UK government to begin evacuating British people from Sudan as civil war ravages country

There are an estimated 4,000 British nationals and dual nationals in Sudan

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly confirmed the news Tuesday saying that has military flights will depart from an airfield outside Khartoum and priority will be given to families with children, the elderly and people with medical conditions.

He tweeted: "We have started contacting nationals directly and providing routes for departure out of the country."

People will be contacted directly and the government said people should not go to the airfield unless they are called, the Foreign Office said.

"The situation remains volatile and our ability to conduct evacuations could change at short notice," said the Foreign Office.

The FO website states: "Seats will be allocated on a priority basis, starting with family groups with children and /or the elderly or individuals with documented medical conditions. We can only evacuate British passport holders and immediate family members (defined as a spouse/partner and children under 18 years old) with existing UK entry clearance. Travel within Sudan is conducted at your own risk and plans may change depending on the security situation."

There are an estimated 4,000 British nationals and dual nationals in Sudan.

A source told The Mirror any evacuation of thousands of Brits will be a far more dangerous operation than the chaotic airlift from Afghanistan in 2021.

James Heappey, the minister for the armed forces, told LBC’s Tonight With Andrew Marr show on Monday: “The danger is that other than the very tight and controlled mission that we did Saturday into Sunday to extract the diplomats over which we had a very tight degree of control … beyond that we would effectively be inserting foreign troops, not just us, there’ll be other countries that would want to do it, into the parts of Khartoum that has been the most hotly fought over.”

This is a breaking news story. More to follow.