The RAF planes are flying in and out of the Wadi Saeedna airstrip, picking up British passport holders and flying them to Larnaca airport for processing by UK officials. This evacuation is taking place during a 72-hour ceasefire, which provides a small window of relative safety for the evacuation effort to exploit. Three rescue flights have been planned in total, with 39 people reportedly flown out on the first plane.
The Foreign Office has yet to confirm how many people made it onto the second plane, which arrived in Larnaca in the early hours of Wednesday. A total of 260 people were expected to be evacuated, however, the government is facing a challenge with more British nationals not taking the evacuation flights. There is one known case of an NHS doctor who is visiting an elderly relative in Sudan, who does not have a UK visa. In addition, the government is prioritizing families with children or elderly relatives, and individuals with medical conditions for the evacuation efforts.
During the first evacuation flight, families with young children, some of them newborns, were greeted by the Cypriot Red Cross at Larnaca airport, which provided food and toiletries. The British relatives of those evacuated have spoken of their overwhelming sense of relief to have managed to escape a city where food and water have become scarce because it is not safe for people to leave their homes. The British man whose sister managed to be evacuated overnight described at one point, she and 13 others had only four dates and one egg left to share among them.
The government has considered a seaborne evacuation from Port Sudan, which is still being evaluated as an option. As of now, around 120 British troops are supporting the evacuation at the Wadi Saeedna airstrip. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has expressed concern that some of the planes may not be full as there were “not thousands at the gate” like the evacuation from Afghanistan two years ago.
