Sudan war LIVE: Latest news and updates as UK nationals scramble to escape Khartoum amid fears ceasefire will break down
- UK government is now coordinating evacuation of its nationals from Sudan
- Read more of MailOnline’s coverage of the war in Sudan and evacuations HERE
This is MailOnline’s live blog on the war in Sudan as UK nationals scramble to escape the capital of Khartoum.
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A British doctor was shot in the leg while trying to rescue his mother in Sudan as the country descended into chaos, his daughter has revealed.
The man, who recently retired having worked for the NHS for thee decades, was visiting his family in Khartoum to celebrate Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr.
But fierce fighting between Sudan’s top two generals erupted in the city on April 15 – putting the large northeast-African country on the path to civil war.
The World Health Organization warned Tuesday that fighters in conflict-ravaged Sudan had occupied a central public laboratory holding samples of diseases including polio and measles, creating an ‘extremely, extremely dangerous’ situation.
‘There is a huge biological risk associated with the occupation of the central public health lab… by one of the fighting parties,’ Nima Saeed Abid, the WHO’s representative in Sudan, told reporters in Geneva via video-link.
Abid said technicians were unable to access the National Public Health Laboratory to secure the materials.
‘This is the main concern: no accessibility to the lab technicians to go to the lab and safely contain the biological material and substances available,’ he said, declining to specify which side had seized the facility.
Fighting erupted between the Sudanese armed forces and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries on April 15 and has killed at least 459 people and injured 4,072, according to the WHO’s latest figures.
Fighting has erupted across Khartoum and at other sites in Sudan in a battle between two powerful rival military factions, engulfing the capital in warfare for the first time and raising the risk of a nationwide civil conflict.
The fighting between forces loyal to two top generals has put the nation at risk of collapse and could have consequences far beyond its borders.
The warring generals today pledged to observe a new three-day truce brokered by the United States and Saudi Arabia. But the claims were immediately undercut by the sound of heavy gunfire and explosions in the capital of Khartoum. Residents said warplanes were flying overhead.
The fighting, which began as Sudan attempted to transition to democracy, has already killed hundreds of people and left millions trapped in urban areas, sheltering from gunfire, explosions and looters.
Here, MailOnline takes a look at what is happening and the impact it could have on the rest of the world.
There are fears that the government’s late decision to evacuate civilians – after choosing to only rescue diplomats – is ‘too little, too late’ for Britons due to how dangerous it is to travel through the various checkpoints to the airfield.
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly admitted that Britons will have to ‘make their own way’ across Khartoum – where the fighting has been fiercest – without any help from the government.
Sir Nicholas Kay, a former British ambassador to Sudan, warned the situation during the ceasefire remains ‘precarious’ and at any moment, the fighting between the warring military factions could start again – thwarting any plans of a safe evacuation.
Indeed, the sound of heavy gunfire and explosions filled the air in the capital of Khartoum and residents said warplanes were flying overhead.
Sir Kay warned that moving around Khartoum could be ‘very difficult’, with the bridges crossing the Blue and White Nile rivers being controlled by the armed groups, while Conservative MP Alice Kearns said it is now ‘a race against time’ to get Britons out of Sudan.
Mr Cleverly said he had made contact with the leaders of the rival military factions in Sudan, calling on them to allow British nationals and dual nationals to be evacuated safely.
But he admitted it was impossible to predict how long the window for the evacuation would remain open.
‘It is important to remember that ceasefires have been announced and have fallen apart in the past, so the situation remains dangerous, volatile and unpredictable,’ he said.
He added: ‘We have said that we are unable to provide escorts from where British nationals are to the airhead, they will have to make their own way there – as indeed has been the case for the nationals of other countries.’
The UK government will begin evacuating British citizens trapped in Sudan today, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said after he was accused of ‘abandoning’ thousands of civilians in the war-torn country.
Military flights will now evacuate at least 2,000 British nationals with a UK passport from an airfield outside the capital of Khartoum as a three-day ceasefire came into effect.
Mr Cleverly said Foreign Office officials have started contacting British nationals trapped in Sudan directly about the ‘large-scale’ operation involving some 1,400 military personnel.
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