These are the latest pictures of what can be seen on the ground in Sudan.

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

Laura Goddard, who is 24 and from Wiltshire in south-west England, arrived in Khartoum on 8 April for a two-week placement with an NGO that provides emergency health services.

She spent yesterday sheltering in accommodation provided by the NGO as gunfire raged outside and jets flew overhead.

She is worried about how and when she will return to the UK.

Image source, Laura Goddard

The two sides in the conflict in Sudan have agreed to a temporary ceasefire so that "urgent humanitarian cases" can be brought to safety.

Representatives from the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces have agreed to the proposal by the United Nations to pause fighting between 16:00 and 19:00 local time (14:00 and 17:00 GMT) on Sunday.

General Burhan of the Sudanese Armed Forces and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo of the Rapid Support Forces supported the proposal.

While welcoming the agreement, UN representative in Sudan Volker Perthes said they will be held accountable to honour it.

BBC Monitoring's Beverly Ochieng in Nairobi says both sides are making competing claims about areas that they have seized and it has been frustrating getting a true picture of what is happening on the ground.

State TV has just been playing music, peace music, unity music and messages, she says.

Most of the Sudanese media is only posting material on social media, and that's been the biggest source of news coming out of Sudan, she adds.

Image source, Getty Images

The notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been at the centre of this dispute, which is over the move towards civlian rule.

Headed by Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo - in effect the country's deputy leader - it has been accused of human rights abuses. These include the June 2019 killing of at least 120 protesters at a sit-in demonstration at Army headquarters.

The RSF was formed in 2013 predominantly with fighters from the notorious Janjaweed militia that brutally fought off rebels in Darfur.

In 2015, some 40,000 of its members joined the Saudi-led military intervention in the war in Yemen.

RSF fighters have also been sent to Libya.

In order to facilitate a proposed transition to civilian rule, there was a plan to start integrating the RSF into the army.

But a dispute between Gen Dagolo and the head of the Army, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, over the timetable for the change and who would head the new integrated force has held things up.

Those tensions spilled over into the fighting which broke out on Saturday.

Image source, Getty Images

Cindy McCain, executive director of the UN's World Food Programme, says she is "appalled and heartbroken" by the killing of three employees in Sudan's Darfur region.

In a statement, she says two other WFP employees were injured in the same incident.

"We have informed the families of these dedicated team members and stand with them and our entire WFP family at this time of catastrophe," she says.

"Any loss of life in humanitarian service is unacceptable and I demand immediate steps to guarantee the safety of those who remain."

Image source, Getty Images

Earlier, we heard from Khartoum resident Kholood Khair. She tells the BBC that people have been injured or killed in their homes and says she fears the civilian death toll will continue to rise.

"All civilians have been urged to stay at home, but that has not kept everyone safe," she tells the BBC's Newshour programme.

She continues: "And of course last night, the Sudan armed forces released a statement saying that it will be doing a sweep of neighbourhoods for RSF troops and, of course, because RSF troops have embedded themselves in densely populated neighbourhoods, it will of course have an element of indiscriminate killing to them."

Image source, Universal Images Group/Getty Images

As we've been reporting, violence in Sudan has not just been confined to the capital. Clashes between the RSF paramilitary group and the Sudanese army have also broken out in other towns and cities.

Fighting in the north-eastern city of Port Sudan, however, appears to have ended.

Othman Abu Bakr, an engineer and resident of the city, has told the BBC that "life was normal in the city" on Saturday until around 22:00 (20:00 GMT), when he heard clashes had erupted in some areas.

He and his family gathered in one room as fighting broke out at around 02:00.

"At around 06:30, I woke up to the sound of fighter jets hovering above my neighbourhood.

"Seeing the planes in the sky, the RSF started targeting them with anti-aircraft missiles. The land was shaking... literally.

"Again my whole family gathered in one room. We were really scared. But at around 8.30 this morning we could no longer hear [sounds] of fighting and it seemed the army had managed to gain control of the RSF’s two bases in the city. It seemed they eventually surrendered. There were no reports of casualties.

We can bring you more on this now as the World Food Programme has just announced it is temporarily halting all operations in Sudan.

In a statement, the WFP says it is "horrified" by the news of the death of three of its employees.

"Our deepest condolences are with their families and we call on all sides in Sudan to respect the neutrality of humanitarian workers in Sudan whose role it is to assist all sides in this crisis," the statement reads.

"WFP has been forced to temporarily halt its operations while we review the security situation.

"The ongoing violence has a severe impact on our work and on the people that we serve.

The WFP added in its statement that one of its aircraft had been damaged at Khartoum International Airport during an exchange of gunfire on Saturday, which it says impacted its ability to move staff and provide assistance to people across the country.

The United Nations has condemned the killing of three World Food Programme (WFP) employees during fighting in Sudan, saying the three died while carrying out their duties.

The three WFP workers died on Saturday after Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries and the armed forces exchanged fire at a military base in Kabkabiya in the west of the country.

