The UK is believed to have among the highest number of foreign citizens in Sudan - up to 4,000 according to Britain's international development minister. For more than a week they've been among the thousands confined to their homes, trapped by intense fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Hundreds of foreign nationals have already been evacuated, but the UK has faced growing criticism from many of its citizens who say they have been essentially abandoned. While the UK Foreign Office said over the weekend that it had managed to evacuate embassy staff from the capital Khartoum, it is feared that hundreds of other citizens remain trapped. In dozens of conversations with the BBC, those stuck on the ground have complained of poor communication from the Foreign Office's crisis centre. A small British military reconnaissance team is in Sudan to assess evacuation options. And on Monday, Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell warned that movement in Khartoum "remains extremely dangerous and no evacuation option comes without grave risk to life". He said a member of the French special forces was "gravely ill" after being shot while trying to evacuate French diplomats. But some UK citizens say they have waited too long for help. One British citizen - William - told the BBC he had received virtually no assistance from government officials since the conflict began more than a week ago. He was forced to brave the street fighting to flee Khartoum after his situation became "intolerable". "We've had absolutely nothing but nonsense from the government," he told the Today programme on Monday. "Not even nonsense, we've had nothing. The last communication was that the government itself is going to do nothing, so we had to take this option." His story mirrored that of other British citizens - who have watched on in dismay as their international counterparts have been evacuated by other governments. "We feel abandoned," Edinburgh native Fatima Osman, who was visiting family when the violence began, told the BBC from Khartoum. "It's very traumatising here and the situation is very bad, it's getting worse. The clashes, the fighting, and there are dead bodies everywhere. And everyone is trying to escape and flee the country, and you can see the country is really getting into a civil war." Her husband, Amar Osman, said their experience of trying to get advice from the Foreign Office had left him infuriated. "I filled the location form on the [Foreign Office] website and I received an email saying they've received my form," he told the Today programme as the sound of gunfire echoed nearby. "But nothing else. It's auto reply after you submit your form and that's it." As British nationals have tried - often in vain - to get instructions from the Foreign Office's crisis centre and the embassy in Khartoum, a host of other nations have managed to evacuate their citizens. On Monday, India's Foreign Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar tweeted that more than 500 Indian citizens had reached Port Sudan on the Red Sea, about 850km (528 miles) and 13 hours drive east of Khartoum. Two air force planes and a naval vessel were on standby to evacuate the group. And long queues of United Nations vehicles and buses were seen leaving Khartoum on Sunday, also heading east towards Port Sudan and carrying "citizens from all over the world", a Sierra Leonean evacuee told AFP news agency. One of the first nations to evacuate citizens was Saudi Arabia. On Sunday, 91 of the Kingdom's citizens and 66 nationals of 12 other "friendly countries" were flown from Port Sudan to the city of Jeddah across the Red Sea. Stefano Rebora - president of Italian NGO Music for Peace - was evacuated on an emergency flight by the Italian embassy on Sunday. "At 12.30am we got the call from the crisis unit [of the Italian foreign ministry]," he said. "They said they would attempt an airlift the next day and told us to go to a meeting point." After meeting other Italian nationals at the embassy, Mr Rebora travelled in a convoy to an airfield about 20km (12 miles) away from Khartoum. "It took us four hours to cover 20km," he recalled. "On the way we saw bodies everywhere - there's no security whatsoever so nobody dares go collect them - but there's utter destruction too." Elizabeth Boughey, a British teacher at Khartoum American School, was evacuated by the French embassy to Djibouti, alongside 200 other people of various nationalities. She said the group - which included a number of UK nationals - was taken to an airfield in northern Khartoum and flown out on two specially chartered military planes. Meanwhile, satellite photos appeared to show a Hercules C-130 transport plane on the ground at Port Sudan airfield on Sunday at 08:04 local time (10:04 BST).