Pope Francis on Sunday appealed to the Sudanese army and the powerful paramilitary forces battling for control of the capital to immediately end the hostilities and resume talks.

Intense fighting between the army and Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group has been raging for more than a week in Khartoum and claimed hundreds of lives and injured thousands.

Speaking in Saint Peter Square in the Vatican, Francis urged de-facto leader General Abdel-Fattah Burhan and his rival General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo to enter dialogue to end the bloody conflict.

“Yesterday, it was the World Earth Day, I wish that the efforts to take care of the Creation would always be joined by an effective solidarity to poorer nations,” he told a Sunday mass.

“Unfortunately, the situation in Sudan remains grave, thus, I am renewing my appeal so that violence ceases as soon as possible and that the path of dialogue resumes. I invite you all to pray for our Sudanese brothers and sisters.”

Foreign embassies evacuated

On the weekend, foreign governments rushed to evacuate their embassies and by landing planes and organizing convoys as the streets battles enter the second week.

Al Jazeera reports the US special forces helicopters from its base in Djibouti landed in Khartoum to evacuate nearly 100 people mainly diplomats and their families.

United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Twitter on Sunday that members of his country’s armed forces had completed a “complex and rapid evacuation of British diplomats and their families from Sudan”.

According to the World Health Organization, over 420 people have been killed and 3,700 injured, mainly in Khartoum and Darfur.

Thousands flee into South Sudan

South Sudan authorities in areas bordering Sudan are reporting an influx of South Sudanese and foreign nationals fleeing the fighting in the northern neighborhood.

The boundary separating South Sudan from Sudan extends for approximately 1,240 miles from the Central African Republic in the west to Ethiopia in the east.

In Renk County of Upper Nile, the Commissioner said more than 9,000 South Sudanese returnees including refugees from the region arrived in the area over the weekend.

According to Kak Padiet, about 6,000 people mainly women and children arrived on Saturday and 3,000 on Sunday.

“Most of the returnees are women and children, and we are suffering from bad humanitarian conditions. We transfer the returnees and settle them at Upper Nile University,” Padiet told Eye Radio.

He added: “This crisis and these numbers are greater than the capacity of the county and even the state.”

Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Aweil East County in Northern Bahr el Ghazal reported that dozens of South Sudanese arrived in the area on Sunday.

“Yesterday (Sunday), one truck arrived at Majok with some civilians and the track may carry between 20 to 30 people, nothing so far except that we are closely monitoring the border to see whether some returnees are coming and what we can do them,” he said.

According to the International Organization for Immigration, Sudan houses 800,000 South Sudanese refugees – out of whom only 300,000 are registered.