"Civilians and humanitarian workers are not a target," said Volker Perthes, the UN's special representative in Sudan.

"I also am extremely appalled by reports of projectiles hitting UN and other humanitarian premises, as well as reports of looting of UN and other humanitarian premises in several locations in Darfur," he added.

Michael Sheils McNamee
Live reporter

Image source, Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

We have more about Katharina von Schroeder and her situation: she says from inside the school, the sound of bombing is "almost continuous".

"The fighting is spread throughout the city and that makes it it unpredictable," she says.

"Explosives shouldn’t be used within residential areas according to any human rights standards, and I think that is quite scary for children and adults."

She tells me the situation for children in Sudan is already dire, and the current fighting is likely to have a further "dramatic" impact on it.

Of the children who are also sheltering at the school, she says they understand what is happening.

“They are also starting to get worried. Particularly after we found the bullets on the tennis court," she says.

"The fear is there as well for the children of some of my colleagues, who have said their children have been really scared by the sounds."

Michael Sheils McNamee
Live reporter

Some more now about the situation on the ground in the capital, Khartoum.

In the past hour, I have been speaking to Katharina von Schroeder, a spokeswoman for charity Save the Children who lives in the country with her eight-year-old son.

On Saturday, they had been both going to play tennis at a school with a number of other parents when the fighting broke out - and they have been stuck in the building since.

"The school was pretty much empty because it’s a weekend. When we got here, we heard really loud explosions and gunfire and we decided to just stay put," she says.

“On the tennis court here at the international school, we found two stray bullets, and we could hear the fighter jets going up. We went to the basement at that moment after we found those bullets.

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Tentative diplomatic efforts to address the conflict in Sudan are starting to emerge.

The African Union's peace and security council has tweeted, external that it is convening an emergency session to discuss the crisis.

The Arab League is also holding an urgent meeting to discuss the situation, following a request by Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

At the same time, the Egyptian presidency has said that Egypt and South Sudan have offered to mediate between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

A statement said Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his South Sudan counterpart, Salva Kiir, had spoken by phone.

The two leaders called on both sides in the power struggle to "choose the voice of reason [and] peaceful dialogue", the statement added.

Image source, Getty Images

The fighting that has erupted in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country is a direct result of a vicious power struggle within Sudan's military leadership.

Since a coup in October 2021, the country has been run by a council of generals - and there are two military men at the centre of the dispute.

You can read more about their rivalry in our really simple guide to the current fighting.

As fighting continues to rage across Sudan, both sides have made sweeping but unverified claims about the amount of territory they control.

The Sudanese army says it has taken hold of strategic bases belonging to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Port Sudan, Kasala, Kadaref, Demazin and Kosti.

For its part, the RSF is claiming to control 90% of the capital, Khartoum, with only the remaining 10% in the hands of the military.

It also says that it holds sway over several strategic sites in Omdurman and Darfur, as well as Merowe Airport in the north.

Reports from Merowe say calm has returned to the city, while Sudanese army vehicles have been seen in the streets.

Image source, Getty Images

A power struggle between Sudan's army and a paramilitary group erupted in Khartoum.

At this stage, there are differing accounts coming out of Sudan about which forces are in control and much that cannot be independently unverified.

In a statement on Sunday, the Sudanese army claimed "the hour of victory is near".

"We pray for mercy for the innocent lives taken by this reckless adventure taken by the rebel Rapid Support militia... We will have good news for our patient and proud people soon, God willing," the statement said.

Both the military and the RSF have claimed they control Khartoum's international airport and other key installations where fighting raged overnight.

We've heard from another eyewitness in Khartoum, Hamid Khalafallah, a researcher and policy analyst at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.

He says the Sudanese forces appeared to be bombing targets within the city:

"We woke up to sounds of very heavy gunfire and bombings, in some cases even louder than yesterday.

"Just about 20 minutes ago, there were sounds of jet fighters flying over our neighbourhoods and possibly throwing bombs at different areas around us.

"Basically, the Sudanese armed forces are trying to target locations where the Rapid Support Forces' militia are located."

Sudanese doctors have renewed an appeal for medical aid and international intervention to stop the fighting in the country.

In a post on Facebook, the Sudanese Medical Association appealed for "aid and medical supplies to all hospitals and health facilities in Khartoum and the areas of clashes in the various states".

It also called on the international community, human rights and diplomatic organisations to put pressure on both sides of the conflict to stop the fighting and provide safe passages for civilians.

It added the safe passage of ambulances and medical personnel should be allowed, and the necessary security for health facilities and hospitals provided.

Nada Wanni, a researcher who lives in Khartoum who we spoke to on Saturday, sent this voice message to the BBC describing the situation in the city on Sunday morning:

"So since dawn, the situation got much worse and neighbourhoods around the airport and other areas in Khartoum and of course Darfur, Port Sudan and other regions have been witnessing unbelievable shelling, sounds of explosions, bombing, heavy artillery.

"Most of us can’t recognise the exact weapons they use. The army and the RSF are trying to control the various key strategic areas within the capital.