British citizens still stranded in Sudan after last evacuation flight leaves Khartoum

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Hundreds of British citizens remain trapped in Sudan after the last Britain evacuation flight from Khartoum left the country on Saturday.

They will now be forced to make a dangerous 800km road trip from Khartoum to Port Sudan on the Red Sea or try to reach to the country's border with Egypt or South Sudan.

The UK will run an additional evacuation flight from Port Sudan on Monday, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said on Sunday afternoon.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said rescue efforts, which were previously focused on the Wadi Saeedna site near the Sudanese capital, would be moved to the east of the nation.

“The UK has now airlifted over 2,100 people to safety from Sudan in what has been the largest and longest evacuation of any Western country," Mr Cleverly said.

“I want to thank all of those working to deliver this evacuation and ensure as many people as possible are brought to safety.

“Evacuation flights have ended from Wadi Saeedna but our rescue efforts continue from Port Sudan.”

More than 75,000 people have been displaced by the violence in Sudan, the International Organisation for Migration estimates.

Among those left behind was a British-Sudanese woman who had been told by the UK Foreign Office that she would not be allowed to take her sons on the last flight out.

Saida Yassier Abdalgadir, 25, a teaching assistant, was forced to stay in the city of Atbara, about 340km miles north-east of Khartoum, with her Sudanese husband and two sons aged six and four.

“I asked the FCDO [Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office] permission for my two boys to be allowed to escape with me, but with no success,” she told The Observer newspaper. “How could I ever spend a minute in safety while my angels are under fire?”

While the British government announced that 2,122 people had been rescued in an evacuation operation involving 23 military flights, a large number are understood to remain stranded.

They now face a grim future with fighting resuming between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces following a three-day truce.

Britain has established diplomatic headquarters in Port Sudan with citizens told to go to the Coral Hotel.

A road convoy carry hundreds of US citizens escorted by armed drones arrived in Port Sudan on Saturday but it is unclear whether others will come with the Sudanese army allegedly blocking the movement of foreign citizens.

There are growing concerns of a humanitarian crisis with refugees sheltering for days in the open on Sudan’s borders with Chad, Egypt, South Sudan and Ethiopia, with food and water running out.

But many refugees, some holding Saudi Arabian flags, have managed to cross the Red Sea to the port of Jeddah.

Among those fortunate to escape was Moneer Abdel Mohsen, a Sudanese citizen, who managed after a long wait to cross the border into Egypt then flew back from Cairo to his workplace in the UAE.

“It was chaos at the border,” he said. “People were sitting on the floor. I spent one and a half days without sleep, food or water.”

He said the price for a bus ticket from the border has risen to almost $250 and was continuing to increase. “I felt so sad leaving my friends behind but only those who have money can leave the country."

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