Sudan crisis: Air strikes and fighting in Khartoum as truce collapses

Air strikes have intensified in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, despite a truce aimed at allowing civilians to flee.

The army said it was attacking the city to flush out its paramilitary rivals, the Rapid Response Forces (RSF).

The latest truce was due to end at midnight on Sunday. The RSF said it had been extended for another three days.

Millions remain trapped in the capital, where food is running short. The first major aid flight, laden with medical supplies, has arrived in the country.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says a plane landed at Port Sudan with eight tonnes of relief supplies, including health kits for hospitals.

“With hostilities still ongoing, ICRC teams will need guarantees of safe passage from the parties to the conflict to deliver this material to medical facilities in locations with active fighting, such as Khartoum,” a statement said.

More than 70% of health facilities in the capital have been forced to close as a result of the fighting that erupted on 15 April.

More than 500 people have been reported killed, with the actual total number of dead and injured expected to be much higher.

Army commander Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF chief Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, are vying for power - and disagree in particular about plans to include the RSF into the army.

Foreign countries have been evacuating their nationals amid the chaos.

Tens of thousands of people are attempting to flee Sudan

The warring sides agreed a humanitarian truce after intensive diplomatic efforts by neighbouring countries, the US, UK and UN. It was extended, but did not hold. There are few signs the army will respect the further extension announced by the RSF on Sunday.

The army said it had conducted operations against RSF troops north of the city centre.

Eyewitnesses told Reuters news agency that army drones had targeted RSF position near a major oil refinery.

“We woke up once again to the sound of fighter jets and anti-aircraft weapons blasting all over our neighbourhood,” one resident told AFP news agency on Sunday.

BBC diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams, who is monitoring events from

Nairobi in Kenya, says the army will find it difficult to expel the RSF from Khartoum.

For all the army’s superior firepower, the RSF are highly mobile and more suited to urban warfare, our correspondent adds.

Some 2,122 British nationals have been rescued from Sudan, the government said

The UK government announced on Sunday that it would organise a final evacuation flight on Monday - two days after it said it had ended its operation to bring British nationals out. The Foreign Office (FCDO) advised those wishing to leave to travel to the evacuation point in Port Sudan before 12:00 (10:00 GMT). So far, 2,122 people have been evacuated, the FCDO statement said.

A US-organised convoy has reached Port Sudan to evacuate more US citizens by ship to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. It said hundreds of Americans had already left, in addition to the diplomats evacuated by air a week ago.

Also on Saturday Sudanese former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok warned that the conflict could become worse than those in Syria and Libya. Those wars have led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and caused instability in the wider regions.

Speaking in Nairobi, he said: “I think it will be a nightmare for the world. This is not a war between an army and small rebellion. It is almost like two armies.”

Meanwhile, there are chaotic scenes in Port Sudan where people are desperate to board ships, some of which are heading to Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

I’m so happy to come home - Chadian student

A student has told the BBC of her relief at being airlifted from Sudan.

“The Chadian embassy helped us and now we are on a plane. I am very happy to come back to my beloved country, Chad,” says Ikhbar.

She says dozens of other Chadians are on board the flight, and although she is leaving her university studies behind in Khartoum, she’s grateful to have found safety.

“It feels very different, thank God.”

More than 220 people have so far been repatriated to Chad, says French-language broadcaster RFI, and the Chadian government is urging others still in Sudan to report to its consulate and register themselves for a return flight.

Chad neighbours the Darfur region in western Sudan, which has seen some of the worst violence since the fighting began.

A UN official told the BBC Newsday programme that as many as 250,000 Sudanese could end up seeking refuge in Chad, despite the country’s own security problems and its already struggling humanitarian response to Sudan’s crisis.

World determined to secure a Sudan ceasefireMitchell

More from our correspondent’s interview with Foreign Office Minister Andrew Mitchell.

Asked about the case of the NHS doctors initially preventedfrom boarding flights, Mitchell said the government had reached “the right decision” to evacuate them.

Mitchell said he was “incredibly concerned” about what would happen in Sudan once all foreigners had left. The African Union is convening a meeting in Addis Ababa next week to discuss the issue, and the UN (where Britain “holds the pen” on the Sudan issue) is also heavily engaged.

“The whole of the international system is looking at ways of stopping this fighting,” he said, “which, after all, is two generals slugging it out for power.”

The international community, he said, was determined to secure a ceasefire, so that Sudan could go back to where it was on 11 April, “with good negotiations, opening up the political space for a civilian administration.”

“Unless there is a permanent ceasefire,” he said, “the position for millions of people in Sudan, and in the surrounding countries... is incredibly serious.”

Minister defends UK evacuations

UK Foreign Office Minister Andrew Mitchell has told the BBC that the operation to evacuate British and other nationals from Khartoum has been “extremely successful.”

Speaking in Nairobi, Mitchell said it was right that the evacuation flights were ending. “I don’t think there’s a single Brit in Khartoum who won’t know about the evacuation and the flow of people who’ve been coming to the airport indicate that that is correct,” he said.

He said the situation at the Wadi Saedna airfield was “extremely dangerous”, and cited the example of the Turkish aircraft that was shot at yesterday.

“We can’t stay there forever in such dangerous circumstances,” he said, adding that the UK government was “looking at every single option to help British citizens who are caught up in this terrible crisis.”

And here’s another uplifting story to emerge from a very grim situation. Watch the moment a father meets his baby for the first time, after his family was able to join him in the UK from Sudan.

Muammar Ali was also joined by his son and wife after they, too, left the conflict-hit nation.

“No words can describe this moment”, he told the BBC.

BBC journalist Mo Hashim has described the moment he happened to spot a relative among a crowd of evacuees who reached Saudi Arabia today.

He told his colleague Andrew Harding it was “overwhelming” and a relief to see his mother’s cousin reach Jeddah after a tough journey from Sudan.

Former Sudanese PM issues warning for wider region

Sudan’s former prime minister has warned that the insecurity in his country could become worse than that in Syria and Libya if fighting is not stopped.

Abdalla Hamdok has called on the international community to persuade the Sudanese army chief and the head of the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to hold peace talks.

Speaking at a summit in Kenya, he said if there was no peace settlement, the ramifications could affect the entire region as well as the rest of the world.

Hamdok added: “Sudan is the largest country in that area, bordering seven countries. God forbid if Sudan is to reach a point of civil war proper.”

Hamdok was prime minister of Sudan from November 2019 to January 2022. He resigned after mass protests against a deal he made to share power with the army - who staged a coup in October 2021.

Family stuck at Egypt border over $40,000 bus fee

A family trying to flee Sudan has told the BBC they are among thousands stuck at the border with Egypt because drivers are demanding $40,000 (£31,810) to take them across. Source:BBC