Image source, Reuters

The UN says that up to 270,000 people could flee the fighting in Sudan into neighbouring countries South Sudan and Chad.

The UN refugee agency in Chad said 20,000 people had already entered the country and they expect as many as 100,000 refugees.

Its counterpart in South Sudan says "the most likely scenario" is for 45,000 refugees to cross the border, as well as the return of 125,000 South Sudanese, who are forced to leave Sudan due to the violence.

Separately, the UN's humanitarian office says it has been forced to cut back its activities in parts of Sudan due to intense fighting.

Five aid workers have been killed since 15 April and two UN agencies who lost staff - the International Organization for Migration and the World Food Programme - suspended their activities.

Daniele Palumbo
BBC Investigative Journalist

BBC News has been tracking RAF flights in and out of Sudan this morning.

Using a plane-tracking website, we have been able to follow a C130 Hercules – a military transport which can carry up to 100 people – flying from an RAF airbase at Akrotiri in Cyprus to an airfield north of the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

So far, it has made two trips to Sudan and is on its way back to Akrotiri, external.

We’ve also been monitoring flights from the UK to Akrotiri and have tracked a Royal Air Force KC2 – a large military transport aircraft able to transport up to 291 people – which has landed in the last hour.

Other countries are using airports in Djibouti and Yemen to evacuate their citizens from Sudan and we’ve tracked Italian, Japanese and UN flights arriving and departing from these this morning.

Dr Atia Abdalla Atia, a doctor based in Khartoum and the secretary general of Sudan Doctors Union, earlier told Radio 4’s Today programme that hospitals were struggling to cope.

He said doctors are working long hours without replacements due to difficulties reaching hospitals in the capital.

Dr Atia said hospitals were running out of key supplies and his current hospital can’t take any more casualties.

Many of his colleagues are worried about their own safety. Dr Atia said he walked for 20km to reach his hospital because it wasn’t not safe for him to drive his car or go in an ambulance.

Despite fears for their own safety, doctors in Sudan are determined to continue working, he added

"We cannot let our people die, this is the moment the Sudanese people need us".

Colleagues are working flat out, standing for as long as 20 hours in the surgical theatre to support patients and the medical community is also suffering psychologically, Dr Atia said.

He called on the international community and the UN to "stop the war immediately," as "there is no winner in this war and Sudanese people are dying".

Image source, Ameena Al Rasheed

We're hearing from lots of people who have family stuck in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

Ameena from Leeds says her relatives are among those trying to escape the violence.

Speaking to Radio 5 Live earlier, she said they haven't been in touch since they began attempting to reach a safe area in the city.

"This is like a nightmare," she said, "nobody ever expected this to take place in Sudan, never in a million years".

She added that Khartoum was "a very quiet city, it's very chilled with people moving around safely. I don't think there has ever been such an experience of direct war bombardment to houses, with military men all around the country."

"I hope it comes to an end soon - the sooner the better."

Image source, Reuters

This is a very complicated story, and we know many of you are wondering how the crisis came about. We'll be answering some of your questions throughout the day, including:

Who is fighting who in Sudan?

Since a coup in 2021 that ousted long-time leader Omar al-Bashir, Sudan has been run by a council of generals, led by the two military men at the centre of this dispute:

• Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the armed forces and in effect the country's president

• His deputy and leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti

What are the Rapid Support Forces?

The RSF are a paramilitary unit who were officially formed in 2013. Since then, Gen Dagalo has turned the 100,000 strong militia into a force some see as a source of the country's instability.

What do the two sides want?

The main sticking points are plans to integrate the RSF into the army, and who would then lead the new force. Gen Burhan wants this to happen within two years - Gen Dagalo would prefer it to happen in ten.

Romisa Albashir earlier told Good Morning Scotland that her family in Sudan had experienced the full horror of the conflict.

Albashir, who lives in Aberdeen, said: "A friend of my uncle's a few days ago, for example, was going in to the one hospital that was still open.

"He was going in for dialysis. He got shot dead in the hospital.

"This is someone I have known since I was a wee girl. That's the situation they are living in."

She last spoke to her relatives two days ago due to problems with phone signals and internet coverage and added: "It's just such a dire situation."

Sean Bell is a retired fighter pilot air vice marshall, and says airlifts sound "simple" but are actually "incredibly complicated".

"A big aircraft is very vulnerable, particularly to gunfire, " he tells Radio 5 Live's Nicky Campbell.

"There's a 72-hour ceasefire, there's a 24-hour window and what they're going to try and do is get some military transport aircraft in.

