In Sudan, fighting continues between the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces despite a U.S.-brokered 72-hour ceasefire, with airstrikes reported in the capital Khartoum and deadly battles in Darfur. Residents and foreign nationals have become increasingly desperate to leave the most dangerous hot spots amid worsening shortages of food, water and medical care.

The White House said Wednesday a second U.S. citizen, a doctor, was killed in the conflict. While the U.S. successfully evacuated its diplomatic personnel soon after fighting broke out on April 15, an estimated 16,000 Americans, many of them dual citizens, still remained in Sudan this week, though it’s unclear how many of them wished to leave. Concern is growing that violence against Sudanese citizens will escalate after foreign nationals are evacuated.

Tens of thousands of people have fled Sudan to neighboring countries, including Chad, which already hosts more than half a million refugees. This is a Sudanese mother who is now at a refugee camp in Chad.

Deski Abdoulaye Bedim: “Armed men came to our compound and asked us to leave before we became collateral victims. Under threat, we left in a hurry on a donkey to come here. I got separated from my seven children, and I can’t find them. We have seen parents massacred by Arab militias, while they have done nothing. We are victims of gratuitous barbarism that we do not understand.”  Democracy Now