Sudan crisis live: UK urges warring generals to extend ceasefire as deadline approaches amid scramble to evacuate | Sudan

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.

“In El Fasher town the only functional hospital now is the South hospital … The three main other hospitals are all down,” said Dr Mohammed Musoke, the deputy programme manager for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) for Sudan.

• About 16,000 people have crossed the border from Sudan into Egypt including 14,000 Sudanese citizens, according to a statement from the Egyptian foreign ministry on Thursday.

• AFP reports that at least 512 people have been killed and 4,193 wounded in the fighting in Sudan, according to health ministry figures, although the real death toll is likely much higher.

• Britain’s ambassador in Sudan is speaking to the warring parties in the country to urge them to extend a 72-hour ceasefire that is due to expire at midnight local time tonight.

• Fighting intensified in Sudan’s province of Darfur during the fragile three-day truce, killing an estimated dozens of people, residents said Thursday. Associated Press reports that the new clashes targeted civilians in the city of Genena.

• Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which support the former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, claims it has repelled an attack in the Kafori area. They say the attackers suffered significant losses. The incident has not been verified.

• A second UK-bound charter plane carrying an estimated 250 evacuees has just left Larnaca, Helena Smith reports. “We are trying to line up charters for as soon as possible after the RAF transporters come in,” a source said. American and Australian citizens have also been among passengers on the rescue flights. More than 750 British nationals have so far reached Cyprus on rescue flights.

• James Cleverly, the UK’s foreign secretary, has made a direct appeal to the heads of the warring factions as he called for the bloodshed to end. “If they aspire to be the leader of Sudan, demonstrating a willingness to protect the people of Sudan would be a very important starting point,’” said Cleverly.

• The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has called on countries to shift their focus from evacuees to those who remain in Sudan, and said that an urgent frontline funding surge is needed for both Sudan and Chad.

• China has deployed its navy to rescue citizens from Sudan, the defence ministry in Beijing said on Thursday.

Britain’s ambassador in Sudan is speaking to the warring parties in the country to urge them to extend a 72-hour ceasefire that is due to expire tonight, a spokesperson for the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, said on Thursday.

“The British ambassador continues to speak to the warring parties in Sudan,” Reuters reports that the spokesperson told the media. “As part of that, we are obviously supporting an extension to the ceasefire and are lobbying for that.”

Helena Smith

Helena Smith is at Larnaca airport in Cyprus for the Guardian, speaking to people who have been evacuated from Sudan:

A resident of London for the past 30 years, Hadija got trapped by the fighting in Sudan after flying in to attend her nephew’s wedding.

“I have two daughters and a son and they are all doctors,” she said smiling at the thought of being reunited with all three as she waited in the departure hall of Larnaca airport for a charter plane to Stansted.

“I left everything behind, my jewellery, my clothes, everything when it became clear that we had to do this [evacuation].”

The British national, who was in Sudan with her son and daughter-in-law, described how hard it had been not only getting to the Wadi Seidna airbase but waiting once there for a flight out.

“There was no plane. For two days we had to sleep on the ground and there was very little to eat. It was very hard but I am – we all are – very happy now.”

UK-bound flight carrying 250 evacuees has left Cyprus

Helena Smith

A second Stansted bound charter plane carrying an estimated 250 evacuees has just left Larnaca, Helena Smith reports.

“We are trying to line up charters for as soon as possible after the RAF transporters come in,” said one well-placed source. “And what I can say is that the military planes flying in are much fuller today.”

American and Australian citizens have also been among passengers on the rescue flights.

Still the official said it would probably take a week to evacuate all those who were eligible to leave Sudan. The ceasefire which has enabled flights from Khartoum is scheduled to end at midnight local time tonight.

Helena Smith

Helena Smith is at Larnaca airport in Cyprus for the Guardian, speaking to people who have been evacuated from Sudan:

Sami Elhaj, a car factory worker who has lived in Birmingham since the age of three, got caught up in the crosshairs of Sudan’s descent into violence while visiting family in the country.

“I had gone to support my relatives after my father died,” the 26-year-old said as he prepared to embark on the onward journey to Stansted from Cyprus.

“What I saw there was crazy, terrifying. The poor people of Sudan are desperate and right now we’re really worried for the family we had to leave behind and what could happen to them.”

Like other evacuees, Elhaj had spent the night in an army training camp in Larnaca now being utilised by Cypriot authorities for the rescue operation.

“You never expect this sort of thing to happen to you. We’re all just so happy and relieved but we know there are others there who want to be where we are, who want to follow us.”