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.
A new aid system has opened its first distribution centres in Gaza, according to a US-backed organisation dealing with supplies.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began its operations in the territory on Monday, following the resignation of its director, Jake Wood, over its independence.
Gaza’s 2.3m population has been pushed towards famine by Israel’s almost three-month blockade.
Boxes of aid to be distributed across Rafah. Pic: Reuters.
The GHF said lorryloads of food – it did not say how many – had been delivered to its hubs, and distribution to Palestinians had begun.
“More trucks with aid will be delivered tomorrow, with the flow of aid increasing each day,” it said in a statement.
The controversial group, backed by Israel and the United States, has been rejected by the United Nations and other aid groups.
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People line up for food in Gaza
UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF.
They claim Israel is weaponising food, and the new distribution system will be ineffective and lead to further displacement of Palestinians.
They also argue the GHF will fail to meet local needs, and violates humanitarian principles that prohibit a warring party from controlling humanitarian assistance.
In the meantime, scores of Palestinians in Gaza, like Islam Abu Taima, have resorted to searching through rubbish to find food.
Palestinians are having to search through rubbish to find food
She found a small pile of cooked rice, scraps of bread, and a box with a few pieces of cheese inside it – which she said she will serve to her five children.
“We’re dying of hunger,” she told the Associated Press news agency.
“If we don’t eat, we’ll die.”
Islam Abu Taeima finds a piece of bread in a pile of rubbish in Gaza City. Pic: AP.
It is unclear how many of the GHF’s aid trucks will enter Gaza.
It claims it will reach one million Palestinians by the end of the week.
There are questions, however, over who is funding it and how it will work.
Trucks transporting aid for Palestinians in Rafah. Pic: Reuters.
It has been set up as part of an Israeli plan – rather than a UN distribution effort.
Israel, which suggested a similar plan earlier this year, has said it will not be involved in distributing the aid but supported the plan and would provide security.
It says aid deliveries into Gaza are taken by Hamas instead of going to civilians.
Aid groups, however, say there is no evidence of this happening on a systemic basis.
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Israel began to allow a limited amount of food into Gaza last week – after a blockade that prevented food, medicine, fuel and other goods from entering the Palestinian enclave.
A letter has been signed by hundreds of judges and lawyers calling on the UK government to impose trade sanctions on Israel.
It also calls for Israeli ministers to be sanctioned and the suspension of Israel from the UN over “serious breaches of international law”.
“Genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza or that, at a minimum, there is a serious risk of genocide,” the letter says.
The Israeli government has repeatedly dismissed allegations of genocide in Gaza.
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At least 31 dead after school attack
More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its ground invasion of Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, following the deadly attacks by the militant group on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
The health ministry’s figures do not differentiate between civilians and fighters in Gaza.
King Charles and Queen Camilla are being urged to use their visit to Canada to seek an apology for the abuse of British children.
Campaigners have called on them to pursue an apology for the “dire circumstances” suffered by so-called “Home Children” over decades.
More than 100,000 were shipped from orphan homes in the UK to Canada between 1869 and 1948 with many used as cheap labour, typically as farm workers and domestic servants. Many were subject to mistreatment and abuse.
Canada has resisted calls to follow the UK and Australia in apologising for its involvement in child migrant schemes.
King Charles and Mark Carney on Monday. Pic: PA
Campaigners for the Home Children say the royal visit presents a “great opportunity” for a change of heart.
“I would ask that King Charles uses his trip to request an apology,” John Jefkins told Sky News.
John’s father Bert was one of 115,000 British Home Children transported to Canada, arriving in 1914 with his brother Reggie.
“It’s really important for the Home Children themselves and for their descendants,” John said.
“It’s something we deserve and it’s really important for the healing process, as well as building awareness of the experience of the Home Children.
“They were treated very, very badly by the Canadian government at the time. A lot of them were abused, they were treated horribly. They were second-class citizens, lepers in a way.”
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The forgotten legacy of British children sent to Canada
John Jefkins
John added: “I think the King’s visit provides a great opportunity to reinforce our campaign and to pursue an apology because we’re part of the Commonwealth and King Charles is a new Head of the Commonwealth meeting a new Canadian prime minister. It’s a chance, for both, to look at the situation with a fresh eye.
“There’s much about this visit that looks on our sovereignty and who we are as Canadians, rightly so.
“I think it’s also right that in contemplating the country we built, we focus on the people who built it, many in the most trying of circumstances.”
The issue was addressed by the then Prince of Wales during a tour of Canada in May 2022. He said at the time: “We must find new ways to come to terms with the darker and more difficult aspects of the past.”
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King Charles and Queen Camilla are on a two-day visit to Canada.
On Tuesday, the King will deliver the Speech from the Throne to open the 45th session of Canada’s parliament.
Camilla was made Patron of Barnardo’s in 2016. The organisation sent tens of thousands of Home Children to Canada. She took on the role, having served as president since 2007.
Buckingham Palace has been contacted for comment.
A spokesperson for the Canadian government said: “The government of Canada is committed to keeping the memory of the British Home Children alive.
“Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada deeply regrets this unjust and discriminatory policy, which was in place from 1869 to 1948. Such an approach would have no place in modern Canada, and we must learn from past mistakes.”
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