hands for a quarter of $1 million. hands for a quarter of $1 m“lion- hands for a quarter of $1 million. ., ., , ., million. live from our studio in singapore. million. live from our studio in singapore, this million. live from our studio in singapore, this is - million. live from our studio in singapore, this is bbc - million. live from our studio i in singapore, this is bbc news. it s newsday. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in the uk and around the world. will begin in sudan where british diplomats and their families have been airlifted to british diplomats and theirfamilies have been airlifted to safety from khartoum, the capital of sudan, as fighting between rival military factions enters a second week. the ministry of defence in london confirmed that embassy staff had been brought out under cover of darkness, and the united states has carried out a similar operation. there s no word yet on how other british nationals will be able to leave the count
welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in the uk and around the world. it s seven in the morning in singapore and 2am in sudan, where we begin the programme. british diplomats and their families have been airlifted to safety from khartoum, the capital of sudan, as fighting between rival military factions enters a second week. the ministry of defence in london confirmed that embassy staff had been brought out under cover of darkness, and the united states has carried out a similar operation. there s no word yet on how other british nationals will be able to leave the country. our africa correspondent, andrew harding, has the latest. amid the bombs and the gunfire in khartoum today, a series of dramatic rescue missions. among those successfully airlifted out of sudan after a week of terror, british embassy staff and their families. over 1,200 people contributed to this operation. it was dangerous and precarious, but nevertheless, we managed to use both c130s and aaoo airc
dictator 0mar al bashir, i met both these military leaders. they were both in their own way. one is very conservative, long term army men, the other is much more flamboyant and a good guerrilla leader. there s a personality dispute. there s also issues about transferring to civilian rule. but the truth is, they don t want civilian government. what they want is to have, if you like, a cromwell, because there s a great fear, not only the millions of people fleeing out into europe through orfrom sudan, they want a powerful leadership because in fact, the civilians have no influence. they re just standing by, and after all these years of war. khartoum used to be the most boring and safest city
here during the afghanistan evacuation which took out 15,000 people, but was chaotic and heavily criticised. then, we saw british soldiers at the airport, but officials say the situation in sudan is different because there are no uk troops on the ground and no secure air base to use. today s high risk operation to evacuate british diplomats had to be carried out rapidly. the embassy is close to the international airport, but that s out of action, so two transport planes flew in with armoured vehicles. 1,200 personnel were needed to extractjust a few dozen people. we don t know exactly how many british nationals are in sudan. the foreign office hasn t even told us how many have registered with them. labour says it wants to know how the government plans help them. but the foreign secretary says britain s ability to help is severely limited unless these two men can be persuaded to end the fighting.