British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak presided over the extraordinary meeting of Cobra due to the “extremely worrying” situation in Sudan. Sky News. COBR or COBRA stands for Committee for Civilian Emergency, which meets to act in the event of a national emergency or major unrest. Its purpose is to coordinate between the various ministries and agencies in responding to such emergencies. COBR stands for Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms, which is a series of rooms located in the British Government Quarter, more specifically in the Cabinet Office at 70 Whitehall. According to the head of the Sudanese army, the United Kingdom is also planning to evacuate diplomats and citizens in Sudan, and in addition to the United States, France and China are also preparing to withdraw their citizens due to the bloody clashes.
We understand that the situation is very worrying for British nationals caught up in the fighting in Sudan
– said the British government spokesman.
We are doing everything we can to support British nationals and diplomatic staff in Khartoum and the Ministry of Defense is working with the Foreign Office to prepare for a range of contingencies.
– they added.
Two Cobra meetings were reported to have taken place yesterday.
Sky News has learned that Britain has put troops and aircraft on standby at a base abroad in case they are needed to fly embassy staff and British citizens out of the country.
The Sudanese army statement quoted the commander of the armed forces, Abdel Fattah al-Burhani:
It is expected that the evacuation process will begin within the next few hours, as the United States, Britain, France and China are using military transport planes belonging to their armed forces to evacuate their diplomats and nationals from Khartoum by air, and this is expected to start immediately.
Cover photo credit: Andrew Matthews/PA Images via Getty Images
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