Sudan's military fights to keep Wadi Saeedna airbase

Hat tip with thanks to Cameron Hudson for this toys for the boys' war pr0n. I wonder if this technology, combined with satellite imagery, is the "international-supported ceasefire monitoring mechanism" being hinted at.

A recent video reportedly of a SAF drone strike on a RSF target. I was not under the impression that SAF had armed drones. Can others confirm the veracity of this video and who may have provided them drones? Could be a new turning point despite just signing Jeddah deal. pic.twitter.com/OOzH39ak9R

— Cameron Hudson (@_hudsonc) May 21, 2023

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MEANWHILE, SAF's fighting to keep Wadi Saeedna airbase. Read more.

Report at BBC News

By Zeinab Mohammed Salih, Khartoum

Dated Sunday 21 May 2023 - full copy:

Sudan conflict: Army fights to keep Wadi Saeedna airbase, residents say

Sudan's army is resisting an attempt by paramilitaries to advance towards its main airbase near the capital Khartoum, residents have said.

The airfield is used by the military to carry out air strikes on the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and was also used by foreign governments to evacuate their nationals early in the conflict.

The fighting comes despite the announcement of a new seven-day truce.

Previous ceasefires have collapsed within minutes of being called.

A US-Saudi statement said the latest truce would come into effect on Monday evening, and would be different as it provides for a "ceasefire monitoring mechanism".

The US and Saudi Arabia have been brokering talks between the army and the RSF in the Saudi city of Jeddah for the past two weeks in an attempt to end the conflict that broke out on 15 April.

Most people I spoke to in Khartoum said a ceasefire would hold only if international monitors - backed by United Nations (UN) peacekeepers - are deployed.

In a sign of their lack of confidence in the latest ceasefire deal, bus loads of residents are continuing to flee Khartoum and its sister cities across the River Nile, Bahri and Omdurman, as there has been no let-up in the fighting.

RSF fighters in about 20 trucks are positioned east of the Nile, and are trying to cross a bridge to reach the Wadi Saeedna airfield.

The Sudanese military has retaliated by firing heavy artillery.

The battle has been going on for several days, but it has escalated.

"It feels like doomsday from early this [Sunday] morning. I think they will torture us until this ceasefire comes into effect," said a resident in Bahri's Khojalab suburb.

The military cannot afford to lose control of the airfield, as it is key to its strategy of pounding the RSF from the air as it fights to regain control of Khartoum and the other two cities.

An air strike also took place in Omdurman on Sunday, and explosions could be heard in its southern areas.

Earlier, the US State Department acknowledged previous failed attempts at brokering peace in Sudan, but said there was a key difference this time.

"Unlike previous ceasefires, the agreement reached in Jeddah was signed by the parties and will be supported by a US-Saudi and international-supported ceasefire monitoring mechanism," it said, without giving more details.

Sudan's military said it was committed to the agreement. The RSF has not commented.

The deal also allows for the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Stocks of food, money and essentials have fast declined and aid groups repeatedly complained of being unable to provide sufficient assistance in Khartoum.

Both the regular army and the RSF have been urged to allow the distribution of humanitarian aid, restore essential services and withdraw forces from hospitals.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Twitter: "It is past time to silence the guns and allow unhindered humanitarian access.

"I implore both sides to uphold this agreement - the eyes of the world are watching."

View original: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-65662939

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Protected convoys not possible for UK citizens in Sudan, says Cleverly

Report from BBC News Live Reporting

Dated Thursday 27 April 2023; 9:11 - full copy:

Protected convoys not possible for UK citizens in Sudan, says Cleverly

The UK will not offer coaches to help evacuees get to the airbase in Sudan, says Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

Speaking on the BBC's Today programme, Cleverly was asked why the UK had not provided coaches to shuttle evacuees to the exit point, as other countries including Turkey have done.

Cleverly said the "small number" of attempted convoys had come under attack.

He added: "It's not possible for us to give protected convoys from what could potentially have been a large number of locations."

View original here.

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Sudan crisis: UK troops set to take command at Khartoum airfield and can use force if necessary

Report from the i

By Hugo Gye, Political Editor

Tuesday 25 April 2023 6:49 pm (Updated 8:20 pm)

Sudan crisis: UK troops set to take command at Khartoum airfield and can use force if necessary

It remains unclear how many of the British citizens currently stranded in Sudan can be evacuated by the Government

British troops on their way to Sudan (Photo: LPHOT Mark Johnson/MoD)

British troops are poised to take control of the airfield in Sudan where evacuation flights have been taking British citizens out of the war-torn country.

