A 72-hour ceasefire officially came into effect early on Tuesday after ten days of deadly clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the country's capital city of Khartoum.
The three-day ceasefire, which came in the wake of a previous three-day truce in connection with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, was brokered by the United States "following intense negotiations," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement shortly before the ceasefire took effect at midnight (22:00 GMT Monday).
"This ceasefire aims to establish humanitarian corridors, allowing citizens and residents to access essential resources, healthcare, and safe zones, while also evacuating diplomatic missions," the RSF said in a statement.
The Sudanese armed forces, for their part, said that they would also abide by the ceasefire on condition that the RSF paramilitaries did so.
Meanwhile, a number of foreign countries have managed to evacuate their citizens and diplomatic missions from Sudan, while some others are currently in the process of extracting their nationals trapped in the North African country.
On Tuesday, the United Kingdom said it had launched evacuation flights from an airfield outside Khartoum for UK citizens trapped in Sudan, noting that "priority will be given to family groups with children and/or the elderly or individuals with medical conditions."
Among other countries currently evacuating their diplomats from Sudan are Turkiye, which is moving about 1,490 people out of the conflict-ravaged country through neighboring Ethiopia, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. Of those, 640 people have been brought to safety in Ethiopia. A new rescue mission is planned for Tuesday.
The Turkish minister said that 110 of those evacuated were foreign nationals hailing from the Philippines, Mexico, Syria, Qatar, Hungary, Serbia, Ethiopia, Algeria and Eritrea, while many more continues are asking Turkiye for help in rescuing their citizens.
In the same vein, the Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that the navy ship HMS Yanbu had evacuated 199 people, including nationals of foreign countries, from Sudan; it arrived at the Saudi port of Jeddah in the early morning. In total, Saudi Arabia has evacuated 356 civilians from Sudan, including 101 Saudi nationals and 255 individuals of 26 other nationalities, the ministry added.
Other countries, including Canada, Venezuela, the Netherlands, Germany, Greece, France and Spain, among other countries, have recently announced the evacuation of their diplomatic missions from Sudan, with some of them saying that diplomats will continue to work remotely.
"The Embassy of the Netherlands in Khartoum is closed. Work will continue as possible from the region and the Netherlands," the Dutch Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website on Monday.
During the armed clashes in Sudan, at least one member of a foreign diplomatic mission was reported to have been killed in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. On Monday, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said that Mohamed al-Gharawy, the assistant of Egypt’s administrative attaché in Sudan, had been killed in Khartoum.
"The Foreign Ministry and its staff deeply mourn the death in the line of duty of the assistant of the administrative attaché of the Egyptian embassy in Khartoum, Mohamed al-Gharawy," the ministry wrote on social media.
On April 15, violent clashes between the Sudanese regular armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group broke out, with the epicenter in Khartoum. Government forces accused the RSF of mutiny and launched airstrikes against their bases. Abdel Fattah Burhan, the head of the Sudanese military, issued a decree disbanding the RSF.
So far, around 600 people have died in the clashes, the Sudanese Health Ministry said last Friday. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization reported over 400 deaths and said more than 3,500 people had been injured.