UK to end Sudan evacuation with final flight as death toll rises

Published

2 years ago

April 30, 2023

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The final UK evacuation flight will leave Sudan tonight, as the death toll rises in the war-torn country.

Gunfire and heavy artillery in parts of the capital Khartoum, despite a ceasefire between the country’s two top generals, was reported by residents on Saturday.

Some 1,888 people have been evacuated on 21 flights from Wadi Saeedna Air Base since the UK’s aerial evacuation of Sudan began on Tuesday.

The Foreign Office says the evacuation of Britons has been the largest of any Western nation from the country.

The civilian death toll jumped to 411 and the number of injured to 2,023, according to the Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate, which measures casualties.

More than 50,000 Sudanese refugees – mostly women and children – have crossed over into Chad, Egypt, South Sudan and the Central African Republic since the crisis began, the United Nations said.

It said the diaspora risks raising regional instability, with South Sudan and the Central African Republic scarred by years of ethnic fighting and turmoil and Chad’s own democratic transition derailed by a 2021 coup.

Khartoum, a city of some five million people, has become a front line in the fighting between General Abdel Fattah Burhan, the commander of Sudan’s military, and General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, who leads the powerful paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces.

Those who escape the city face further obstacles, with a long and risky overland journey to Port Sudan, where ships have been evacuating people via the Red Sea.

The UK government has said it remains committed to supporting British nationals who remain in Sudan and its focus would now turn to providing consular support to British nationals in Port Sudan and neighbouring countries in the region.

Airlifts have also faced challenges, with a Turkish evacuation plane hit by gunfire outside of Khartoum on Friday.

‘It’s terrible there – the situation is not good’

The Coral Hotel – an architectural replica of the British colonial Governor’s House across the road – is the new office for British consular support.

The operations base relocated from Wad Seidna in Omdurman – roughly 22km from Khartoum and a heartland of fighting – after a Turkish military plane came under fire as it was about to land.

A senior military commander told Sky News that the plane was not following the agreed flight route and was considered a potential threat.

Before the incident, British citizens travelling to Wad Seidna military base condemned the lack of protection en route.

British diplomats were evacuated from Sudan a week into the conflict in a special military operation and the UK government came under fire for not evacuating their citizens. Civilian evacuation missions were announced on 25 April.

Here in the Coral Hotel, there are few British citizens to evacuate.

Many had already made their way – via Egypt and other rescue missions – by the time the UK began its evacuation effort.

Others who came here to Port Sudan left with the first three Saudi Arabian naval ships that transported them for 10 hours across the Red Sea to Jeddah.

The rooms are full of Sudanese-Americans and Sudanese nationals with UK and EU entry permits.

Anyone else is scattered in hotels and accommodation across town and hundreds are sleeping on the hard ground of the port.

“I wish [my family] had these documents so they can leave because it’s terrible there,” says Maowia, a Sudanese-American citizen.

“I feel sorry for them because the situation is not good.”

Civilians running out of food and supplies

Fighting continued around the presidential palace, the headquarters of the state broadcaster and a military base on Saturday, residents said, despite a ceasefire extended by another 72 hours on Friday under heavy international pressure.

Columns of thick black smoke billowed over the capital city’s skyline.

Those sheltering at home amid the conflict, which is now in its third week, have warned they are running out of food and basic supplies.

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While the military has appeared to have the upper hand in the battle to control Africa’s third-largest nation, there is little hope the conflict will end anytime soon.

World

Bob Geldof accuses Israeli authorities of ‘lying’ about starvation in Gaza

Published

2 hours ago

July 26, 2025

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Bob Geldof accuses Israeli authorities of 'lying' about starvation in Gaza

Bob Geldof has accused the Israeli authorities of “lying” about starvation in Gaza – after Israel’s government spokesperson claimed there was “no famine caused by Israel”.

Earlier this week, David Mencer claimed that Hamas “starves its own people” while on The News Hour with Mark Austin, denying that Israel was responsible for mass hunger in Gaza.

Appearing on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Geldof said the claims are false.

Follow latest: Gaza aid airdrops a ‘smokescreen’ and ‘distraction’, says UN agency chief

Mr Phillips asked the Live Aid organiser: “The Israeli view is that there is no famine caused by Israel, there’s a manmade shortage, but it’s been engineered by Hamas.

“I guess the Israelis would say we don’t see much criticism from your side of Hamas.”

In response, Geldof said “that’s a false equivalence” and “the Israeli authorities are lying”.

The singer then added: “They’re lying. [Benjamin] Netanyahu lies, is a liar. The IDF are lying. They’re dangling food in front of starving, panicked, exhausted mothers.

“And while they arrive to accept the tiny amount of food that this sort of set up pantomime outfit, the Gaza Humanitarian Front, I would call it, as they dangle it, then they’re shot wantonly.

“This month, up to now, a thousand children or a thousand people have died of starvation. I’m really not interested in what either of these sides are saying.”

In the interview with Mark Austin on 23 July, Mr Mencer added: “This suffering exists because Hamas made it so. Here are the facts. Aid is flowing, through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Millions of meals are being delivered directly to civilians.” He also claimed that since May more than 4,400 aid trucks had entered Gaza carrying supplies.