"The Royal Air Force is relatively small, it's deployed on operations around the world at the moment - you don't have these aircrafts at an airport just waiting to fly into Sudan... they're going to be taken off live operations."

He says there is "huge complexity" in working out who is a priority for evacuating and how they will get to the airfield.

"Trying to identify where they are, get them to one place through enemy fighting and then get them safely out - that is not a simple undertaking."

Back to UK evacuation efforts now - and we've heard from UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverley, who's warning the situation in Sudan remains "dangerous, volatile and unpredictable"

He says it's "impossible" to know how long a ceasefire would last as the RAF forges ahead with its plan to airlift British citizens out of the country.

Flight trackers have spotted an RAF C-130 transport carrier approaching an airbase in northern Khartoum and setting off again half an hour later. About 1,400 military personnel are understood to be involved in the rescue effort.

Approximately 2,000 British citizens are registered in Sudan with the Foreign Office and priority access to flights will be given to the most vulnerable.

Cleverly has called for the the faction leaders to allow British nationals to be evacuated and has expressed concern that the ceasefire may be fragile.

If you're just joining us, welcome. Let's have a look at the key developments in Sudan where a 72-hour ceasefire from fierce fighting in the capital, Khartoum has been agreed but it's unclear if it's holding.

• The UK government has ordered the evacuation of British nationals from Sudan, with the first airlifts from the country due to happen today. An RAF aircraft has left Sudan and is headed to Cyprus, we should know if UK nationals being evacuated are on it later
• The ceasefire, which came into force in Sudan at midnight (22:00 GMT on Monday), is a key factor behind evacuations. But is being met with caution – this is the fourth attempt at a truce
• EU member states and African nations have also been evacuating their diplomats and citizens amid growing fears of a civil war
• Fighting between rival military groups intensified on 15 April, as their leaders disagreed on the direction the country is going in and the proposed move towards civilian rule, with more than 450 people killed so far
• Key infrastructure in the country has been severely damaged, leading to limited access to clean water and the internet
• Civilians who are still inside the country have been telling us what it’s like there, as doctors risk their safety to ensure the lives of those who have been injured can be rescued

Image source, AFP

A social activist from Khartoum, Hala Alkarib, tells the BBC it is very dangerous on the streets of Khartoum, despite the ceasefire:

"It's not holding a hundred percent as usual. The level of insecurity on the streets is massive. So, even if there is a ceasefire people cannot access any type of humanitarian service.

"We are surrounded by child soldiers who are carrying guns, everywhere these soldiers are occupying the streets and it's extremely scary for civilians."

Alkarib asked how both groups could have access to so much weaponary, adding:

"How are those two generals enabled to the point that they can actually instigate a war in the capital city of the country?"

We're getting some fresh lines from the World Health Organization (WHO) now.

Speaking at a briefing, the WHO's Nima Saeed Abid says there's a "high risk of biological hazard" after one of the sides involved in the fierce fighting in Sudan seized a laboratory. She didn't offer any more details.

We're also hearing that more than 459 people have been killed and a further 4,072 people have been injured since violent clashes erupted in the streets of Sudan ten days ago.

Wycliffe Muia
BBC News, Kenya

Let's go back to what's happening on the ground in Sudan now. There are reports of sounds of gunfire in Khartoum, despite a 72-hour truce between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Sporadic clashes have also been reported in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman.

Local media say the RSF also took control of the city of Wad Banda in West Kordofan state on Tuesday morning.

The RSF in a series of tweets has accused the army of violating the truce by "continuing to attack Khartoum with planes". The paramilitary group called on the international community to intervene and put pressure on the army to abide by the terms of the ceasefire.

Image source, Getty Images

There are also reports of gunfire inside Port Sudan prison. An army spokesman told Sky News Arabia that the RSF was responsible for "storming prisons".

Khartoum residents say the internet has been partially restored. However, the connectivity remains intermittent despite the reconnection of state provider Sudatel, according to NetBlocks, an organisation that monitors internet access.

More now on the announcement this morning that the UK will begin airlifting its nationals out of Sudan.

Chair of the foreign affairs committee Alicia Kearns says they believe there are 3,000 to 4,000 British nationals there.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast a little earlier, the Conservative MP says that they don’t know if everyone wants to leave Sudan but they are aiming to get everyone who wants to leave the country out.

“Because” she says, “We can't be confident the ceasefire will hold”

“The foreign office is contacting every single British citizen who is registered. Stay tight, because outside is still not safe. Gather your belongings, get ready for the journey. Make sure you have the most signal possible.

