Western nations escalate plans to evacuate diplomats from Sudan

US pulls out 70 embassy workers as battles rage in Khartoum and twin city of Omdurman

Western nations intensified increasingly desperate efforts to evacuate diplomats and their dependents from Khartoum on Sunday, as battles raged in the centre of the Sudanese capital and in its twin city of Omdurman.

The US has already evacuated embassy staff and families from Khartoum, sending chinook helicopters carrying special forces on Saturday night to evacuate about 70 Americans from a landing zone at the embassy to an undisclosed location in Ethiopia, according to US officials.