More flee as Sudan fighting abates

Fighting in Sudan abated overnight after the army and a rival paramilitary force agreed to a 72-hour truce but a witness said gunfire could be heard yesterday while Arab, Asian and Western nations were racing to extract their citi zens from the country.

The Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) said the US and Saudi Arabia mediated the ceasefire.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken announced the agreement after two days of intense negotiations.

A power struggle erupted between the SAF and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group on April 15 and has killed at least 427 people.

“During this period, the US urges the SAF and RSF to immediately and fully uphold the ceasefire,” Blinken said.

A witness said he heard gunfire from time to time in the city of Omdurman adjacent to the capital after a period of relative calm overnight.

The British government launched a large-scale evacuation of its nationals on military flights from an airfield north of Khartoum, open to those with British passports.

“We have started contacting nationals directly and providing routes for departure out of the country,” foreign secretary James Cleverly said on Twitter.

All Japanese people who wished to leave Sudan had been evacuated, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said yesterday.

The Swiss foreign minister said Bern was monitoring opportunities to extract its remaining citizens but was having difficulty getting out people with dual nationality.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said that the violence “risks a catastrophic conflagration ... that could engulf the whole region and beyond”. —