British citizens accuse Foreign Office of 'abandoning' them in Sudan

The Foreign Office has been accused of abandoning British civilians in Sudan after failing to learn from the disastrous evacuation from Kabul.

The Telegraph understands that there are concerns within the Cabinet about how the crisis has been handled after it emerged senior embassy officials were out of the country when the fighting started.

Special forces extracted embassy staff and family from Khartoum in “a complex and rapid evacuation” on Sunday, Rishi Sunak announced.

However, British nationals in Khartoum told The Telegraph they felt “abandoned” by diplomats after being told by the Government to shelter in place while embassy staff were evacuated. It came as Ireland said it was planning to evacuate civilians.

The head of the British embassy in Khartoum, his deputy and the top security chief were all in Britain when Sudan’s top military leaders began fighting for power on April 14, The Telegraph can reveal.

A defence source said: “No obvious lessons have been learned from Kabul. It’s embarrassing. Leadership matters.”

James Cleverly, the Foreign Secretary, is expected to deliver an emergency statement on the latest developments in the Commons on Monday.

The Foreign Office’s current travel advice is for British citizens inside the country to register their presence via a form on its website and to shelter in place until an opportunity to leave safely presents itself.

It is not clear how many British citizens are still present in the country but it is likely to be at least in the hundreds.

Iman Abugarga, a British woman who had been sheltering in Khartoum, said she had followed advice to register but felt “absolutely” abandoned by the British Government and described communication as “shamefully mismanaged”

Britain is not alone in prioritising the evacuation of diplomatic staff.

The United States, which also evacuated its embassy on Sunday morning, said it has no plans for a general government-coordinated evacuation of American citizens trapped in Sudan.

But some other Western governments said they were seeking to evacuate all of their citizens.

The Irish government said it was “actively planning for assisted evacuation” of its citizens in Sudan. “We are currently in contact with more than 140 Irish citizens. Every effort is being made to assist them.”

However, the British defence source said: “The FO was terrified it would create another Kabul if we’d over-promised. 500 people would then become 5,000 and we just can’t have that.”

The evacuation of Kabul descended into chaos, with a former civil servant later claiming the Foreign Office mishandled the process that led to dozens of deaths.

The evacuation of the British embassy in Khartoum involved 1,200 personnel from the 16 Air Assault Brigade, the Royal Marines and the RAF, and was completed without any casualties.

A defence source, however, said there was “no real Foreign Office present”.

Mr Cleverly has acknowledged that Ambassador Giles Lever and his deputy were both away when the battles between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces erupted.

“There was senior leadership still present in the embassy in Khartoum and actually having the ambassador in London, he was able to provide direct experience and knowledge to our crisis response unit that has proved to be invaluable,” he said.

Alicia Kearns, chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said she was “uncomfortable” with diplomats leaving while British nationals remained apparently abandoned in Sudan, but she accepted there appeared to be no other option because of a “direct” threat to Western embassy officials.

She believed the plan would be to secure a ceasefire long enough to establish a land corridor for Britons to escape but said it involved the Government “being honest and open with British citizens”.

“The worst possible outcome is that the Government gives false hope. It needs to share its judgments and tell people we are working to get a ceasefire to evacuate or that like the US we are not going to evacuate our nationals and people can make their own decisions,” she said.

Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Commons defence committee, said: “I hope we see a viable plan to help provide the rallying points and necessary transport to be able to evacuate all those who want to leave the country.”

“There will be some who want to stay, who consider themselves Sudanese. But main British passport holders will want to get out and we have a duty of care to lean on our extended military assets to make that happen.”

Many Khartoum residents have attempted to flee overland to Egypt or the city of Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast. Both journeys take about 12 hours on roads that can be targeted by armed gangs.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: “The situation in Sudan continues to be complex and fast-moving.

“The ambassador to Sudan continues to lead a team around the clock, doing everything possible to keep British nationals safe. Any British national in Khartoum should register their presence with the FCDO to receive regular updates.