It comes after MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, warned 25% of young children and pregnant women in Gaza are now malnourished.

The charity said Israel’s “deliberate use of starvation as a weapon” has reached unprecedented levels, and said that at one of its clinics in Gaza City, rates of severe malnutrition in children under five have trebled over the past two weeks.

MSF then called the lack of food and water on the ground as “unconscionable”.

In a statement to Sky News, an Israeli security official said that “despite the false claims that are being spread, the State of Israel does not limit the number of humanitarian aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip”.

It then blamed other groups for issues delivering aid. They said: “Over the past month, we have witnessed a significant decline in the collection of aid from the crossings into the Gaza Strip by international aid organisations.

“The delays in collection by the UN and international organisations harm the situation and the food security of Gaza’s residents.”

The IDF also told Sky News: “The IDF allows the American civilian organisation (GHF) to distribute aid to Gaza residents independently, and operates in proximity to the new distribution zones to enable the distribution alongside the continuation of IDF operational activities in the Gaza Strip.

“Following incidents in which harm to civilians who arrived at distribution facilities was reported, thorough examinations were conducted in the Southern Command and instructions were issued to forces in the field following lessons learned.

“The aforementioned incidents are under review by the competent authorities in the IDF.”

You can watch the full interview on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips at 8.30am tomorrow.

World

25% of young children and pregnant women malnourished in Gaza, charity says, as PM vows to fly critical medical cases to UK

Published

17 hours ago

July 26, 2025

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25% of young children and pregnant women malnourished in Gaza, charity says, as PM vows to fly critical medical cases to UK

A charity has warned 25% of young children and pregnant women in Gaza are now malnourished, with Sir Keir Starmer vowing to evacuate children who need “critical medical assistance” to the UK.

MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said Israel’s “deliberate use of starvation as a weapon” has reached unprecedented levels – with patients and healthcare workers both fighting to survive.

It claimed that, at one of its clinics in Gaza City, rates of severe malnutrition in children under five have trebled over the past two weeks – and described the lack of food and water on the ground as “unconscionable”.

The charity also criticised the high number of fatalities seen at aid distribution sites, with one British surgeon accusing IDF soldiers of shooting civilians “almost like a game of target practice”.

MSF’s deputy medical coordinator in Gaza, Dr Mohammed Abu Mughaisib, said: “Those who go to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s food distributions know that they have the same chance of receiving a sack of flour as they do of leaving with a bullet in their head.”

The UN also estimates that Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 people seeking food – the majority near the militarised distribution sites of the US-backed aid distribution scheme run by the GHF.

In a statement on Friday, the IDF had said it “categorically rejects the claims of intentional harm to civilians”, and reports of incidents at aid distribution sites were “under examination”.

The GHF has also previously disputed that these deaths were connected with its organisation’s operations, with director Johnnie Moore telling Sky News: “We just want to feed Gazans. That’s the only thing that we want to do.”

Israel says it has let enough food into Gaza and has accused the UN of failing to distribute it, in what the foreign ministry has labelled as “a deliberate ploy” to defame the country.

‘Humanitarian catastrophe must end’

In a video message posted on X late last night, Sir Keir Starmer condemned the scenes in Gaza as “appalling” and “unrelenting” – and said “the images of starvation and desperation are utterly horrifying”.

The prime minister added: “The denial of aid to children and babies is completely unjustifiable, just as the continued captivity of hostages is completely unjustifiable.

“Hundreds of civilians have been killed while seeking aid – children, killed, whilst collecting water. It is a humanitarian catastrophe, and it must end.”

Sir Keir confirmed that the British government is now “accelerating efforts” to evacuate children from Gaza who need critical medical assistance, so they can be brought to the UK for specialist treatment.

Israel has now said that foreign countries will be able to airdrop aid into Gaza. While the PM says the UK will now “do everything we can” to get supplies in via this route, he said this decision has come “far too late”.

Last year, the RAF dropped aid into Gaza, but humanitarian organisations warned it wasn’t enough and was potentially dangerous. In March 2024, five people were killed when an aid parachute failed and supplies fell on them.

For now, Sir Keir has rejected calls to follow French President Emmanuel Macron and recognise a Palestinian state – despite more than 220 MPs signing a cross-party letter to demand he takes this step.

The prime minister is instead demanding a ceasefire and “lasting peace” – and says he will only consider an independent state as part of a negotiated peace deal.

World

Israel allows foreign countries to parachute aid into Gaza

Published

1 day ago

July 25, 2025

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Israel allows foreign countries to parachute aid into Gaza

Israel has said foreign countries can drop aid into Gaza from today.

A senior IDF official told Sky News on Friday: “Starting today, Israel will allow foreign countries to parachute aid into Gaza.

“Starting this afternoon, the WCK organisation began reactivating its kitchens.”

Humanitarian aid organisation World Central Kitchen paused its operation in Gaza in November after a number of its workers were killed in an Israeli airstrike last year.

Aid workers in Gaza – who help provide food, medicine and shelter for the millions displaced there – have been affected by the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.

In recent weeks hundreds of Palestinians have been killed while waiting for food and aid.

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