At Omdurman’s open-air market, half of the stalls are shut, customers are scarce and money is tight
“I haven’t sold anything since 6am today,” said Adam Musa, a vegetable seller at Omdurman’s open-air market, as fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces raged a few miles away. “There are no people buying.”
Musa, 55, faced two problems: a lack of customers, and an inability on the part of those who did come to pay what he was charging.
Continue reading...Family have been waiting more than 12 months for documents and are now trapped amid violence in Khartoum
The Home Office has been accused of putting the lives of a heavily pregnant woman and her three-year-old daughter at risk as they remain stranded in Sudan while waiting for a UK visa.
The family have been waiting more than a year for their documents to be issued, with the mother, who is almost nine months pregnant, trying to shield her daughter from the violence on the streets of Khartoum, the capital.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed. You can read all our Sudan coverage here:
The US embassy in Khartoum has overnight reminded US citizens in Sudan to register in order to be informed of opportunities to evacuate when they arise. The US has previously evacuated its diplomatic staff from the country.
The Sky News Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall has reported from Larnaca airport that the extended 72-hour ceasefire gives international partners a chance to press for a longer-lasting peace, and that the emphasis on aid efforts might switch from getting people out of Sudan to getting supplies in. He told viewers:
I think, as many people predicted, it went quite close to the line before both sides came to an agreement that there should be a lull, or at least a lull of sorts, in the fighting. So that is good news.
Now what needs to happen is that the evacuation flights need to continue apace to get as many people out as possible. But also, I think what you’ll find, is that the foreign diplomatic community tries to bring together the two factions, in order to find something more long lasting and stable, rather than these sort of multiple iterations of 72 hours that have got people living on edge.
Continue reading...Army and RSF agree to extend truce but violence means no respite for exhausted civilians
Rival factions in Sudan agreed on Thursday night to extend a ceasefire despite reports of surging fighting across the country that many fear suggests intense violence in the days to come.
A 72-hour truce from Monday night had initially brought relative calm to Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, and so facilitated the evacuation of thousands of foreign nationals in recent days. But fighting between the Sudanese army and its paramilitary rival, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), escalated through Thursday in the city and its environs, as well as in the country’s restive south-west.
Continue reading...Former ambassadors and analysts say lasting ceasefire vital to thwart attempts to capitalise on unrest
Securing a lasting ceasefire in Sudan is essential in order to limit the opportunity for malign outside actors to intervene in the fighting on a greater scale, former diplomats and analysts have said.
Foreign leaders including the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Israeli officials have offered to help mediate in Sudan, while the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said he had engaged the African Union in an attempt to ensure a long-term ceasefire.
Continue reading...Casting of Black actor in upcoming docudrama produced by Jada Pinkett Smith has angered groups in Egypt who say it is ‘a falsification of Egyptian history’
Egypt’s antiquities ministry insisted on Thursday that Cleopatra had “white skin and Hellenistic characteristics” in an ongoing row over a Netflix drama-documentary depicting the famed beauty of antiquity as black.
Queen Cleopatra, produced by Jada Pinkett Smith and starring Adele James, is due for release on the streaming platform on 10 May.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary welcomes ceasefire but cites need for haste as Tory MP presses him over fate of Britons’ Sudanese parents
Britain said it had evacuated nearly 900 people from Sudan and was hoping to continue evacuation flights overnight, although violence flared as the country’s warring factions agreed to extend a ceasefire.
The foreign secretary was under pressure over a refusal to allow Britons trying to flee to take elderly parents with them, amid fears that renewed fighting between the army and paramilitaries could halt the airlift at any time.
Continue reading...Army and paramilitary opponents the RSF agree to extend fragile truce that was due to end at midnight
The UK’s foreign secretary James Cleverly has been defensive about criticism of UK evacuation efforts from Sudan affecting and delaying efforts by Germany and other European nations to evacuate people.
