Governments have evacuated diplomats and staff from Sudan as rival generals battled for a ninth day with no sign of a truce that had been declared for a major Muslim holiday.

While world powers like the UK and US airlifted their diplomats from the capital of Khartoum, Sudanese citizens have desperately sought to flee the chaos, many of them risking dangerous roads to cross the northern border into Egypt.

Prominent Sudanese filmmaker Amjad Abual-Ala wrote on Facebook: “My family – my mother, my siblings and my nephews – are on the road from Sudan to Cairo through Aswan.”

Fighting raged in Omdurman, a city across the Nile River from Khartoum, residents said, despite a hoped-for ceasefire to coincide with the three-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.

More than 420 people, including 264 civilians, have been killed and over 3,700 wounded in fighting between the Sudanese armed forces and the powerful paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The RSF said the armed forces unleashed air strikes on the upscale area of Kafouri, north of Khartoum. There was no immediate army comment.

The ongoing violence has affected operations at the main international airport, destroying civilian planes and damaging at least one runway, with thick, black smoke rising above it. Other airports have also been knocked out of operation.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell tweeted he had spoken with the rival commanders, urging an immediate ceasefire to protect civilians and the evacuation of EU citizens.

In other fighting, a senior military official said it repelled an RSF attack on Kober Prison in Khartoum where Sudan’s long-standing ruler, Omar al-Bashir, and former officials in his movement have been held since his 2019 removal.

The official said a number of prisoners fled but al-Bashir and other high-profile inmates were in a “highly secure” area, adding that “a few prisoners” were killed or wounded.

The RSF claimed the military removed Mr al-Bashir and other prisoners from the facility, although the statement could not be independently confirmed.

Sudan experienced a “near-total collapse” of internet and phone service on Sunday, according to the monitoring service NetBlocks.

After a week of battles that hindered rescues, US special forces swiftly evacuated 70 US Embassy staff from Khartoum to Ethiopia early on Sunday.

Although American officials said it was too dangerous for a government-coordinated evacuation of thousands of private citizens, other countries scrambled to remove their citizens as well as their diplomats.

France and Italy said they would accommodate all their citizens who want to leave, as well as those of other countries who could not otherwise join an evacuation operation.

French President Emmanuel Macron and his foreign minister were given security guarantees by both sides for the evacuation, officials said.

Two French flights took off on Sunday from Khartoum to Djibouti, carrying about 200 people from various countries, and more are planned for Monday.

Germany’s foreign ministry said a military plane carrying 101 German diplomatic staff, family members and citizens of partner countries who were evacuated from Sudan via Jordan has landed safely in Berlin.

“Further evacuation flights are planned as long as the security situation allows,” the ministry wrote on Twitter.

An Italian air force C-130 that left Khartoum with evacuees landed Sunday night at an air base in Djibouti, the defence ministry said. Another plane, carrying Italy’s ambassador and military personnel involved in the evacuation, was expected in Djibouti later in the night.

About 100 people were flown out of Khartoum by Spanish military aircraft – more than 30 Spaniards and the rest from Portugal, Italy, Poland, Ireland, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia and Argentina, the foreign ministry said.

Officials in Jordan said four planes landed at Amman military airport carrying 343 Jordanian evacuees from Port Sudan. Other flights from Sudan were organized by Greece and the Netherlands.

Overland travel through contested areas was possible but dangerous. Khartoum is about 520 miles from Port Sudan on the Red Sea.

On Saturday, Saudi Arabia said it evacuated 157 people, including 91 Saudi nationals and citizens of other countries. Saudi state TV showed a large convoy of cars and buses from Khartoum to Port Sudan, where a navy ship took them to the Saudi port of Jeddah.

Fighters attacked a US Embassy convoy last week, and stormed the home of the EU ambassador. Violence also wounded an Egyptian Embassy employee in Sudan, according to Egypt’s foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zaid.

The power struggle between the Sudanese military, led by Gen Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the RSF, led by Gen Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, has dealt a harsh blow to Sudan’s hopes for a democratic transition. The rival generals came to power after a pro-democracy uprising led to the removal of the former strongman, Mr al-Bashir. In 2021, the generals joined forces to seize power in a coup.

The current violence came after Gen Burhan and Gen Dagalo fell out over a recent internationally brokered deal with democracy activists that was meant to incorporate the RSF into the military and eventually lead to civilian rule.

Both generals, each craving international legitimacy, have accused the other of obstructing the evacuations.

The Sudanese military alleged the RSF opened fire on a French convoy, wounding a French national. The RSF countered that it came under attack by warplanes as French citizens and diplomats left the embassy for Omdurman, saying the military’s strikes “endangered the lives of French nationals”.