Foreign nations scramble to evacuate citizens as Sudan battles rage

Multiple truces have been agreed in recent days and ignored.

U.S. and British forces on Sunday evacuated embassy staff and their families from battle-torn Sudan where deadly fighting raged into a second week between forces loyal to two rival generals.

As gunfire again echoed through Khartoum and fighter jets roared above, foreigners also fled the capital in a long UN car convoy, as millions of frightened residents hunkered down inside their homes, many running low on water and food.

Across the city of five million, Army and militia troops have fought ferocious street battles since April 15, leaving behind charred tanks, gutted buildings and shops that have been looted and torched.

More than 420 people have been killed and thousands wounded, according to UN figures, in fighting that has sparked fears of wider turmoil and a humanitarian disaster in one of the world's poorest nations.

U.S. special forces launched a rescue mission early on Sunday for around 100 embassy staff and their relatives, swooping in with Chinook helicopters to fly them to a military base in Djibouti.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak later said U.K. forces had also "completed a complex and rapid evacuation of British diplomats and their families from Sudan, amid a significant escalation in violence and threats to embassy staff".

U.S. President Joe Biden condemned the violence that has rocked the northeast African country with a history of military coups, saying it is "unconscionable and it must stop".