The BBC has reported that German authorities told it that the British operation to rescue diplomats at the weekend “jeopardised” the efforts of other nations, because it didn’t have the permission of the Sudanese authorities to take place. Cleverly told listeners:
My understanding is we did have permissions for those overflights. I will, of course, look at the circumstances of that. My understanding is we’ve had permissions for those flights. We enjoy a very, very close professional relationship with the German government and the German armed forces that have been on the on the ground.
The extremist putschist forces have attacked the camp of the RSF in the Kafouri area with aviation and artillery. Our forces confronted the aggressor forces … and inflicted heavy losses … and seized their military equipment. The attacks of the putschists and the remnants of the former regime on the camps of our forces come during the humanitarian truce that was allocated to open humanitarian corridors for citizens and residents of brotherly and friendly countries.
Continue reading...In El Fasher, in North Darfur, only one hospital remains functional, with bomb damage, power cuts and only weeks until lifesaving equipment and drugs run out
Until gunfire broke out on the streets of El Fasher this month, the state capital of North Darfur had several main hospitals. There was the big teaching hospital, the Saudi hospital, a paediatric hospital and the South hospital, a modest 35-bed facility with big ambitions and a specific remit: to help bring down the high numbers of local women dying in pregnancy and childbirth.
Now, almost two weeks into the conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), two weeks of bloodshed that has seen terror return to a region once synonymous with human suffering, those options have narrowed.
Continue reading...David Tebbutt’s widow ‘delighted’ as court rules conviction of Ali Kololo for robbery with violence was unsafe
A man found guilty of being part of a gang of pirates who murdered a British tourist 12 years ago has had his conviction quashed by Kenya’s high court.
Ali Kololo, from Lamu County, was convicted of robbery with violence in connection with the 2011 attack that left David Tebbutt dead and his wife, Judith, held captive in Somalia for six months.
Continue reading...Ezekiel Odero arrested and more than 100 people evacuated from church, days after discovery of bodies linked to another church
One of Kenya’s highest-profile pastors is facing charges over the “mass killing of his followers”, the government has said, just days after the discovery of dozens of bodies linked to another church.
Ezekiel Odero, the head of the New Life Prayer Centre and Church, “has been arrested and is being processed to face criminal charges related to the mass killing of his followers”, the interior minister, Kithure Kindiki, said in a statement.
Continue reading...Artwork exhibited at Kensington Palace among nearly 2,000 artefacts in royal collection
For more than a decade, Prince William has spoken out vehemently against the use of ivory, calling it “a symbol of destruction, not of luxury”. The royal patron of the anti-ivory charity Tusk has lobbied leaders in China, the US and countries across Africa.
He has even said that he wants to destroy all the ivory owned by the royals. In 2019, a spokesperson for William clarified that while destroying all the ivory in the royal collection was beyond the prince’s control, he had “ensured there is no ivory from the collection at Kensington Palace”, his place of residence.
Continue reading...UK military chiefs say flights will continue as long as conditions are safe
Renewed clashes in Khartoum and in south-west Sudan have raised fears that the current three-day ceasefire due to expire on Thursday night will not be extended and fighting will instead intensify
A surge in violence would threaten the evacuation of thousands of foreign nationals who remain in Sudan. UK military chiefs said flights would continue as long as conditions were safe, although the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said the UK “cannot guarantee” how many would depart once the ceasefire ends.
Continue reading...Military says emergency flights will operate as long as conditions are safe, as civilians arrive in Britain
Britain could continue running evacuation flights from Sudan once the current three-day ceasefire expires on Thursday night, the army officer in charge of the rescue said, as the first planeload of civilians rescued from the country’s civil war arrived at Stansted airport.
Brig Dan Reeve said the airlift from a base north of Khartoum would continue as long as conditions were safe, including possibly beyond the ceasefire period, if people could still travel there.
Continue reading...More than 300 British nationals have fled bombing and shelling to reach a rescue flight out of Khartoum
After embarking on a perilous escape through military checkpoints and continuing clashes, British nationals evacuated from Sudan have spoken of their nightmare ordeals.
