Thousands of people, including Brits and vulnerable patients in hospitals, have been left behind in Sudan as fighting engulfs the country.
As of today, more than 400 people have been killed and at least 3,500 others hurt in the fighting, the World Health Organisation has said.
One British national said she has been taking shelter in a school basement with her friends and six children including her daughter.
Fighting erupted last weekend between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and despite pledges by the RSF to respect a 72-hour truce this week, on humanitarian grounds, bombing and shelling were still heard.
The two generals — RSF's Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, and the military's Burhan —are vying for control over the vast African nation.
Neither side is showing any sign of deescalating their fighting and on Thursday the military ruled out negotiations with the RSF, saying it would only accept its surrender.
The violence has already pushed Sudan’s population to the brink and opened a dark and tumultuous chapter in the country's history.
Brit Davina Jeffrey said her daughter was worried about what would happen to them: "She does ask questions like 'what will happen to us if a bomb hits us,' 'when will there be peace,' and it's difficult to know what to say."
An unnamed medic told CNN: "Can you believe that we left the hospital and left behind children in incubators and patients in intensive care without any medical personnel.
"The smell of death was everywhere.”
“There was no electricity, no water there inside the hospital. None of our equipment was working, a woman sheltering with us had a two-day-old baby. I don’t even know what happened to her.”
Doctors Without Borders said its teams were “trapped by the ongoing heavy fighting and are unable to access warehouses to deliver vital medical supplies to hospitals."
Dallia Abdelmoniem, a 37-year-old baker from Khartoum, said to AP: "There is no safe place anymore in Khartoum. Our number one priority is just to stay alive.”
As fighting rages on, it has been revealed by CNN that the brutal Russian mercenary group, Wagner, has been supplying Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces with missiles to aid their fight.
The British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has skipped planned meetings in New Zealand and Samoa to focus on coordinating the UK’s response to the crisis in Sudan.
