The Foreign Office has been caught by surprise in Sudan – but is busy congratulating itself ✒️ Patrick Cockburn via ipaperviews
People prepare to board a bus departing from Khartoum in the Sudanese capital
The British Government is busy congratulating itself for its efficiency in extracting its embassy staff from Khartoum, angering the 3,000-4,000 British nationals still trapped in the Sudanese capital. There are growing shortages of food and water, electric supplies are erratic, and there is widespread looting by gunmen.
The Foreign and Development Office advises British citizens to stay at home and keep off the streets, but as a survival strategy this can only work for a time before people run out of supplies. The British Government says that nationals should register on an embassy website, but, on the contrary, not to register – though by then the civil war had already been raging for six days.
The breezy confidence of ministers does not match up with their performance so far. The British ambassador was on holiday when, evoking comparisons with the notorious debacle of the British evacuation from Kabul in August 2021 when thousands of Afghans who had worked for Britain were left behind when the Taliban captured the city.
Both the foreign secretary of the day, Dominic Raab, and Sir Philp Barton, his permanent under-secretary, remained stubbornly on holiday as the Taliban advanced, a failure later excoriated in a report by the House of Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs. It said thatHow is FCDO leadership doing this time round? Once again it was noticeably caught by surprise by the sudden deterioration of the situation.
Belgique Dernières Nouvelles, Belgique Actualités
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