Britain has successfully evacuated around 900 of its citizens from Sudan through Cyprus as of early afternoon Thursday. The British government urged those remaining in the conflict-riven country to take advantage of the final hours of a cease-fire and leave as soon as possible.

The conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a rival paramilitary group, has resulted in hundreds of deaths in the capital Khartoum. The power struggle between the two groups is threatening to destabilize the wider region.

The British Royal Air Force began the airlift of British nationals on Tuesday. By early afternoon, approximately 900 people had arrived at the Cypriot airport of Larnaca on British Royal Air Force flights, sources at the airport confirmed. Just over half of them have been repatriated to Britain, with two more flights from Sudan expected later on Thursday.

Razan Wahbi, 44, traveled with her twin daughters, aged 7. She left her husband Ghassan, a non-British passport holder, and other members of her family behind. “I left them there; only I have a British passport. They don’t have (one), so there was no way to get out,” she told Reuters as she waited to board a flight chartered by the British government to a London airport.

Others shared similar stories of leaving family members behind. Hamid, who did not give his last name, said, “It’s very hard to get water, electric, you can’t move anywhere. It’s very bad, very dangerous. I’ve never seen a problem like that. Sudan has been at war a long time, but this is different.”

At Larnaca, the evacuees from Sudan crossed paths with the first tourists of the season arriving on the holiday island. Many had to leave with just the clothes on their back. Tarek, 52, had stuffed all his belongings in a small green bin bag, which had started to tear. Tarek, who lives in Oxford, had gone to Khartoum to visit his father, who was in intensive care after suffering a heart attack and who later died.

“What is happening there is terrible. People there are just like ghosts, a shell of their former selves. I never thought I would get out,” he said.

Recently we published Lebanese businessman flees Sudan, finds no solace in crisis-hit Lebanon: The recent violence in Sudan has brought back painful memories for Lebanese businessman Ahmad Shams, who had set up a hotel and restaurant in Khartoum. As fighting erupted between Sudan’s army and a paramilitary force earlier this month, Shams and his family were forced to flee to safety, relying on evacuation help from the Saudi Arabian authorities. For Shams, the situation in Sudan is reminiscent of the civil war that had shattered Lebanon’s capital in his youth….continue reading