Andre Rhoden-Paul
Live reporter

That's all for now from myself, our team in London, and the BBC's correspondents in Nairobi, Jeddah and Larnaca.

Stay on our website for the latest developments.

• Read more on today's intervention from Sudan's former prime minister

• Click here for an explainer on why there is fighting in Sudan

• Read the BBC's interview with one of the warring generals

• And watch the moment a father sees his daughter for the first time after his family were evacuated from Sudan

Today's page was edited by James FitzGerald and Nathan Williams, and was written by Natasha Booty and me. Thanks for joining us.

Image source, Reuters

Despite pressure to maintain another 72-hour ceasefire, fighting has entered a third week in Sudan.

Here's a look at what's been happening today:

• Violence grinds on: The truce appears to have broken down in Khartoum - where more air, tank and artillery strikes have been reported. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) say they have come under renewed fire from their enemy, the regular Sudanese army
• Humanitarian crisis: There remains a shortage food, water and fuel in Khartoum, where millions of people are trapped
• Insecurity fears: The former Sudanese prime minister has warned of dire consequences for the wider region - and a "nightmare for the world" if the fighting is not stopped
• British evacuation flights: A deadline given by the UK for Britons to reach an airstrip north of Khartoum for evacuation has expired. More than 1,650 people have now been evacuated from the capital. Meanwhile, at Red Sea coastal city Port Sudan, the UK has set up an office to help British nationals trying to leave the country. A Foreign Office minister has described the rescue effort as "extremely successful"
• NHS: On Friday evening, doctors working for the UK's health service were told they could be airlifted out of Sudan, which represented a U-turn by the UK government, as they'd initially been refused

Paul Adams
BBC diplomatic correspondent, reporting from Nairobi

More from our correspondent's interview with Foreign Office Minister Andrew Mitchell.

Asked about the case of the NHS doctors initially preventedfrom boarding flights, Mitchell said the government had reached “the right decision” to evacuate them.

Mitchell said he was “incredibly concerned” about what would happen in Sudan once all foreigners had left. The African Union is convening a meeting in Addis Ababa next week to discuss the issue, and the UN (where Britain “holds the pen” on the Sudan issue) is also heavily engaged.

“The whole of the international system is looking at ways of stopping this fighting,” he said, “which, after all, is two generals slugging it out for power.”

The international community, he said, was determined to secure a ceasefire, so that Sudan could go back to where it was on 11 April, “with good negotiations, opening up the political space for a civilian administration.”

“Unless there is a permanent ceasefire,” he said, “the position for millions of people in Sudan, and in the surrounding countries... is incredibly serious.”

Paul Adams
BBC diplomatic correspondent, reporting from Nairobi

UK Foreign Office Minister Andrew Mitchell has told the BBC that the operation to evacuate British and other nationals from Khartoum has been “extremely successful.”

Speaking in Nairobi, Mitchell said it was right that the evacuation flights were ending. “I don’t think there’s a single Brit in Khartoum who won’t know about the evacuation and the flow of people who’ve been coming to the airport indicate that that is correct,” he said.

He said the situation at the Wadi Saedna airfield was “extremely dangerous”, and cited the example of the Turkish aircraft that was shot at yesterday.

“We can’t stay there forever in such dangerous circumstances,” he said, adding that the UK government was “looking at every single option to help British citizens who are caught up in this terrible crisis.”

And here's another uplifting story to emerge from a very grim situation. Watch the moment a father meets his baby for the first time, after his family was able to join him in the UK from Sudan.

Muammar Ali was also joined by his son and wife after they, too, left the conflict-hit nation.

"No words can describe this moment", he told the BBC.

BBC journalist Mo Hashim has described the moment he happened to spot a relative among a crowd of evacuees who reached Saudi Arabia today.

He told his colleague Andrew Harding it was "overwhelming" and a relief to see his mother's cousin reach Jeddah after a tough journey from Sudan.

Watch the video below to see him describe the emotional moment.

Image source, EPA

Sudan's former prime minister has warned that the insecurity in his country could become worse than that in Syria and Libya if fighting is not stopped.

Abdalla Hamdok has called on the international community to persuade the Sudanese army chief and the head of the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to hold peace talks.

Speaking at a summit in Kenya, he said if there was no peace settlement, the ramifications could affect the entire region as well as the rest of the world.

Hamdok added: "Sudan is the largest country in that area, bordering seven countries. God forbid if Sudan is to reach a point of civil war proper."

