A chartered jet from Larnaca, Cyprus landed at Stansted airport today with rescued Brits from Sudan with 301 people on board, Downing Street said.
Another RAF evacuation flight could also be on its way to Cyprus from Sudan as an RAF Airbus A400M has been spotted over the skies of Egypt, according to Flightradar 24, which was the same plane which landed in Larnaca this morning.
Many Brits who are stranded in Sudan that have been told to get to the Wadi Saeedna airstrip have criticised the British government over having no protection and help to travel in some circumstances hundreds of miles to get to the planes.
Gunfire and RPGs can be heard across the Sudanese capital with tanks lining the roads making it impossible for many trapped foreign citizens to escape to the safety of the airports.
One Brit made a 12 hour journey to Port Sudan to then be told he has to drive 500 miles to the airstrip outside Khartoum.
Read more on Sudan:
British embassy in Khartoum warns evacuation convoys are ‘under fire’ and Sudan is on ‘edge of the abyss’
British troops arrive in Sudan on a reconnaissance mission ready for an imminent evacuation of UK nationals
UK in a ‘dangerous’ and ‘large scale evacuation’ to rescue 4,000 trapped Brits from war torn Sudan
Helen from Cardiff, South Wales told Sky News that she was trying to explain to an embassy member of staff that her brother cannot travel the 500 miles to the airstrip as there is no transport.
She said, “[The agent] was unwilling to listen to me. Offered no sympathy. She wouldn’t even listen to me when I explained he was in Port Sudan. They have a script to adhere to and they’re sticking to it.
“It’s frustrating. I’m hoping that HMS Lancaster will help out as the French warship is already there.”
Another British national who is trapped in Sudan said they have no choice but to travel “across the country to get to the evacuation site” and was stopped multiple times by armed militia.
Amal Osman told Africa correspondent Yousra Elbagir that they were stopped the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and an AK-47 assault rifle was put “into one of their faces.”
Osman said, “It is absolutely ridiculous that we have to make a dangerous journey across the country to get to the evacuation site.
“We got stopped by the RSF at least 12 times and we also got stopped about eight times by the Sudanese armed forces.
“The RSF made most of the men get down off the bus and thoroughly searched them.
“There was one incident where they [the RSF] were really rude and cruel to two young men who were on the bus with us.
“They put an AK-47 into one of their faces. They were rude to my elderly dad. They were rude to me. They took another girl’s phone off them and refused to give it back.
“On another occasion they shot into the air when we failed to stop at a road block because we didn’t see them.”
She criticised the British government for not supplying any form of support by being involved in helping to get them safely to the airstrip.
She added, “They managed to coordinate that for diplomats, why can’t they do that for their citizens?”
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