The Latest Breaking News from Khartoum

Fighting could be heard in south Khartoum on Sunday as envoys from Sudan's warring parties met in Saudi Arabia for talks that international mediators hope will bring an end to a three-week-old conflict that has killed hundreds and triggered an exodus.

Sudan’s warring sides were beginning talks Saturday that aim to firm up a shaky cease-fire after three weeks of fierce fighting that has killed hundreds and pushed the African country to the brink of collapse, the United States and Saudi Arabia said.

Sudan, Africa’s third largest country by land mass, shares borders with seven countries in an unstable region. This means that Sudan’s current conflict will have economic, social and political ripple effects across a number of countries, including the Central African Republic, Egypt, Libya, Chad, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Huwaida al-Hassan and her daughters are among the medical staff tending to pregnant women amid Sudan’s clashes.

Hanadi Al-Sir was among thousands who rushed to Port Sudan, hoping to get on a boat or a plane to escape fierce fighting between the army and rival paramilitary forces.

Civilians trapped in the Sudanese capital saytheir plight is being ignored by both the army and its rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces

Heavy gunfire echoed around Khartoum on Friday as civilians trapped in the Sudanese capital said the army and rival paramilitary were fighting without regard to their plight.

The US believes there is little chance of a ceasefire in Sudan as neither side has an incentive to stop warring. 

General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan pledged to take Sudan to civilian rule, but after going to war last month with his former partner in a military coup, that looks a distant promise.