Hamdok was prime minister of Sudan from November 2019 to January 2022. He resigned after mass protests against a deal he made to share power with the army - who staged a coup in October 2021.

Image source, Fadi Atabani/BBC

A family trying to flee Sudan has told the BBC they are among thousands stuck at the border with Egypt because drivers are demanding $40,000 (£31,810) to take them across.

Currently only people on buses with special permits can travel over the border, and crossing by foot is banned.

Fabi Atabani and his six family members, who escaped the fighting in Khartoum two days ago, is now at the border town of Wadi Hafi where he says thousands of people are waiting.

He accuses local bus drivers of taking advantage of the desperate situation travellers find themselves in.

"On a normal day the cost of hiring a bus is $3,000. As of today people are paying $40,000 to charter a bus to the border – [a journey of] only 30km," he said.

Atabani said most of the family has UK citizenship and he is appealing for the British government to assist him in evacuating them or organising a bus across the border.

• You can read more on the story here

Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent, reporting from Jeddah

Image source, Reuters

They disembarked to be greeted with stems of flowers - or, if needed, wheelchairs and ambulances. A corridor created by Saudi forces in red berets ensured an orderly arrival in the King Faisal Naval Base for this largest evacuation to date from the grievous war in Sudan.

Each one of the passengers - some 2,000 of them, from some 80 nationalities - had a terrible story to tell of the fighting they fled.

“We couldn’t even sit on our balcony; the gunfire was everywhere,” recalled Nazli, a 32 year-old Iranian civil engineer who fled with her fellow engineer husband.

They’ve arrived in a country which until recently, was Iran’s avowed enemy. A recent Iranian-Saudi rapprochement meant Iranian diplomats were waiting on the wharf with others diplomats waving many different flags. "Maybe this can bring a moment of peace," Nazli remarked with a smile.

"Please please help our family in Sudan," cried Rasha, a Sudanese-American mother of four children - who spoke of hiding for three days, terrified. "I call on the world to protect Sudan," she pleaded, underlining fears that once all the foreign nationals have fled, the fighting will intensify.

As soon as that boat - a civilian vessel chartered by the Saudi military - completed its mission, another evacuation boat, a Saudi warship, pulled up anchor to cross the Red Sea to Port Sudan, with us on board, in a journey of many hours.

Around 2,000 people have arrived in Saudi Arabia's coastal city of Jeddah, after being evacuated amid chaotic scenes from Port Sudan in eastern Sudan.

Earlier a Chinese military ship with nearly 500 Chinese and Pakistani nationals also made the 12-hour sea crossing.

People from more than 70 countries are now reported to have reached Jeddah from Port Sudan.

Most are expected to be flown home via charter flights arranged by their governments within the next few days.

Image source, Getty Images

We've just seen new pictures from the city of El Geneina, where violence is reported to have been particularly bad.

The city in the region of Darfur in western Sudan is said to have suffered looting, and the torching of markets, aid warehouses and banks due to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and militias linked to the paramilitary group.

Pictures taken today acquired by the Getty photo agency show people walking among scattered objects in the city's market.

Yesterday, the UN warned it was extremely worried about food supplies and the deteriorating situation across all of Darfur.

Image source, Reuters

People continue to flee the conflict by land, air and sea. But there's no food, water or accommodation for the thousands of people who've crossed the border into Chad, according to Aleksandra Roulet-Cimpric of the International Rescue Committee (IRC):

Speaking to BBC News, she says it's important to resettle the refugees "as soon as possible", before the rainy season makes access roads impassable.

The UK has established a diplomatic presence in Port Sudan, with an office at the coastal city's Coral Hotel.

The updated Foreign Office travel guidance, external for Sudan says British nationals trying to leave the country can present themselves there to have options signposted to them.

As we've been reporting, a deadline passed earlier today for Britons to present themselves at an airfield near Khartoum to catch flights out of Sudan later on.

Image source, Getty Images

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has accused its enemy - the regular Sudanese military - of several airstrikes on its bases in various parts of Khartoum, despite a ceasefire.

The RSF said these targeted residential areas of the capital.

In a statement issued last night, seen by BBC Monitoring, the group claimed it controlled the majority of Khartoum. We've not been able to verify this.

Some of the latest clashes between the army and RSF have been happening around the army headquarters and the Republican Palace in Khartoum - and some parts of the Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman.

However, other parts of Khartoum and Khartoum Bahri, to the north, remain largely calm.

The rival factions officially agreed to extend a ceasefire for another 72 hours on Thursday night.

