Tuesday, April 25, 2023

UK evacuation mission under way in Khartoum Sudan. RAF flight lands in Cyprus, with more to come

From BBC News Live Reporting

Tue 25 Apr 2023 14:21 BST UK - full copy:

As we've been telling you, the UK government has launched an evacuation plan for British nationals in Sudan.

Some 2,000 British citizens in Sudan are registered with the Foreign Office to be evacuated.


In the pictures below we can see preparations being made in the RAF base in Cyprus ahead of the mission.


One RAF flight which took off from Khartoum earlier has landed back in Cyprus, though at the moment we don't have any information on who is on that flight.

Copyright: ROYAL NAVY/MARK JOHNSON HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock


Image caption: The mission to evacuate civilians from Sudan has begun in Cyprus

Copyright: ROYAL NAVY/MARK JOHNSON HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock


Image caption: About 1,400 military personnel are involved in the rescue effort. View original here.


[Ends]

_________________________________________________________


BBC News Live Reporting posted at 13:43 - full copy:


RAF flight lands in Cyprus, with more to come


We can now confirm that an RAF flight which took off from Khartoum earlier has landed in Cyprus. 


We are expecting another landing later this afternoon. At this stage, we don't have any details on who is on these flights.


This is obviously a high-risk and delicate operation, and the Ministry of Defence is not releasing a huge amount of information as it unfolds. View original here.


[Ends]

_________________________________________________________


BBC Live report by Caroline Hawley Posted at 17:51 BST


First UK flight to land in Cyprus at 18:30 


I've been told that the first evacuation flight will arrive in Larnaca at 18:30 BST - with two more coming in overnight.

Around 250 people are expected to be on board those three flights, and they're due to be flown back to the UK from Cyprus on charter planes. 

Those flights, I've been told, have yet to be arranged. View original here.

[Ends]

_________________________________________________________

No comments: