The UK government has allowed NHS doctors in Sudan to catch evacuation flights, despite their previous policy of only allowing British passport holders and their dependents to evacuate. More than 20 NHS medics had been previously turned away due to this policy. However, on Friday, a message was circulated by the Department of Health and Social Care to NHS doctors in Sudan, telling them to make their way to Wadi Seidna airfield, north of the capital, for evacuation. The change in policy comes just hours before the UK’s final rescue flights out of Sudan. The change comes after the case of Sudanese doctor Dr Abdulrahman Babiker, who was initially refused a place on a British evacuation, made headlines.
The fighting in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, began two weeks ago due to a power struggle within the Sudanese military leadership. Countries have been frantically rescuing their citizens, with the latest evacuations happening during a US-brokered ceasefire, which has not held. On Friday evening, the US also reportedly started evacuating civilians on buses – with a convoy carrying some 300 people leaving Khartoum and heading towards the coastal city of Port Sudan, according to US media. It appears to be the first evacuation of non-diplomat Americans from Sudan.
The Foreign Office stated that the UK’s last flights marked “the end of a successful evacuation operation with 1,573 people evacuated so far”, and it was winding up evacuations due to “declining demand for seats”. However, the British Medical Association had called on the government to “ensure all NHS doctors, and their families, including those on UK visas are evacuated”. The change in policy has been welcomed by Dr Abdulrahman Babiker, who successfully caught a flight that landed in Cyprus on Friday evening.
Heavy fighting between the Sudanese army and its rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed at least 512 people, and injured almost 4,200. Missiles and heavy weaponry have also damaged the country’s key infrastructure, including access to clean water and the internet. Around 33,000 refugees fled from Khartoum to refugee camps in Sudan’s White Nile state. Other countries have also been evacuating their citizens.
Source: BBC
