Western and other nations escalate plans to evacuate diplomats from Sudan

Western and other nations have intensified increasingly desperate efforts to evacuate diplomats and their dependents from Khartoum, as battles raged in the centre of the Sudanese capital and in its twin city of Omdurman.

With a series of ceasefires failing to hold, the death toll has now passed 420, including 264 civilians, and more than 3,700 have been wounded, according to local and international NGOs. However, most analysts believe the true total of fatalities and injuries in more than nine days of fighting is much higher.

The US evacuated diplomats, embassy workers and families from Khartoum on Saturday night, sending Chinook helicopters carrying special forces on Saturday night to evacuate about 70 Americans from a landing zone at the embassy to an undisclosed location in Ethiopia, according to US officials.

On the battered streets of Khartoum there was anger.

A woman preparing to evacuate Khartoum for the town of Kosti, the capital of the White Nile state 300km (185 miles) to the south, said she was scared by what the battling forces in the city might do once foreigners had gone.

The successful operations have increased the pressure on other western nations to get their nationals out of Sudan amid the continued fighting.

On Sunday, internet and phone services appeared to have collapsed across much of country. Medicine, fuel and food were scarce in much of Khartoum, while a combination of fighting and looting made leaving home to search for essential provisions dangerous.