The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said the last flight left Wadi Saeedna airfield, just north of the capital, Khartoum, at 10pm local time and that the UK is no longer running evacuation flights from the airfield.
Foreign office minister Andrew Mitchell told the BBC the operation had been “extremely successful”, but added: “We can’t stay there forever in such dangerous circumstances.”
Foreign secretary James Cleverly said: “The UK has brought more than 1,888 people to safety from Sudan thanks to the efforts of staff and military working around the clock to deliver this evacuation – the largest of any western country.
“We continue to press all diplomatic levers to secure a long-term ceasefire and end the bloodshed in Sudan. Ultimately a stable transition to civilian rule is the best way to protect the security and prosperity of the Sudanese people.”
The winding down of the UK operation follows a last-minute u-turn by the government to allow NHS workers to join British nationals trapped in Sudan on to the last flights on Saturday, with a middy deadline given to reach the airport amid the chaos. It comes after a doctors’ union called for NHS medics without UK passports to be included in the airlifts.
Thousands more British citizens may yet remain in Sudan, against a backdrop of continued fighting in Khartoum despite the extension of an ceasefire between the country’s two warring generals having been brokered in the early hours of Friday.
Sudan’s former prime minister Abdalla Hamdok has warned that the conflict in the turbulent African nation could deteriorate to one of the world’s worst civil wars if it is not stopped early.
More than 500 people have been killed since battles erupted on 15 April between the forces of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his number two Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commonly known as Hemedti, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
“God forbid if Sudan is to reach a point of civil war proper … Syria, Yemen, Libya will be a small play,” Hamdok said in a conversation with Sudan-born telecoms tycoon Mo Ibrahim at an event in Nairobi.
“I think it would be a nightmare for the world,” he said, adding that it would have many ramifications.
