MRI doctor makes desperate plea to Rishi Sunak as he flees Sudan

An NHS doctor working at a Manchester hospital has managed to flee Sudan and has made a desperate appeal to Rishi Sunak to extend evacuation flights to help other medics get out.

Dr Abdulrahman Babiker, a registrar at the Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI), had been left stranded in the war-torn country and said he felt 'betrayed' after initially being turned away when he tried to board a flight as he only has a UK permit.

But the 33-year-old, who had been visiting family and was due back on shift at the MRI, managed to later get out on a flight arriving in Cyprus in the early hours of Saturday. Speaking at Larnaca airport before flying to the UK, he urged the government to keep evacuation flights open longer.

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Dr Babiker said he personally knew of three NHS doctors — who he said also have permits — who had faced difficulty getting to the airbase in Sudan in time for the final British evacuation plane.

The UK government said on Friday people eligible had until midday local time yesterday [Saturday] to get to Wadi Saeedna ahead of a final evacuation flight later.

Fighting has now broken out again in Khartoum despite the extension of an armistice between the country’s two warring generals having been brokered in the early hours of Friday.

The medic's plea came after the UK government U-turned, announcing that NHS doctors without UK passports who were in Sudan could catch evacuation flights.

Ministers answered calls to widen the remit, which had been limited to British nationals and their immediate family, after a significant decline in the number of UK citizens coming forward.

However, the decision was announced with just hours to go until the final