Caroline Hawley
Diplomatic correspondent reporting from Larnaca, Cyprus

Image source, Reuters

More than 1,650 people have now been evacuated from Khartoum and more than 1,000 have been flown on to the UK.

The operation here in Cyprus will continue until tomorrow afternoon.

Sources at Larnaca Airport have told me that several RAF flights are due in here from Khartoum this afternoon and into the early hours of tomorrow morning.

The evacuees will then be put on flights back to the UK.

Image source, Reuters

As our previous post shows, Sudan's capital city attracts university students from across Africa, Asia and beyond. One of the biggest student contingents is from Nigeria.

But many Nigerians say they're still waiting to be rescued from Khartoum, despite seeing their friends from other nations being safely removed.

"There is no presence of the embassy of Nigeria at the International University of Africa. There is no communication. There are only Nigerian students [left there] right now," Abubakar Sadiq Ibrahim told the Reuters news agency.

Other Nigerian students have made similar complaints to the BBC. Nigeria has asked for a safe corridor to evacuate 5,500 citizens, most of them students, Reuters reports.

The fighting broke out when Ibrahim was just two weeks away from completing his degree.

"It's a very sad and unpleasant experience," he said. He cited inflation, food shortages, and walks of 3km [1.8 miles] to buy supplies. "All the shops are closed. There is no movement, there is nothing."

Natasha Booty
BBC News

A student has told the BBC of her relief at being airlifted from Sudan.

"The Chadian embassy helped us and now we are on a plane. I am very happy to come back to my beloved country, Chad," says Ikhbar.

She says dozens of other Chadians are on board the flight, and although she is leaving her university studies behind in Khartoum, she's grateful to have found safety.

"It feels very different, thank God."

More than 220 people have so far been repatriated to Chad, says French-language broadcaster RFI, and the Chadian government is urging others still in Sudan to report to its consulate and register themselves for a return flight.

Chad neighbours the Darfur region in western Sudan, which has seen some of the worst violence since the fighting began.

A UN official told the BBC Newsday programme that as many as 250,000 Sudanese could end up seeking refuge in Chad, despite the country's own security problems and its already struggling humanitarian response to Sudan's crisis.

Andrew Harding
Africa correspondent, reporting from Jeddah

We are on a Saudi warship at naval base here in Jeddah on the Red Sea coast.

And we're about to set off on a rescue mission - the second this ship has made in the past few days.

We're heading about 190 miles (300km) across the Red Sea over to Sudan - to the key coastal city of Port Sudan.

That's where thousands of civilians from across the country have been gathering for the last few days fleeing the fighting. There's a range of nationalities.

And Saudi Arabia is keen to show it has been playing an absolutely essential role in the humanitarian rescue mission.

We understand they've already taken about 3,000 civilians - from more than 70 countries - from Sudan to Saudi Arabia.

James FitzGerald
Live reporter

It's past midday local time in Sudan. That means we've now passed a deadline given by the UK government for British nationals to reach an airbase near Khartoum to catch the final evacuation flights out of there.

So, let's now take the opportunity to take stock of what's going on.

• Khartoum bombardment: The Sudanese army continues to pound its enemy, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in the capital. Millions of civilians remain trapped there

• Shaky ceasefire: The latest hostilities are taking place under a supposed ceasefire - although a US official last night gave cause for optimism, saying attempts at a truce were creating "meaningful" opportunities for people to leave the capital Khartoum
• Peace prospects: There can be no negotiations until bombing stops, the RSF chief told the BBC yesterday
• Why this is going on: New to this story? The fighting started two weeks ago and spiralled out of a bitter tussle between two generals, itself sparked by years of political instability in Sudan. Read our explainer here

Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent, reporting from Jeddah

The Amanah is the latest boat to arrive at King Faisal Naval Base in Jeddah as part of a major evacuation effort.

It’s been a long, exhausting journey of at least 12 hours across the Red Sea from Port Sudan for all of its more than 2000 passengers of 80 nationalities - including Saudis and Iranians.

But it has been a passage to safety on this civilian vessel chartered by the Saudi military.

Passengers wave and smile from the upper decks. Waiting on the wharf below are diplomats waiting to receive their nationals alongside a long line of luxury buses and Saudi forces.

There are flowers of welcome but also wheelchairs and ambulances to receive the injured and the ill who fled this descent into war in Sudan.

Like all countries in this region, Saudi Arabia has longstanding interests and influence in Sudan but right now the world’s powers are coming together to speak with one voice - to urgently end the fighting.