Britain will end its airlift of British nationals from war-torn Sudan by 6pm TOMORROW

The UK will end evacuation flights from Sudan by 6pm on Saturday, the Government has said.

The pressure has been on to rescue as many as 4,000 British citizens trapped in Sudan before an extended 72-hour ceasefire ends.  

The announcement comes hours after German sources hit out at the behaviour of the RAF over the high-pressure evacuation, highlighting an episode at the Wadi Seidna air base on Tuesday.

The evacuations from the unstable country have been fraught with difficulty and a Turkish plane was shot at by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) earlier today.  

British diplomats were airlifted from the country last weekend in a military maneuver involving 1,200 service people, the Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and Defence Secretary confirmed on Sunday, after the officials had received direct threats. 

Earlier reports claimed that a crew member was wounded in the attack but Turkey’s defence ministry said there were no injuries while confirming the plane had been fired at

The race is on to evacuate as many of the 4,000 British civilians trapped in Sudan as possible before the 72-hour ceasefire ends tomorrow

Soldiers from the Duke of Lancaster Regiment are seen during the evacuation of British nationals, at Wadi Seidna Air Base

British nationals walk to board an RAF aircraft, during the evacuation to Cyprus, at Wadi Seidna Air Base

Images from AFPTV video show a view over Khartoum, where black smoke could be seen rising above the city despite the extended ceasefire

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said operations would cease following a ‘significant decline’ in the number of British nationals seeking to flee the war-torn country.

Downing Street has so far rejected calls to widen the eligibility for evacuation beyond British passport holders and their immediate family.

It comes amid criticism of the pace of the UK evacuation, which was bought more time after a three-day extension to the ceasefire was agreed.

Concerns have been raised that the current approach could see families split up or some members left behind, with Labour calling on ministers to use the longer window to extend eligibility for evacuation before it is ‘too late’.

Updated guidance on the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) website urged those wishing to leave Sudan to travel to the Wadi Saeedna airfield by 12pm local time on Saturday to be processed for the last flight.

More than 1,500 people have been evacuated from Sudan, the ‘vast majority’ of whom are British nationals and eligible dependants, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said.

More than 1,500 people have been evacuated from Sudan, the ‘vast majority’ of whom are British nationals

Updated guidance on the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) website urged those wishing to leave Sudan to travel to the Wadi Saeedna airfield by 12pm local time

He denied that the Government will effectively ‘abandon’ British citizens who have not been able to reach Wadi Saeedna airfield.

Asked whether Britain was leaving behind people struggling to get to the site or to coordinate with family members stuck in the country, he said: ‘I wouldn’t accept that characterisation. The first thing I would say is that every single British national that has come forward and their eligible dependants have been put safely on to a plane.

‘We are seeing those numbers declining significantly and, just like other countries, as those numbers decline we have put an end date on this.’

He claimed ‘consular assistance’ will remain available at exit routes after the end of evacuation flights.

Earlier today a Turkish evacuation plane was shot at by paramilitary forces in Sudan as it was landing in the capital of Khartoum today, damaging the fuel supply.

People gather to ride a truck to flee outside Khartoum, during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum

The plane managed to land safely after the paramilitary forces opened fire and is being fixed (pictured), Sudan’s army said

A Turkish evacuation plane was shot at by paramilitary forces in Sudan as it was landing in the capital of Khartoum today, damaging the fuel supply 

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) shot at the aircraft (pictured) at the Wadi Saeedna airbase, the army said 

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) shot at the aircraft at the Wadi Saeedna airbase, the army said, in a sign of just how dangerous the situation is for those racing to evacuate civilians from the war-torn country.

The plane managed to land safely after the paramilitary forces opened fire and is being fixed, Sudan’s army said.

The RSF denied firing at the plane and said the army was ‘spreading lies’, adding: ‘Our forces have remained strictly committed to the humanitarian truce that we agreed upon since midnight, and it is not true that we targeted any aircraft in the sky of Wadi Seyidna in Omdurman.’ 

Tensions with German forces on the ground have been running high since a near-miss incident on Tuesday, Berlin sources told The Times. 

Allies on the ground were apparently not notified about the arrival of the C-130J Hercules at the Wadi Seidna air base on Tuesday, resulting in a ‘very dangerous’ landing.

