Sudan

The two  Sudanese generals battling with each other in and around Khartoum, irrespective of the tragedies and killings, being caused to so many civilians, is of course at best, disgraceful. At its grimmest, war crimes are being committed. From news reports, the latter appears more likely than the former.

Initially,  some newspapers, the BBC and others in the UK, took  views, which appeared to me to be akin to their views of Brexit and Remain. In other words the praise given to the French and Germans was  contrasted with criticism of the UK by remainers, whereas brexiteers were  less impressed by the speedy reports of French and German successes and more prepared to wait and see.

Given the horrors still being witnessed, and the numbers of refugees involved, including some 6,000 who are British subjects, waiting to gather information about how best to proceed, ie a more cautious approach than that of our French friends for example, appears to have been the correct course though many in the UK still seem to disagree. Taking risks too soon could have been disastrous for all concerned. How many refugees were airlifted to safety by the French and Germans is unclear to me anyway. The USA,  which has some 15,000 citizens trapped there, like the UK which has about 6,000, seems to have taken the more cautious approach about flights out.

So although the early French airlifts out proved successful despite the risks, the position would have been disastrous had the risks actually materialised, perhaps because of the generals bombing their aircraft.

Of the 6,000 British passport or visa holders, needing to be rescued over 1,500 have already been flown out with a few also being taken out from the country by a single British ship. The rescue of many more is needed soon, particularly as at the time of writing this blog-post, the US and Saudis have secured an extension of another three days for the ceasefire, which is still holding despite some shakiness, though it is being reported now that the cease fire is not holding well. Thus British refugees now need to be aware that the last flight out by the RAF will be at about 18:00 hours this evening (Saturday). 

Where I would criticise the UK's position, is that of our limiting  refugees exiting out on RAF planes, almost exclusively  to that of  British passport and visa holders only. Thus a family of some five children were refused permission to accompany their father on a British flight out because only the father had a British passport. As an aside, perhaps if I was the father, I would not have  taken the flight leaving  my children behind. Sadly however, I understand that passports/visas were also requirements for many other countries' rescue flights out.

Given that on the other side of the world, huge numbers from South America are trying to access the USA through Mexico causing the USA to set up special immigration posts in  South  America, it is clear that large numbers of people  world wide are endeavouring to flee their homelands for better lives in the West, irrespective of wars or generals. This will continue especially in Southern Europe where many are dying enroute to Italy, but also in the UK.

The UK should  have  recognised this world difficulty by permitting the  foreign children and adults who arrive at the refugee in Sudan, to accompany their parents and relatives out, especially as some flights are reported to have been far from full.  I gather many non UK doctors were  there as well, unable to take up available room on the RAF jets leaving for Cyprus. They should in my view, have been assisted and anyway again as an aside, the UK needs their talents.

There is still a short while for this more humane  approach and I hope that the time is taken to do the right thing.