Sudan – live: Final evacuation flight for fleeing Britons leaves as violence resumes

When bridges closed in her area of Sudan‘s capital Khartoum, Palestinian medical student Nour Kullab thought it was just another protest

Before she could grasp what was happening, electricity and water were cut off amid the din of gunfire and rockets, Kullab told Reuters at her family house in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip four days after returning

“I got out of my home, there were no rickshaws, only cars and no one stopped for me, the industrial zone was on fire, and shops were closed. I felt horror as if it was doomsday,” Kullab, 25, said.

“When you see bodies scattered right and left, dismembered people, torched banks, you feel it is totally unsafe,” she said.

Hundreds of people have been killed since a power struggle between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted into conflict on April 15.

On Monday, the Palestinian foreign ministry said it had concluded the evacuation of Palestinians in Sudan with the collaboration of Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.

Gaza has gone through numerous wars between Israel and Palestinian factions and suffered its own bout of civil conflict. An Israeli-led blockade has restricted the movement of people and goods for years.

“It was worse than a war in Gaza,” said Kullab, who spent days without bread or clean water after she quit her house to live with a Sudanese friend.

Shops were closed as looting spread.

“There was a guy who sold water in tankers, salty water, from the sea, from the river, what is important that it was water. We could see through some algae but we used to boil it and drink, only to become more thirsty after,” said Kullab.

Kullab arrived in Sudan in 2015 to study medicine. Her studies were interrupted by civil conflict and the pandemic. When this war broke out she was days away from graduating. She had only a few exams to do.

“I felt my future was taken away against my will, everything has gone in vain,” she said.

On Friday, her family welcomed her at the crossing with Egypt with tears, not with celebrations as they had planned for later in May when she would have finished her studies.

“Happy conditions became sad,” said Kullab’s mother Ruwaida.

More than 800,000 people may flee Sudan as a result of fighting between military factions, including many who had already come there as refugees, a U.N. official said on Monday.

“Without a quick resolution of this crisis we will continue to see more people forced to flee in search of safety and basic assistance,” Raouf Mazou told a member state briefing in Geneva.

“In consultation with all concerned governments and partners we’ve arrived at a planning figure of 815,000 people that may flee into the seven neighbouring countries.”

The estimate includes around 580,000 Sudanese, he said, with the others existing refugees from South Sudan and elsewhere.

So far, he said some 73,000 people have already fled to Sudan‘s neighbours - South Sudan, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Central African Republic and Libya.

U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths will visit Sudan on Tuesday, said Ramesh Rajasingham of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Griffiths was in Nairobi, Kenya, on Monday to discuss the situation in Sudan, which he described as “catastrophic.”

“We need to find ways to get aid into the country and distribute it to those in need,” Griffiths wrote on Twitter.

In separate comments, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Sudan said the humanitarian crisis was turning into a “full blown catastrophe” and that the risk of spillover into neighbouring countries was worrying.

“It has been more than two weeks of devastating fighting in Sudan, a conflict that is turning Sudan humanitarian crisis into a full blown catastrophe,” Abdou Dieng told member states via video link.

Thousands of British nationals have fled Sudan as violence sweeps the country, killing hundreds of civilians.

On 25 April, the first UK government evacuation flight rescued Britons trapped in the capital, Khartoum after a 72-hour ceasefire between warring factions was negotiated.

The government announced final flights for evacuees would leave on Saturday evening after fears that the armistice between the two rival generals was wearing down.

Tension had been building for months between Sudan’s army and the RSF, which together toppled a civilian government in an October 2021 coup.

The friction was brought to a head by an internationally-backed plan to launch a new transition with civilian parties. A final deal was due to be signed earlier in April, on the fourth anniversary of the overthrow of long-ruling autocrat Omar al-Bashir in a popular uprising.

Both the army and the RSF were required to cede power under the plan and two issues proved particularly contentious: one was the timetable for the RSF to be integrated into the regular armed forces, the second was when the army would be formally placed under civilian oversight.

Joe Sommerlad reports:

We’re pausing our live coverage of Sudan this evening. See the latest on the situation below:

The final evacuation flight bringing Britons out of Sudan left the country on Monday evening as fighting continued to rage between warring factions.

British nationals were told by the Foreign Office that those looking to flee the war-torn nation had until 11am UK time - midday local time - to reach the city Port Sudan, on the eastern coast to be given the chance to board the last two flights.

The Foreign Office would not confirm if the flights had left the coastal city on Monday afternoon but flight tracking websites showed a Hercules plane left the airport at 18.43 local time and an Airbus Atlas aircraft was due to depart the country hours later at 22.10 local time.