The German government was ‘very unhappy’ about Britain’s ‘lack of solidarity’.

It comes after the German Foreign Minister swiped at the UK for leaving citizens ‘to their own devices’ amid the violence.

British Nationals boarding an RAF aircraft in Sudan, for evacuation to Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus 

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock (left) swiped at the UK earlier this week she would not leave citizens ‘to their own devices’. But Suella Braverman (right) said Britain was in a ‘very different situation’  

However, British officials have hit back, arguing that German forces were not in control of the airfield at the time, and French and South African soldiers were informed.

Violence broke out after a group of mediators pushed for last-ditch talks between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and paramilitary commander General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo two weeks ago.

But neither of Sudan’s two most powerful men showed up to the meeting, convened at presidential offices in central Khartoum at 10 a.m. on April 15, three of the Sudanese mediators said, in details revealed for the first time here.

Instead, fighting was breaking out across the country.

At about 8.30 a.m. shooting started at the Soba military camp in the south of Khartoum, according to three eyewitnesses and an advisor within Dagalo’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

It has not been established who fired the first shot, but the violence escalated quickly across Africa’s third-largest country, an illustration of just how far the two sides had gone in the preceding weeks to prepare for all-out war.

Through interviews with nearly a dozen sources in the military, the RSF, officials and diplomats, Reuters has reconstructed several key events in the build up to the violence, which has so far killed at least 512 people, prompted tens of thousands to flee and deepened the country’s already grave humanitarian crisis.

A week before the fighting, on April 8, Burhan and Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti, met for the last time at a farm on the outskirts of Khartoum, a diplomat briefed on the meeting and two of the mediators said.

At the encounter, Burhan asked for the withdrawal of RSF forces from al-Fasher, a city in Hemedti’s stronghold of Darfur in Western Sudan, and a halt to flows of RSF troops into Khartoum, which had been taking place for weeks.

Hemedti in turn asked that forces from Burhan’s close ally Egypt be withdrawn from an air base called Merowe, fearing they could be used against him, the two mediators and the diplomat said.

The men also spoke privately and appeared to agree to deescalate, the two mediators said. But despite plans to talk again the next day, no more meetings took place.

Over the next week, behind the scenes, each was steadily preparing for the worst.

Burhan’s air force was studying where the RSF was gathered, using coordinates provided by the army, two military sources told Reuters, describing plans that have not previously been reported. The RSF, meanwhile, had been locating more and more gunmen at Soba and other camps across Khartoum, the same military sources said.

The air force, which has bombed positions in the capital since fighting erupted, studied the location of RSF camps for more than a week before the battles began, the two military sources said. The army also established a small committee of senior generals to prepare for a possible conflict with the RSF, the same sources said.

On Saturday, April 15, the first volleys of the war woke RSF troops stationed at Soba, Moussa Khadam Mohamed, an advisor to Hemedti, told Reuters in an telephone interview.

Looking beyond the walls of the camp, they saw the army had positioned cannons in the vicinity, he said.

‘We observed a force gathering at the base,’ as well as around Hemedti’s home in Khartoum, he said.

Both the army and the RSF were quick to blame the other publicly for sparking the violence and attempting a power grab.

An Army paramedic comforts a baby following treatment during the evacuation of British nationals, at Wadi Seidna Air Base on April 27 

Smoke rises during clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on April 28, despite the ceasefire in Khartoum

The events described have not been independently verified. 

In response to written questions, a spokesman for the armed forces, Brigadier General Nabil Abdullah, said the army had been preparing to repel, not launch a war, in response to indications of an RSF attack.

He said the RSF had attacked first, taking many soldiers prisoner, and the army moved to repel the aggression. The army was conducting its campaign under its established chain of command, and the RSF had become a legitimate target for the air force after the fighting started, he added.

The offices of Hemedti and Burhan did not respond to requests for interviews.

A temporary truce this week was agreed under pressure from the United States and Saudi Arabia, who along with the United Nations and the African Union are concerned that Sudan could fragment, destabilising a volatile region.

The lull allowed thousands of Khartoum residents and foreign visitors to flee the capital. Although the truce was extended late on Thursday, air strikes and anti-aircraft fire again rocked the city.