Military and civilian officials will oversee operations at the facility outside Khartoum, including security in the event that the airfield comes under attack from local militias.

Three flights were due to be completed by Wednesday morning with several more expected throughout the day – but the UK Government does not know whether it will be able to evacuate all the British nationals who want to leave.

Officials are based at the Wadi Saeedna airfield but ministers have ruled out expanding operations beyond that area, meaning that only people who can make it there on their own will be eligible for evacuation. 

There are 120 British troops at the base including members of 40 Commando, who flew in from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.

i understands the UK troops will be ready to use force if required to protect the airfield, should it come under attack during the airlift.

Government officials are hopeful the operation can be carried out without any exchange of fire, with the troops primarily there to assist with logistics.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace confirmed i‘s reporting on Tuesday evening, telling LBC Radio: “The Germans are leaving tomorrow, and we will take over the facilitation at the airfield.

“And the reason the Germans are leaving is people have stopped coming in large numbers.”

Mr Wallace said only one nation can facilitate the airfield at a time.

He added: “If the Spanish or the Italians or anyone else wants to fly, we’ll be the ones giving permissions effectively.”

The minister also said 99 per cent of the British nationals who have registered with the Foreign Office are in the capital Khartoum.

The Government is still working on other options including an evacuation by boat from the coastal city of Port Sudan.

The start of the mission came after the announcement of a ceasefire between the two warring forces currently tearing Sudan apart. 

It also followed an agreement between the UK Government and the armed forces of Sudan to give British nationals safe passage out of the country.

The Foreign Office has made contact with the Rapid Support Forces, which is fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces of the internationally recognised government.

A processing centre at the airfield is being run by staff from the Foreign Office and Border Force after the entire embassy team was evacuated on Sunday over fears they would be directly targeted by militias. The site, used by several different Western governments, was being operated and guarded by the German military but as of Wednesday evening they were preparing to end their mission and hand over to the UK.

There are no plans to help British nationals to access the evacuation mission because of the dangers of travelling even short distances within Sudan. And if the current ceasefire breaks down, there is no guarantee the evacuation efforts can continue, Government sources have said.

Rishi Sunak rejected the suggestion that the Government was too slow to act to help British citizens, saying: “I’m pleased that we were actually one of the first countries to safely evacuate our diplomats and our families. And it was right that we prioritised them because they were being targeted.

“The security situation on the ground in Sudan is complicated, it is volatile and we wanted to make sure we could put in place processes that are going to work for people, that are going to be safe and effective.”

The UK’s military presence in the region may enable the Government to bring humanitarian aid to Sudan once the evacuation mission is complete, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told MPs. He said: “It could well be that it stops becoming an evacuation and in fact it becomes a humanitarian crisis that we have to deal with, that is the challenge on the ground in Sudan is the food and water access as a result of the conflict.”

Oliver Dowden, the new Deputy Prime Minister, chaired the latest in a near-daily series of Cobra meetings to co-ordinate the response of multiple different Whitehall departments to the crisis.

View original: here.

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.

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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.

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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.

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UK Gov: Get to airfield for evacuation, Britons told

From BBC News Live posted today 14:52 BST - full copy:

Get to airfield for evacuation, UK nationals told

We're hearing a bit more from the UK Foreign Office, which is now urging British passport holders and their families to head directly to an airfield north of Khartoum.

• This is a change to the previous advice which told British nationals not to head to the airfield until they were contacted.
  
  
  The updated advisory says flights will leave from Wadi Saeedna airfield.
  
  
  It shares the GPS coordinates: 15° 48 10 N, 32° 29 32 E
  
  
  And the WhatThreeWords for the geolocation app are: refusals.atom.herds
  
  
  In a tweet, the government advises people to "travel to the location as soon as possible to be processed for the flight".

View original, with thanks to the BBC: here. 

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Sudan: UK Gov begins large-scale evacuation of Brits

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: It's good to see Sir Nicholas Kay mentioned in this report. He was an excellent UK ambassador to Sudan 2010-2012 a dangerous and difficult time in Sudan and South Sudan. I miss his reports.

In this report he is quoted as saying: the situation in Khartoum was precarious and the security situation could change rapidly because there was no trust between the two sides in the conflict.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that moving around Khartoum could be challenging because the bridges crossing the Blue and White Nile rivers were being controlled by armed groups.

