A growing list of foreign Governments are evacuating their diplomatic personnel and nationals from war-ravaged Sudan as fighting has entered into the second week.
The United States, Canada, U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Spain have been evacuating diplomats and other nationals from the north-eastern African country in response to the deteriorating security situation there.
A vicious power struggle between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group has led to violence across the third largest country in Africa for more than a week. The two sides were once allied, but disagreement later escalated over integrating the RSF into the armed forces under an internationally backed transition plan, in addition to other factors. The power struggle has seen heavy bombardment in the capital city Khartoum.
More than 420 people have died and thousands of others injured, according to WHO. The fighting has also brought normal life to a halt with food and water shortages.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned a session of the U.N. Security Council in New York that the violence “risks a catastrophic conflagration within Sudan that could engulf the whole region and beyond”.
Pope Francis appealed for an end to the violence during his Sunday midday prayer in Rome.
Sudan sits strategically between Egypt, the Red Sea and the Sahel.
With reporting by Reuters, Al Jazeera, Politico
