KHARTOUM
\nThe armed forces of the United States and the United Kingdom have evacuated embassy staff from Sudan, while other nations rushed to get their citizens to safety as rival military factions battled in the capital Khartoum on Sunday.
\nThe eruption of fighting eight days ago between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group has triggered a humanitarian crisis, killed 420 people and trapped millions of Sudanese without access to basic services.
\nAs people attempted to flee the chaos, countries began landing planes and organising convoys in Khartoum to pull out their nationals. Some foreign citizens were injured. Gunfire rang out across the city and dark smoke hung overhead, a Reuters reporter said.
\nThe warring sides accused each other of attacking a French convoy, both saying one French person was wounded. France\u2019s Foreign Ministry, which had earlier said it was evacuating diplomatic staff and citizens, did not comment.
\nFrance said a French plane carrying around a hundred people including the European Union delegation in Khartoum along with other nationalities had left for Djibouti, and a second plane with a similar number aboard was due to take off shortly.
\nThe risks were also evident in army accusations that the RSF looted a Qatari convoy heading to Port Sudan. In separate incidents, an Iraqi citizen was killed during clashes and Egypt said one of its diplomats had been wounded.
\nThe efforts to extract foreign residents frustrated some Sudanese who felt the rival factions showed less concern for the safety of locals.
\n\u201cSeeing the foreigners leave made me upset because I see there\u2019s some groups that were helped by the army and RSF, meanwhile we keep getting hit,\u201d said Alsadig Alfatih, who on Sunday managed to leave his home for the first time since the fighting erupted and said he would head to Egypt.
\nPope appeals
\nThe Sudanese army said it worked with the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France on evacuation operations at Wadi Sedna, an air base north of Khartoum. Qatar and Jordan\u2019s operations were conducted overland to Port Sudan, the army said.
\nPrime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Canada had also extracted its diplomats and was trying to support its local staff.
\nEgypt, India, Nigeria and Libya were among the countries that said they were working to bring home their people.
\nPope Francis appealed for an end to the violence during his Sunday midday prayer in Rome.
\nThe fighting broke out in Khartoum and other parts of the country on April 15, four years after long-ruling autocrat Omar al-Bashir was toppled.
\nThe army and RSF jointly staged a coup in 2021 but fell out during negotiations to integrate the two groups and form a civilian government.
\nUS officials said its special forces evacuated fewer than 100 people on Saturday in an operation that took just one hour on the ground.
\n\u201cWe did not take any small-arms fire on the way in and were able to get in and out without issue,\u201d said Lieutenant General Douglas Sims.
\nCeasefire breached
\nSudan\u2019s sudden collapse into warfare has dashed plans to restore civilian rule, brought an already impoverished country to the brink of humanitarian disaster, and threatened a wider conflict that could draw in outside powers.
\nBeyond Khartoum, reports of the worst violence have come from Darfur, a western region bordering Chad that suffered 300,000 people dead and 2.7 million displaced during an earlier conflict that started in 2003.
\nThe army under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, headed by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, have failed to observe ceasefires reached almost daily, including a three-day truce for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which began on Friday.
\nFor the first time since the start of the fighting, a video was posted that briefly showed Hemedti in battle dress in the passenger seat of a pick-up truck, surrounded by cheering troops, near Khartoum\u2019s presidential palace.
\nReuters was able to confirm the location, but was not able to independently verify the date the video was filmed.
\nBurhan said on Monday he was based at the army headquarters in central Khartoum, about 2 km (1.2 miles) from the palace.
\nBattles have continued around the army\u2019s headquarters and the airport, which has been closed by the clashes, and over the past two days in Bahri, where the army has used troops on the ground as well as air strikes to try to push back the RSF.
\nThe RSF said on Sunday its forces were targeted by air strikes in Bahri\u2019s Kafouri district and that dozens were killed and injured.
\nRSF forces were heavily deployed on the streets and on bridges across the capital, with army troops visible in parts of Omdurman, a Reuters reporter said. Neighbourhoods were otherwise largely empty of civilians and ordinary life.
\nIn Bahri, a video verified by Reuters showed a major market burning. Residents reported looting in the district, which is home to industrial zones containing important flour mills.
\nWorld Health Organisation head Tedros Ghebreyesus described multiple deadly attacks on health facilities. \u201cParamedics, frontline nurses and doctors are often unable to access the wounded and the injured cannot reach facilities,\u201d he tweeted.
\nThe WHO retweeted a post from Sudan\u2019s Health Ministry on Sunday saying at least 420 people had been killed and 3,700 injured in the fighting so far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KHARTOUM The armed forces of the United States and the United Kingdom have evacuated embassy staff from Sudan, while other nations rushed to get their citizens to safety as rival military factions battled in the capital Khartoum on Sunday. The eruption of fighting eight days ago between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327306,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-327278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n