CAIRO (AP) — Sudanese and foreigners streamed out of the capital of Khartoum and other battle zones as fighting Tuesday shook a new three-day truce brokered by the United States and Saudi Arabia, the latest attempt to pull Africa’s third-largest nation back from the abyss.

So far, a series of short cease-fires the past week have either failed outright or brought only intermittent lulls in the fighting that has raged between the forces of the country’s two top generals since April 15. The lulls have been enough for dramatic evacuations of hundreds of foreigners by air and land, which continued Tuesday.

But they have not been enough to bring relief to millions of Sudanese caught in the crossfire, struggling to find food, shelter and medical care as explosions and gunfire rip through their neighborhoods. Calls for negotiations to end the crisis have been ignored, and for many Sudanese, the departure of diplomats, aid workers and other foreigners and closure of embassies is a terrifying sign that international powers expect the mayhem to only worsen.

Thousands of Sudanese have been fleeing Khartoum and its neighbouring city of Omdurman, fearing that the rival camps will escalate their all-out battle for power once evacuations are completed.

In Khartoum, bus stations were packed Tuesday morning with people who had spent the night there in hopes of getting on a departing bus. Drivers increased prices, sometimes tenfold, for routes to the border crossing with Egypt or the eastern Red Sea city of Port Sudan. Fuel prices have skyrocketed, to $67 a gallon from from $4.2, and prices for food and water have doubled in many cases, the Norwegian Refugee Council said.

Late Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that he had helped broker a new 72-hour cease-fire. The truce was to last until late Thursday night, extending a nominal three-day truce over the weekend for the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday.

The Sudanese military, commanded by General Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the rival Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group led by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, said Tuesday they would observe the cease-fire. In separate announcements, they said Saudi Arabia played a role in the negotiations.

“This cease-fire aims to establish humanitarian corridors, allowing citizens and residents to access essential resources, healthcare, and safe zones, while also evacuating diplomatic missions,” the RSF said in a statement.

The army announcement used similar language, adding that it will abide by the truce “on the condition that the rebels commit to stopping all hostilities.”

But fighting continued, including in Omdurman, a city across the Nile River from Khartoum. Omdurman resident Amin Ishaq said there were clashes early Tuesday around the state television headquarters and around military bases just outside Omdurman.

“They stop only when they run out of ammunition,” he said.

“Sounds of gunfire, explosions and flying warplanes are still heard across Khartoum,” said Atiya Abdalla Atiya, a senior figure in the Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate, a group that monitors casualties. “They don’t respect cease-fires.”

Clashes escalated in West Darfur province Tuesday, residents said. Armed groups, wearing RSF uniforms, attacked serval areas in Genena, the provincial capital, burning, and looting properties and camps for displaced people.

More than 420 people, including at least 291 civilians, have been killed and over 3,700 wounded since the fighting began. Electricity and internet are cut off in much of the country, and hospitals are near collapse. Even before April 15, one-third of Sudan’s population of 46 million relied on humanitarian assistance. Most of those providing aid have suspended operations.