UK defends prioritising 'targeted' embassy staff in Sudan's Khartoum

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The UK was forced to prioritise the evacuation of diplomatic staff over British citizens in Sudan due to threats to their lives, a senior MP has said.

Andrew Mitchell, Minister of State at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, said guns were being pointed at “either side” of the British Embassy and diplomats were being specifically targeted across Khartoum.

He told Radio 4’s Today programme: “I must stress these diplomats were in acute danger because the guns were either side of the British embassy.

“And we got them out as fast as we could, as did the Americans get their diplomats out.

“We have a specific duty of care, a legal duty of care, to our own staff and our diplomats. They are our staff. And they were in acute danger. Some of them were attacked.”

Mr Mitchell said the “number one requirement” was to arrange a ceasefire.

Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign affairs chief, said the bloc will keep working for a political settlement to the conflict in Sudan despite the recent evacuation of diplomatic staff and other EU citizens from the country.

Speaking on Monday before a meeting with EU foreign ministers, he said: “We have to continue pushing for a political settlement. We cannot afford that Sudan implodes because it would send shock waves throughout the whole of Africa.”

He added that the EU's ambassador to Sudan was still in the country.

“The captain is the last one leaving the ship. He is in Sudan but no longer in Khartoum,” Mr Borrell said.

'Abandoned'

On Monday, China's foreign ministry said it had sent a task force to evacuate Chinese citizens from Sudan and that a group had been safely evacuated to a neighbouring country.

A group of 15 Danish citizens were evacuated in a French-led rescue operation, while another six citizens rejected an offer to be evacuated.

Other countries including Germany, Spain and Jordan have rushed to extract their citizens amid the deadly power struggle between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Ireland's Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin said about 50 Irish citizens were evacuated from Sudan, with more evacuations planned.

“About 50 Irish citizens were evacuated since yesterday from Khartoum to Djibouti with the support of France and Spain, and I want to take the opportunity to thank the French authorities and the Spanish for doing a remarkable job in terms of a wider co-ordinated evacuation of European Union citizens,” Mr Martin told RTE Radio One.

“The situation is fluid. We estimate there’s about 150-plus Irish citizens registered with our embassy in Nairobi — that can include dependents, so you’ll appreciate the situation is fluid.”

Britain has faced questions about why embassy employees were prioritised over other UK citizens following a night-time evacuation mission on Sunday to rescue diplomats and their families from the African nation as internal warring continues.

Some Britons stranded in the country, who were advised to register their presence with the Foreign Office and shelter in place, were organising private evacuations as the prospect of help seemed limited.

A Spanish military plane and military vehicles depart as Spanish diplomatic personnel and citizens are evacuated. Reuters

Others said they were so scared they were hiding under their beds.

Iman Abugarga, a British woman sheltering in Khartoum, said she felt “absolutely” abandoned by the British government.

“It is shameful how they have mismanaged this situation,” she told the Telegraph.

British citizen Rozan Ahmed told Sky News she was terrified.

“I have been hiding under my bed for the past six hours. The area where I stay at the moment has been shelled to shreds.

“I have heard nothing but explosions and gunfire and shelling and screams. I and my family members are terrified to a point where we have gone numb.”

Another citizen called William told the broadcaster: “What I need most is to hear there is a plane somewhere outside of Sudan. That plane will come swooping in.

“We will get a message saying get to this point and then we will get on a plane and we will fly home.”

He said he was forced to “go private” and leave Khartoum on a bus arranged by his Sudanese employer because “we’ve had absolutely nothing but nonsense from the government”.

A woman called Yasmin told Sky News her 89-year-old grandfather and 75-year-old grandmother been stuck in Sudan since the outbreak of hostilities.

She said soldiers raided their home, and they have had little food or water for a week. They live on the same block as the British Embassy.

“We have been contacting them [the British Embassy] by all platforms we can trying to tell them that they are located less than a minute walk from the British Embassy, Even if there is no evacuation plan in place for British nationals, the least they could have done was taken some water, some food to their front door to ensure they could survive another few days.

“The next thing we know, all British embassy staff have been evacuated.”

She said thousands of Britons have “been left behind and now there’s no plan in place” to evacuate them, while other countries had evacuated their citizens.

“Why isn’t the UK doing the same thing?” she asked.

Javid Abdelmoneim, a doctor working with the World Health Organisation in Malawi, said a window for his father to leave Sudan safely “was closing” after declining a family invite to travel overland to Egypt and skipping another family convoy to Port Sudan on the expectation of being evacuated by the UK.

Mr Abdelmoneim wrote on Twitter: “Window of opportunity for my dad to leave #Sudan safely is closing, a matter of hours now, as my last two family groups plan their departure today.

“Internet down, intl calls blocked, local network patchy.

“We have no way of knowing that he can get to them.

“All this avoidable”

Mr Mitchell said about 2,000 British citizens had registered with the Foreign Office and the UK was doing “everything it could” to evacuate its citizens.

Sudan crisis latest — in pictures

He said: “Our intention, as it has always been over the last week since we went into 24-hour crisis mode on the situation, our intention always has been to facilitate the exit of our citizens as soon as it is safe to do so.

“Every single option is being explored in detail. And the moment that it is possible to change the travel advice and move them, we will.”

He said British citizens should “stay indoors” in the meantime.

“It is too dangerous to go outside,” he told the Today programme.

“Yesterday, when the Turks tried to assemble a convoy and had three muster points, two of those muster points were shot up when they were trying to evacuate their citizens.

“This is incredibly dangerous. But we are exploring every possible opportunity to get our citizens out.”

Alicia Kearns, the chairwoman of the Foreign Select Committee, said she felt “uncomfortable” that British citizens had been left behind, but there was little choice.

“There was a meaningful risk to the lives of our diplomats and other diplomats,” she said on the Today programme.

“That’s why we saw all of our allies lift out their diplomats. And I think that tells us a great deal but now the focus has to shift to getting out British nationals.

“I have urged the government to make sure that it is communicating with British nationals within Sudan. The reality is, that unlike other countries we do have thousands of British nationals in Sudan. So sometimes phoning around can be incredibly difficult.

“But I would expect regular updates to be sent out through electronic communications to inform and reassure British nationals.”

UK defends prioritising 'targeted' embassy staff in Sudan's Khartoum

About 2,000 British citizens have registered their presence with the Foreign Office

'Abandoned'

Sudan crisis latest — in pictures