Fighting rages in Khartoum and an envoy says that the two sides of the conflict are open to dialogue
Air strikes and artillery bombardments rocked Khartoum on Saturday as Sudan entered a third week of fighting between two warring military factions despite a ceasefire, prompting more civilians to flee and raising renewed warnings of widening instability if the war is not stopped.
By Saturday evening, violent clashes could be heard near the army headquarters and the presidential palace in central Khartoum.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said a convoy organized by the US government arrived in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan to evacuate US citizens, local employees and others, in the latest effort by foreign governments to evacuate their citizens and others.
Miller added that the US government would help those transferred to travel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He did not say how many Americans were still in Sudan.
A UN envoy had earlier offered a glimmer of hope for an end to the fighting, saying that the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, which had so far shown no sign of a compromise, were now open to negotiations, although no date had been set.
Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands wounded since April 15, when a long-running power struggle flared up between Sudan’s army and paramilitary forces.