“Ultimately rival factions must commit to a lasting ceasefire to end this needless violence. The Foreign Secretary is engaged with international partners and we are using all diplomatic levers to demand a swift conclusion to the conflict.”

'Our lives are in really grave danger'

By Roland Oliphant and Abby Cheeseman

British citizens caught up in the fighting in Sudan have described feeling “abandoned” by the Government after they were told to shelter in place while embassy staff were evacuated.

Iman Abugarga, who has been sheltering in Khartoum after visiting with her two children, said she felt “absolutely” abandoned by the British government.

“It is shameful how they have mismanaged this situation,” she told the Telegraph from Khartoum.

The area in which she has been sheltering with her family was severely hit in the crossfire between the warring parties.

Her children, 20 and 17, were helping her to treat the wounded who were trapped with them.

But she said that she heard nothing back after following Foreign Office advice to register her location on Gov.uk.

She and her family were eventually evacuated by European authorities on Sunday because her son is an Irish citizen. Ireland said on Sunday it was seeking to evacuate at least 140 of its citizens from the country.

James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, defended the decision to close the embassy on Sunday, saying diplomats faced a particular threat and would be better able to help other Britons from outside Sudan.

But family members of several Britons in Khartoum said they felt uniquely neglected compared with other foreign citizens, with a lack of clarity and communication leaving many confused about the best course of action.

Azhar Sholgami, whose grandfather Abdalla Sholami lives opposite the British embassy in central Khartoum, said the family had registered his location on the first day of the fighting and “called every number we could find” in a bid to alert diplomats to his presence.

Mr Sholami, 85 retired businessman from north London, and his wife Alaweya Rishwan were already running low on food and water when they were last in contact five days ago, she said.

Ms Sholgami said the embassy was his nearest neighbours but the family’s request for them to help him secure water was not met with any “effort or serious concern”.

“I know it is a difficult situation and evacuation is a process. What I don’t buy is you live across from my grandparents' house. It is not difficult to cross the road and knock on the door. Any human being would do that,” she said.

“The embassy were able to evacuate but could not go next door and check up on my grandfather and hand him some water at least… we rigorously tried to contact the embassy and received no response.

“At this point we are resorting to the Sudanese volunteers who have no institutional support… they have been far more helpful than the British government.

“The least they could do is develop a clear line of communication with people in Sudan to give them clarity about what is going on. But there is no timeline, there is no are you are OK, there is no advice. The second thing they could do is speed up the evacuation for British citizens."

She said other British citizens she knew had given up on waiting for the UK Government and decided to try to reach the Egyptian border under their own steam.

Caroline Hynes, whose aunt is among those fearing for their lives in Sudan, also berated the Government for a “lack of transparency” over eligibility criteria for evacuation.

Her aunt, a Scottish-born dual national who has lived in the UK for the past 20 years, travelled to Sudan just two days before the deadly power struggle took hold to visit her elderly mother.

“Having spoken to the Sudan hotline yesterday - I’d also like to understand why only non-British spouses and children count as dependants. Is a non-British elderly parent less important than a spouse?” Ms Hynes told the Telegraph.

“I’m scared that even if she gets the opportunity to leave, which feels unlikely right now, she will feel like she can’t leave without her mother who is very afraid.”

While Caroline’s aunt - whose name is being withheld as requested by the family - has filled out the online form to tell the Government of her location, she has had little to no other communication with them.

In a tearful interview with the BBC, another woman who is stuck with her family in Khartoum said that British citizens were “uniquely without guidance and support”.

“We would like a plan. We would like to not be told that we have to stay put while the embassy evacuates its own people. It feels like there are limited resources here and they did not want that UN convoy to be overwhelmed… but to tell British citizens to not join it in order for their staff to have space is pretty outrageous,” said

“I think our lives are in really grave danger now.”

The terrified interviewee said that when they first tried to tell the British Foreign Office where they were sheltering ready for evacuation plans that it could not be registered because of data protection reasons.