Sudan’s warring generals are said to have agreed to a three-day ceasefire, according to the US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken said that military bosses would put down their weapons to try and pause the conflict in eastern Africa.
Previous bids to pause the conflict have quickly disintegrated, but it is set to begin at midnight and last for 72 hours.
Blinken said: ‘Following intense negotiation over the past 48 hours, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have agreed to implement a nationwide ceasefire starting at midnight on April 24, to last for 72 hours.’
During this period, the United States urges the SAF and RSF to immediately and fully uphold the ceasefire,’ Blinken said.
Earlier tonight Defence Minister James Heappey said it is ‘too dangerous’ to send British troops to rescue UK citizens from fighting in Sudan.
He claimed the situation in Khartoum is ‘very different’ from the 2021 Afghanistan evacuation, and a plan to deploy armed forces would be ‘unhelpful and unrealistic’.
MPs have warned the Government ‘time is running out’ and swift action must be taken to help UK nationals trapped there.
A team of British troops were understood to have been flown into Port Sudan to scope out the options for any rescue mission of civilians.
But armed forces minister Mr Heappey told LBC’s Tonight With Andrew Marr on Monday night: ‘I think people will have the evacuation from Kabul very firmly in mind. That’s the last time we saw this sort of event. But Kabul was very different.’
Asked whether it was simply too dangerous to try to use British forces to extract people, he replied: ‘Yes. The danger is that other than the very tight and controlled mission that we did Saturday into Sunday to extract the diplomats over which we had a very tight degree of control.
‘Beyond that, we would effectively be inserting foreign troops, not just us there’ll be other countries that would want to do it, into the parts of Khartoum that has been the most hotly fought over.’
Rishi Sunak chaired an emergency Cobra meeting earlier on Monday, but there remain no plans to evacuate British citizens.
RFA Cardigan Bay and HMS Lancaster were being lined up as options to help people out of the war-torn country, where at least 2,000 UK citizens remain after UK diplomats were removed.
Foreign Office Minister Andrew Mitchell, who attended the Prime Minister’s Cobra meeting earlier, said ministers would ‘bend every sinew’ to help British citizens in the country if it was possible to do so.
But he warned a concrete plan had not yet been drawn up and urged UK nationals to stay indoors until they hear otherwise.
‘The Foreign Office’s messaging has been absolutely consistent throughout. We have said that there is no current plan for evacuation and we are working on finding a plan,’ he told Channel 4 News.
‘Our strong advice to British citizens is to stay indoors. It’s extremely dangerous out on the streets of Khartoum.
‘If they wish to move because they have better information on the ground than we do in the Foreign Office then they may do so, but they do so at their own risk.’
Commons Foreign Affairs Committee chair Alicia Kearns warned ‘time is running out’ as she urged ministers to get on with evacuations ‘now’.
Meanwhile, Downing Street confirmed British ambassador to Sudan Giles Lever and his deputy were out of the country when violence broke out in Khartoum.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘I think it was around the time of Ramadan, that they were out of the country at that point.
‘There were very senior staff still in the country and both those who were in country and the ambassador have been working around the clock to aid efforts.’
It is thought that if used, RFA Cardigan Bay – currently in Bahrain, and HMS Lancaster – in India, would supplement possible flights out of Sudan.
Any mission would be highly complicated, however, with Port Sudan more than 500 miles from Khartoum.
Mr Mitchell told the Commons that movement around the capital ‘remains extremely dangerous and no evacuation option comes without grave risk to life’.
‘Khartoum airport is out of action. Energy supplies are disrupted. Food and water are becoming increasingly scarce. Internet and telephone networks are becoming difficult to access,’ he said in an urgent statement.
‘We continue to advise all British nationals in Sudan to stay indoors wherever possible.
‘We recognise circumstances will vary in different locations across Sudan, so we are now asking British nationals to exercise their own judgment about their circumstances, including whether to relocate, but they do so at their own risk.’
But Ms Kearns, a Tory MP, said: ‘Trust at this point is being stretched, trust that we will evacuate them and get them to a place of safety when they are in need.’
Downing Street said the UK will ‘pull every lever possible to help bring about a ceasefire and equally to support British nationals trapped by fighting’.
Some British nationals have said they felt ‘abandoned’ after diplomats were rescued in a night-time evacuation mission, and were organising dangerous private evacuations.
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