"You don't need to rush to the airport. The Foreign Office needs to make sure you make a safe trip to the airport."

She said that the information is that the ceasefire is holding which is an "enormous relief".

A Royal Air Force plane has departed an airfield north of Sudan's capital Khartoum and is heading to the RAF Akrotiri military base in Cyprus, according to a plane tracking website,, external which BBC News has been monitoring

The flight landed in Sudan just before 09:00 BST and then departed just after 09:30.

The RAF aircraft is a Lockheed C-130J Hercules – a plane which can be used in airlift missions.

It is a military transport aircraft which can land on rough terrain and can hold around 100 people.

The plane is likely to be part of the UK’s attempts to evacuate its citizens out of Sudan. We will continue to monitor its movements and bring you updates.

Eiman ab Garga, a British-Sudanese gynaecologist who works in the UK, was visiting the capital with her children when the fighting began.

She was evacuated to Djibouti last night on a flight organised by France.

They hurried her departure, out of security concerns, and she wasn't able to say goodbye to her father, mother or sister.

"The country is dirty, there's rubbish all over it," she told Radio 4. "There's sewage overflowing it smells so now we're next going to have an outbreak of illness and disease and there won't be a hospital to go to there.

"We're just looking at death and destruction and destitution."

Dr Nahla Hamza, a British national whose family is still in Khartoum awaiting evacuation, told BBC Breakfast this morning that they had to flee their home at dawn in an effort to go to the north of the country.

But her 80-year-old father, and her 60-year-old mother, alongside her two sisters, have not been able to get a bus so far.

“My family’s home is in the middle of Khartoum,” Dr Hamza says.

“They were hiding in a room at the back of the house away from windows because of the shooting and bombing."

She says contact with her family has been difficult with the lack of access to electricity and good signal. It takes hours to send them a message.

“We didn’t expect things to escalate to a full-blown war like this,” she added.

Dr Hamza says that the evacuation was “good news if it came to reality".

Image source, Getty Images

We've been hearing a lot about fighting in Sudan the past week, but why is it happening now?

The violent clashes that erupted across the country is a direct result of a vicious power struggle within the country's military leadership. Since a coup in October 2021, Sudan has been run by a council of generals.

The two military men at the centre of this dispute are:

• Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who is the head of the armed forces and in effect the country's president

• And his deputy, and leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF),Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti

They have disagreed on the direction the country is going in, and the proposed move towards civilian rule.

One of the main sticking points is over the plans to include the 100,000-strong RSF into the army - and who would then lead the new force.

Fighting between the two sides broke out after days of tension as members of the RSF were redeployed around the country in a move that the army saw as a threat.

Olga Robinson
BBC Monitoring

A Royal Air Force plane - a Lockheed C-130J Hercules - has just landed at an airfield north of Sudan's capital Khartoum, according to a plane tracking website which BBC News has been monitoring.

The aircraft took off from the Akrotiri military base in Cyprus at around 07:00 local time this morning. We will keep tracking the aircraft.

Mayeni Jones
Reporting from Lagos

The South Sudanese government says about 9,000 people have crossed its border since the beginning of the conflict in neighbouring Sudan 10 days ago.

Foreign minister Deng Dau Deng told the BBC that most of the arrivals were returning home - about 6,000 people.

About 3,000 of the new arrivals are a mix of Sudanese and citizens of other countries, including Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia - many of them diplomats.

Deng said President Salva Kiir has been in touch with both army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF paramilitary leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo to call for an end to the conflict.

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan 12 years ago. There is a large South Sudanese population in Sudan and oil from South Sudan goes through Sudanese territory to get to Port Sudan on the Red Sea.

African governments have also been getting their diplomats and other citizens out of Sudan, amid growing fears of a civil war - as the army and RSF paramilitary vie for control.

South Africa, Kenya, Mali, Ivory Coast and Uganda are among countries that have announced the evacuation of some of their nationals, with Eritrea offering to open its airspace for “emergency evacuations".

A Kenyan air force plane carrying students from the International University of Africa in Khartoum arrived in Nairobi on Monday night.

Uganda has evacuated more than 200 citizens by road from Khartoum to the northern Ethiopian town of Gondar, from where they will take a flight to Kampala.

About 9,000 refugees have also crossed into South Sudan in recent days.

Meanwhile, the UN has relocated some of its staff from Sudan to neighbouring countries. And dozens of foreign aid workers operating in Sudan's western Darfur region have been evacuated to the capital of neighbouring Chad, N'Djamena.