Report from BBC News

By Charley Adams, BBC News

Tuesday 25 April 2023 14:30 hrs BST UK - full copy

Sudan: UK government begins large-scale evacuation of British people

IMAGE SOURCE, PA MEDIA

Image caption, Military forces have been deployed to Cyprus to help evacuate British citizens stuck in Sudan

The UK is beginning a large-scale, complex evacuation of British people from Sudan, PM Rishi Sunak has said.

Families with children, the elderly and people with medical conditions will be prioritised on RAF flights leaving from an airfield near the capital Khartoum.

They are being told to make their own way to the airport, without an escort.

A 72-hour ceasefire, agreed by rival military factions, appears to be holding although there have been reports of new gunfire and shelling.

At least 459 people have been killed since fighting broke out on 15 April.

UK ministers have come under increasing pressure to help its citizens flee the fierce fighting.

Around 4,000 UK citizens are thought to be in Sudan and 2,000 of them have already requested help, Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell said on Monday.

Only British passport holders and their immediate family with existing UK entry clearance are eligible, the government has said.

The Foreign Office is urging them to make their own way to the Wadi Saeedna airfield to the north of Khartoum to board evacuation flights.

Previous advice that people should not travel to the evacuation site until contacted by the government has been removed.

An RAF plane which took off from an airfield north of Khartoum has landed in Cyprus, according to a flight tracking site. It is not yet clear whether UK nationals are onboard.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the government was not able to escort people to the airfield and British nationals would need to "make their own way there".

He said he had made contact with the military leaders in Sudan but it was impossible to predict how long the evacuation window would remain open.

They would maintain the airhead for "as long as we can", he added, and the UK was working as quickly as possible to get people out.

Mr Cleverly said the situation there remained "dangerous, volatile and unpredictable".

"This is an active conflict, the ceasefire has been announced but we know there have been pockets of violence even within previous ceasefires," he added.

Downing Street said those evacuated would first be taken to Cyprus before being brought back to the UK.

One man with dual nationality said he feared he might not make it out of Sudan.

Musaab, who is waiting to be evacuated from Khartoum, told the BBC the situation was fraught with challenges.

"The one thing that I didn't like is that they're asking people to come to the airport which is very risky because there is no law and order," he said.

Many British nationals have spent days indoors with food and drink running low and no electricity or wifi.

Several have spoken of their anger and desperation at being left behind, while other foreign nationals and embassy staff were flown out.

On Sunday, the UK airlifted diplomats and their families out of Sudan in a military operation.

The fragile ceasefire, which began at midnight on Monday (22:00 GMT), appears to be holding but there have been reports of gunfire and warplanes flying over Khartoum.

This is the fourth suspension of fighting since violence erupted in Sudan this month, but other attempts did not hold.

Sir Nicholas Kay, a former UK ambassador to Sudan, said the situation in Khartoum was precarious and the security situation could change rapidly because there was no trust between the two sides in the conflict.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that moving around Khartoum could be challenging because the bridges crossing the Blue and White Nile rivers were being controlled by armed groups.

Hundreds of people have been airlifted from Sudan by other countries, including more than 1,000 people by European Union nations.

IMAGE SOURCE, PA MEDIA

Image caption, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak paid tribute to the military forces "carrying out this complex operation"

Dr Nala Hamza, whose family is trying to get out of Khartoum, said the evacuation was "good news if it came to reality".

She said her family, who live in the centre of the city, had fled their home at dawn to try to get a bus to the north of the country.

"They were hiding in a room at the back of the house away from windows because of the shooting," she told BBC Breakfast.

Dr Hamza said at least 40 out of 55 hospitals were "not functioning at all" and the system "was already struggling before the war".

There was no safe route to get any help and doctors were exhausted, she added.

Dr Atia Abdalla Atia, the general secretary of the Sudan Doctors Union, agreed the situation was "very bad" and they were doing their best to support people.

He told BBC's Today the hospital he was working in has reached maximum capacity and patients were lying down in reception without beds.

Mo, from Reading, said he was "very scared" for his family, who had arrived in Khartoum the day before the violence broke out.

"They were in that area for the first five days, with no electricity, water running out, they were isolated," he said.

"Even getting to this airport that's being looked at to be evacuating Brits from, that in itself is going to be hard to get to."

View original, with thanks to the BBC: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65383400

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