US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken confirmed Thursday that his country is "working hard" with the parties to the conflict in Sudan to extend the armistice, which ends at the end of the day.

Blinken said, "We are working hard to extend the ceasefire" between the army led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces led by Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hamidti, indicating that he expects to say more "in the coming hours."

At the beginning of the week, Blinken announced the agreement on a 72-hour armistice, which came into force at midnight Monday-Tuesday local time (22:00 GMT), and its effects expire at midnight tonight.

Despite this, the two sides largely ignored this agreement, and continued the battles that began on April 15, especially in Khartoum and the Darfur region in the west of the country.

"We had a 72-hour ceasefire that was not ideal, as is the case with most ceasefire agreements, but despite that it reduced the level of violence. This naturally provided somewhat better conditions for the people in Sudan," Blinken added.

The relative decline in the level of clashes during the past few days has enabled the organization of large-scale evacuations of foreign nationals and diplomatic missions, by land, sea and air.

Blinken indicated that the United States is also working on defining a more regular route for the departure of foreigners.