Jeddah: On Thursday, diplomatic efforts to maintain the tenuous ceasefire in Sudan grew more intense as fresh fighting broke out in the war-torn Darfur region.

Genena, a city in Darfur, was overrun by armed fighters who fired at each other and looted stores and homes. Locals claimed that the fighting had drawn in tribal militias and tapped into long-standing animosities between the Arab and African communities in the area.

Rapid Support Forces paramilitary fighters attacked neighbourhoods all over Genena, displacing residents. Tribal fighters joined the battles, which caused the violence to escalate. The attacks are coming from all sides, said Genena resident Amany. "Everyone is running."

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With a mixture of RSF and tribal militias—some allies of the RSF, some adversaries—running riot, it was frequently unclear who was fighting whom. According to Dr. Salah Tour of the Doctors' Syndicate in West Darfur, the military had largely withdrew to its barracks and the locals were arming themselves to defend themselves.

Streets were filled with fighters, some riding motorcycles, looting and destroying homes, businesses, and offices. Political activist in West Darfur Adam Haroun described the conflict as "a scorched earth war." The city is deteriorating.

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For the first time since the military and the RSF started fighting on April 15, which turned residential neighbourhoods into battlegrounds, the ceasefire has brought a significant easing of fighting in the capital Khartoum and its neighbouring city Omdurman.

Foreign governments have been able to evacuate thousands of people due to the relative calm. Nearly 3,000 refugees have been saved by Saudi Arabia alone via air and sea.

A campaign in East Africa pushed for a three-day extension of the ceasefire. General Abdel Fattah Burhan, the head of the military, declared that he had accepted the proposal, but his rival, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, remained silent.

Thousands of people, mostly Sudanese, have been gathered at the border waiting to enter Egypt from the north. There is no food, water, or electricity at the International University of Africa in Khartoum, where thousands of students are waiting to leave. "Gunshots can be heard almost everywhere even as we sit here. 

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Umar Yusuf Yaru, a 24-year-old Nigerian law student, said, "We are not safe here. Since the fighting started, at least 512 civilians and combatants have died, and 4,200 more have been hurt.