New 72-hour Ceasefire was agreed in Sudan

Sudan's warring parties have agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire from midnight. This was announced by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. It is at least the third ceasefire to be announced since violence erupted earlier this month. To date, none of them have been complied with.

The ceasefire agreement between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF) was reached after 48 hours of negotiations. Both sides, independently of each other, announced their participation. Fighting in the country broke out on April 15 and more than 400 people have been killed so far.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that there is a risk that the violence in Sudan will spread across the region and beyond. He again called on the parties to stop hostilities in densely populated areas so that humanitarian aid operations can be carried out. The hope is that the ceasefire will allow civilians to leave.

A number of countries have already evacuated their citizens from the country. More than 1,000 people from the EU have been taken out, announced the EU's top representative for foreign policy, Josep Borrell.

Thousands more have taken advantage of the momentary lull over the past two days to flee Sudan to neighboring countries. France said it was closing its embassy in Khartoum until further notice.

It is another escalation of hostilities in Africa's third-largest country in a power struggle between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and paramilitary leader Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo.

The two men disagree on how to transition the country to civilian rule.

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The evacuation of foreign citizens continues. Antony...