UK, France evacuate diplomats, citizens from violence-hit Sudan

British armed forces have evacuated UK embassy staff and their families from Sudan, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Sunday, as fighting raged between rival Sudanese generals.

The prime minister said the government was "continuing to pursue every avenue to end the bloodshed in Sudan and ensure the safety of British nationals remaining in the country".

Meanwhile, around 100 people of multiple nationalities have been evacuated from Sudan on a first French flight out of the war-hit country after a "complicated" rescue operation, a French foreign ministry official said on Sunday.

A second flight of another 100 people is expected to leave on Sunday evening, also heading to Djibouti, the official told reporters on condition of anonymity, adding that the evacuees had to cross the frontline of fighting around the capital Khartoum to board the planes.