THE evacuation of British nationals from Sudan may have been exacerbated by people ignoring warnings to leave the country, according to a military expert.
Major-General Chip Chapman told GB News: “Don’t travel to Sudan has been on the FCO website for a long period of time, and for those there, ‘leave if you can’ has also been one of those rubrics of both for the US and UK.
“From the US perspective, there are 16,000 there who are either US or dual nationals. So, even though the advice has been consistent between the allies, people have either not signed up to that advice, not been given their details, or for their own either personal or corporate reasons, have stayed in the country.
“That’s what makes it a dilemma because, regardless of what happens, if people get killed and there’s mission failure, the government will be criticised. If people don’t get killed, the government will also be criticised.
“It’s sort of lose-lose from a Government position at the moment.”
In a discussion with Jacob Rees-Mogg, he continued: “it’s probably better to try and have diplomatic attempts to get a ceasefire. But the challenge for us really is five-fold.
“Why do we care? What are the British interests is obviously first one and making sure no one gets killed. The second one is the analysis of what is happening now. Things are getting worse. It’s looking bad.
“Scenarios is the third one, what happens next? Well, it looks like the fighting is intensifying.”
He added: ‘The fourth one, which is really what we’re in at the moment, with the forward movement of military assets towards Port Sudan, is presenting ministers with clear options, on the risks, the opportunities and the cost of interposing in this to get people out.
“We’ve already heard in the last few hours, a French special forces soldier has been badly injured in their extraction.
“And finally, and this is what it all boils down to for the Government in terms of policy and strategy is ‘what does success look like’ and success, of course, is getting people out in a timely fashion with no one killed.”
