Family stranded at the Sudan-Egypt border as truckers demand $40,000 to pass

A family fleeing Sudan are among thousands stuck at the border with Egypt due to drivers demanding $40,000 (£31,810) to hire a bus to travel across. The family of seven, including three children under 10, escaped the fighting in the capital Khartoum two days ago. Fadi Atabani, a British national, is appealing to the UK authorities for help in evacuating or a bus which can get them across the border. Hosna, a Khartoum resident, told the BBC she had two daughters trapped in the Sudanese capital and faced fares of over $400 each to travel to the border. Esraa Bani, a Sudanese-American academic who has flown to Aswan to help people arriving, said the bus prices had increased "astronomically".

Clashes between the Sudanese army and paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began on 15 April, with hundreds of people killed and thousands injured. On Monday, the two sides agreed a three-day ceasefire, but clashes have continued in some areas. The fighting is devastating the capital and its surrounds, leaving people without supplies of food, water and fuel. British citizens can only be evacuated from the Wadi Seidna airfield near Khartoum, which is a perilous two-day bus journey away. On Thursday, Turkey said an evacuation plane coming in to land at Wadi Seidna was fired at.

The Foreign Office has been working intensively to evacuate British Nationals, but has been unable to arrange any help with travel to the airfield. The BBC has spoken to a British Sudanese doctor who is being evacuated by the RAF in the eastern Red Sea city of Port Sudan, but until now there have been no evacuation flights.