SA nationals evacuated from Khartoum

JOHANNESBURG - Efforts are underway to evacuate South Africans and other foreign nationals caught in the conflict in Sudan.

NGO Gift of the Givers says the mission has been made difficult by poor communications with phone lines being interrupted.

READ: Sudan's warring rivals agree on 72-hour ceasefire

The humanitarian organisation says a big challenge faced by those escaping the war-torn country is that many of them do not have their passports or visas, which makes it harder for them to enter other countries.  

"Thirty-eight South Africans and seven Angolans went on two buses that Gift of the Givers arranged, but DIRCO paid for and these 45 civilians are close to the Egyptian border now," said the organisation's Imtiaz Sooliman.

READ: 'Difficult days': Evacuees recount risky escape from Sudan

"The challenge again is how they gonna get through without papers, without passports and visas."

Meanwhile, Britain on Tuesday said it had launched "a large-scale evacuation" of its citizens trapped in Sudan, where 10 days of urban combat have led to hundreds of deaths.

It comes hours after a US-brokered 72-hour ceasefire between Sudan's warring generals officially came into effect, and following criticism in the UK that the government had abandoned British citizens there.

- Additional reporting AFP