Hundreds of evacuees land in Saudi Arabia as Sudan fighting enters third week

Hundreds of evacuees land in Saudi Arabia as Sudan fighting enters third week

Hundreds of evacuees arrived in Saudi Arabia from Sudan as fierce fighting in the country between the army and a rival paramilitary group entered its third week, despite another attempt at a ceasefire.

Violent clashes broke out the capital Khartoum near the presidential palace in the city center.

Sudan’s Armed Forces, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, have agreed multiple truces but none have held.

The situation in Sudan has deteriorated since fighting broke out on April 15, leaving hundreds dead and tens of thousands fleeing to neighboring countries.

A commercial ship carrying more than 1800 evacuees arrived in the Saudi port city of Jeddah Saturday.

The ship carried 20 Saudi citizens with the remainder people from various European, Asian and African countries evacuated from Sudan, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said.

Two US nationals who arrived into Jeddah on Saturday described their experiences to CNN.

Namour al-Tayeb described his journey from the Sudanese capital Khartoum to Port Sudan as a “very hard trip” passing through forces from both warring military factions .

Before his evacuation, al-Tayeb was in Khartoum, where he said the situation is “horrible” with “gunfire all over the place.”

Al-Tayeb said he was happy to