Khartoum (Sudan) (AFP) - More than 150 people from various nations reached the safety of Saudi Arabia Saturday in the first announced evacuation of civilians from Sudan, where fighting between the army and paramilitaries entered a second week following a brief lull.
Foreign nations have said they are preparing for the potential evacuation of thousands more of their nationals, even though Sudan's main airport remains closed.
Fighting has left hundreds dead and thousands wounded while survivors cope with shortages of electricity and food.
Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry announced the "safe arrival" of 91 of its citizens along with nationals from Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Tunisia, Pakistan, India, Bulgaria, Bangladesh, the Philipines, Canada and Burkina Faso.
As the kingdom's naval forces transported the civilians, including diplomats and international officials, across the Red Sea from Port Sudan to Jeddah, fighting resumed in Sudan's capital Khartoum after a temporary truce saw gunfire momentarily die down on Friday, the first day of Eid al-Fitr.
Eid is normally a major celebration for Sudanese marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
This year it is marked by fear, grief and hunger.
Earlier on Saturday, Sudan's army said its chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had received calls from leaders of multiple countries to "facilitate and guarantee safety for evacuating citizens and diplomatic missions".
It noted that the evacuations were expected to begin "in the coming hours", adding that the US, Britain, France and China are planning to airlift their nationals out of Khartoum using military planes.
Burhan told Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV that the army was in control of "all airports, except for Khartoum airport" and one in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur.
Eid is meant to be spent "with sweets and pastries, with happy children, and people greeting relatives", Khartoum resident Sami al-Nour told AFP.
Instead, there has been "gunfire and the stench of blood all around us".
Urban warfare began on April 15 between forces loyal to Burhan and those of his deputy-turned-rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.He commands the heavily armed paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which emerged from the Janjaweed fighters unleashed in Darfur by former strongman Omar al-Bashir, drawing accusations of war crimes.
The former allies seized power in a 2021 coup but later fell out in a bitter power struggle.
'Stench of blood'
On Saturday morning, heavy gunfire, loud explosions and fighter jets were heard in many parts of the capital, according to witnesses.
The army announced Friday agreement to a three-day ceasefire, which UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had called for a day earlier.
Daglo said in a statement he had "discussed the current crisis" with Guterres, and was "focused on the humanitarian truce, safe passages, and protecting humanitarian workers".
Five humanitarians, including four from UN-linked agencies, have so far been killed.
Two 24-hour ceasefires announced earlier in the week were also ignored.
In Khartoum, a city of five million people, the conflict has left terrified civilians sheltering inside their homes.Many have ventured out only to get urgent food supplies -- stocks of which are dwindling -- or to flee the city.
While Khartoum has seen some of the fiercest battles, they have occurred across the country.
Late Friday, the army accused the RSF of attacks in the capital's twin city of Omdurman where they released "a large number of inmates" from a prison, accusations the group denies.
Battles have raged in Darfur, where Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in the city of El Fasher said their medics had been "overwhelmed" by the number of patients with gunshot wounds, many of them children.
Crisis meeting
More plans are being made to evacuate foreigners, with the United States, South Korea and Japan deploying forces to nearby countries, and the European Union weighing a similar move.
The German ministers of defence and foreign affairs held a crisis meeting Saturday on a possible evacuation, after three military transport planes had to turn back Wednesday, according to German weekly Der Spiegel.
On Friday, the US said an evacuation of embassy personnel was still too risky.
Later, the RSF said it was ready to "partially" open "all airports" in Sudan to evacuate foreign citizens.It was not possible to verify which airports the RSF controls.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said 413 people had been killed and 3,551 wounded in the fighting across Sudan, but the actual death toll is thought to be higher.
More than two-thirds of hospitals in Khartoum and neighbouring states are now "out of service", and at least four hospitals in North Kordofan state were shelled, the doctors' union said.
The World Food Programme said the violence could plunge millions more into hunger in a country where one third of the population needs aid.
Burhan and Daglo's dispute centred on the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army, a key condition for a deal aimed at restoring Sudan's democratic transition after the military toppled Bashir in April 2019 following mass citizen protests.
In October 2021, Burhan and Daglo joined forces to oust a civilian government installed after Bashir's downfall.
Daglo now says the coup was a "mistake", while Burhan believes it was "necessary" to include more groups into politics.