More than 300 Britons made the dangerous journey to the Wadi Seidna airbase north of Khartoum in the hope of boarding a rescue flight out of Sudan to Cyprus.
Continue reading...UK all-party group says failure to bring to justice Darfur abusers 20 years ago has led to current violence
The UK should impose sanctions on human rights abusers in senior Sudanese military positions as well as designate the Wagner group operating in Sudan as a terrorist group, a report from the all-party group on Sudan has urged.
The group, including the Conservative former Africa minister Vicky Ford, said on Wednesday the west has allowed impunity to become the norm, and the failure to bring to justice many of those responsible for the genocide in Darfur 20 years ago has allowed the same militia to regroup and form part of the forces now blocking democracy in the country.
Continue reading...With partially held ceasefire due to expire on Thursday, UN says neither side ready to seriously negotiate
Sounds of gunfire and explosions have continued to rock Sudan’s capital, but the intensity of the fighting across the country has eased for a truce that residents hope will provide relief for people trapped with dwindling food, water and medicine.
On Wednesday afternoon, an army jet thundered across Khartoum and bombed militant positions in the city’s western outskirts, hitting an apartment block in the neighbourhood of Ombada.
Continue reading...António Guterres says ‘conflict will not and must not be resolved on the battlefield’
The British government is considering a possible seaborne evacuation from Port Sudan, 500 miles from the capital, PA Media reports.
HMS Lancaster and the RFA Cardigan Bay have been sent to the region.
Continue reading...Further flights expected to leave airfield north of Khartoum on Wednesday, but proportion of British evacuees is unclear
Britain has evacuated more than 300 people from Sudan on rescue flights from an airfield north of the capital, with the first group on their way to the UK from Cyprus, where flights have been stopping over.
Downing Street said 301 people have been evacuated on three flights and that and a fourth was being loaded. A further four flights are expected to take off on Wednesday, but it is not clear what proportion of those rescued are British.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Amid gunsmoke and airstrikes, civilians must choose whether to travel towards uncertain safety, or risk violence by staying behind. What questions face anyone trying to leave – and what might happen if they go?
Good morning. For at least some of the British nationals attempting to flee the conflict that has broken out in Sudan, this morning is a moment of profound relief: the second of three evacuation flights from an airfield north of Khartoum recently arrived in Cyprus, with a third expected soon. Citizens of Turkey, France, and other countries were also flown out. But for Sudanese people – even those whose close relatives were aboard the UK flights – the exodus may simply have served as a reminder of the dangers from which they have far more limited respite.
A ceasefire between army units loyal to Sudan’s military ruler, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by his former ally Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, came into effect at midnight on Tuesday, and it is supposed to last for two more days. In theory, this should provide an opportunity for civilians to flee the theatres of conflict and reach safe harbour.
US news | Joe Biden has formally announced his campaign for re-election in 2024, asking Americans for four years to “finish this job”, possibly setting up an extraordinary rematch with Donald Trump. Vice-president Kamala Harris, the highest-ranking woman and person of colour in US politics, will be Biden’s running mate again.
Monarchy | New court filings submitted by Prince Harry reveal that his brother Prince William received a previously undisclosed “very large sum of money” in 2020 to settle a phone-hacking claim against the owner of the Sun and the News of the World. The high court also heard that Queen Elizabeth II personally threatened News UK with legal proceedings over hacking, only to be undermined by the then Prince Charles.
Immigration | The UK government secretly deported more than 100 Nepali guards who risked their lives to protect British embassy staff in Afghanistan before the Taliban seized back control in 2021, days after they arrived. The decision was taken even though many had been issued with six-month visas on arrival.
Politics | The head of the civil service has attempted to block Sue Gray from working with Labour until after the next general election, the Guardian has been told. Keir Starmer’s choice for his new chief of staff caused controversy when it was unveiled as Gray had led the civil service inquiry into the Partygate scandal.
Music | Harry Belafonte, the singer, actor and civil rights activist who broke down racial barriers in the US, has died aged 96. Read a tribute by the director Steve McQueen: “He had everything, but his service was always to his people.”
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