News: “Nobody is really expecting this to be a game changer.
“They’re expecting it to make life more difficult for the Russians, slow the Russian advance down, but… from all the stories I’m hearing, there are not actually that many of these missiles available to be used.”
Read more from Sky News:
Australian politician who heckled King defiant
Schools shut in ‘world’s most polluted city’
A Russian missile strike on Odesa killed 10 people on Monday. Pic: Ukrainian Emergency Services/Reuters
A residential building damaged by a Russian missile strike in Sumy. Pic: Reuters
On Monday, a Russian ballistic missile with cluster munitions killed 11 people in a residential area of Sumy in northern Ukraine.
Another missile barrage sparked apartment fires in the southern port of Odesa, killing at least 10 people, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said.
Meanwhile, Tuesday marks 1,000 days since Russia began its full-scale invasion in 2022.
Barely anyone speaks – there is virtual silence apart from the sounds of passing vehicles and the wind whipping through flags and photographs commemorating the dead in a war that started 1,000 days ago when Russia invaded.
What is really striking is the sheer number of people who have died, and this memorial in Kyiv’s Maidan Square represents just some of those who gave their lives defending their country.
Soldiers in camouflage fatigues pause to pay their respects to comrades, civilians stop and stare, heads often bowed.
At the same time, on mobile phones, news alerts announce another missile strike on Ukraine. This time in the port city of Odessa.
More dead, more injured, it never stops here.
As this war grinds on, with Russia making significant gains in the east, it says something about the Ukrainian people’s resolve to keep going.
For months the Ukrainian government has been pleading with the United States and its western partners for permission to use long range weapons to attack deep inside Russia.
A ruined building in Odessa
Follow latest: Moscow warns US over missile decision
Analysis: Moscow’s words won’t worry the West – but what will happen behind the scenes?
These weapons would allow Ukraine to target airfields and bases where drones and missiles are launched against Ukraine, and to attack supply routes and military camps. In effect – to take the fight to Russia.
Time and again civilians and soldiers alike tell me the West and the United States are scared of annoying or provoking Russia. Wrongly or rightly, most believe the West is happy for Ukraine to hold the line but not beat Russia.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Ukraine allowed to use US long-range missiles in Russia
News that President Biden, in the twilight of his time in office, has changed his position allowing American missiles to be fired into Russia, has been greeted with euphoria.
Although it’s tempered by his decision to allow them to be used only in the Kursk region of Russia, where North Korean troops are augmenting the Russian military.
MP Lesia Vasylenko
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
I met Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko in the capital, she heard the news as she arrived back in Ukraine from a trip abroad.
She says the decision has “lifted spirits here” and calls the move “extremely significant” but says it needs to go further.
“As members of parliament we have been echoing the president in every single meeting we have abroad, asking for the permission to strike inside Russia’s territory, what this means is permission to liquidate 16 airbases from which Russia on a daily and nightly bases sends airplanes carrying missiles that are hitting Ukrainian homes, Ukrainian infrastructure, and basically making civilian life impossible in the country,” she told me.
She continued: “Having permission to strike inside of all of Russia would really change things round for the people of Ukraine first and foremost, but also on the battlefield.”
👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈
She told me that despite the war dragging on, the Ukrainian people remain resolute and united.
“The resilience is still there, for us this resilience equals survival, if Ukraine stops fighting there will be no Ukraine, there will be no us as Ukrainians, there will be no housing, we would not be allowed to live under the Ukrainian flag, so the only option here is to make sure that Russia stops fighting and that Russia can never fight again.”
Over the past almost two weeks I have driven from the west to the east of this huge country.
It strikes me that you can barely pass a town or a village cemetery without the blue and gold colours of the Ukrainian flag punctuating the grey skies – marking the graves of the war dead.
Flags mark the graves of Ukraine’s war dead across the country
A thousand days since the Russian invasion began, soldiers and civilians alike are still dying, but Ukraine is still fighting.
A thousand days ago, few thought that was likely.
An undersea fibre optic cable between Germany and Finland has stopped working and might have been deliberately cut by an unknown party, according to authorities.
The 729 mile (1,173km) C-Lion1 cable under the Baltic Sea from Helsinki to Rostock went offline just after 2am GMT on Monday.
The outage was reported by Finnish state-controlled cyber security and telecoms company Cinia.
A physical inspection has not yet been done but the abrupt nature suggests it was completely severed by an outside force, said chief executive Ari-Jussi Knaapila.
Germany and Finland‘s foreign ministers said they were “deeply concerned” and it “immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage”.
A joint statement said: “Our European security is not only under threat from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors.
“Safeguarding our shared critical infrastructure is vital to our security and the resilience of our societies.”
Cinia said “corrective measures” were under way and a repair ship was being prepared.
The damage to the fibre optic cable could take around five to 15 days to fix, Mr Knaapila told reporters.
The pipe runs under the Baltic Sea between Helsinki and Rostock
He said the damage occurred near the southern tip of Sweden’s Oland island and that Cinia was working with authorities to investigate.
The cable links central European telecoms networks to Finland, other Nordic countries and Asia.
A Chinese ship was blamed for damaging another cable, the Balticconnector gas pipeline, last year. Pic: Finnish Border Guard/Reuters
Another submerged gas line and several telecoms cables were seriously damaged last year in the Baltic Sea.
A Chinese container ship dragging its anchor was named as prime suspect by Finnish police. However, they have not said if they think the damage was intentional.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Read more from Sky News:
Missile decision a ‘stunning shift in US policy’
Russian ballet star dies aged 39 after ‘fall from building’
Two years ago, a gas pipeline from Russia to Germany – the Nord Steam – was also damaged by explosions.
Many suspected Moscow of foul play but German authorities are still investigating the case.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports8 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Environment1 year agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway