Saudi Arabia announced on Wednesday that an armed group had stormed and vandalized its cultural attaché in Sudan, while Riyadh is organizing evacuations of civilians from this country and is leading efforts to stop the ongoing battles between the army and the Rapid Support Forces.

Saudi Arabia is trying to play a mediating role to stop the escalation of the conflict that has been going on for nearly three weeks between the army, led by Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, led by his deputy, Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo, known as "Hemedti."

The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement reported by the official news agency (SPA) that "the building of the Saudi Cultural Attaché in the Republic of Sudan was stormed yesterday, Tuesday morning, by an armed group that destroyed equipment and cameras and seized some of the attaché's property, and disrupted the attaché's systems and servers."

The ministry did not mention any injuries as a result of the raid.

The Kingdom condemned "in the strongest terms the storming of the Cultural Attaché building in Khartoum," calling for "respecting the sanctity of diplomatic missions and punishing the perpetrators."

It also renewed its call to "stop the military escalation between the conflicting parties, end the violence, and provide the necessary protection for diplomats, residents, and Sudanese civilians."

Saudi Arabia is part of the international quartet for Sudan, which includes the United Arab Emirates, Britain and the United States.

During the past few days, the Saudi Foreign Minister made contacts with Al-Burhan and Daglo to discuss ways to stop the escalation of the conflict.

The Kingdom is leading extensive efforts to evacuate civilians from the port of Port Sudan to the port of Jeddah, which gave it a central role in the crisis. As of Tuesday evening, Saudi Arabia had evacuated more than 5,600 civilians, the vast majority of them foreigners, from 102 countries on six continents.

On Wednesday, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation will hold an emergency meeting at its headquarters in Jeddah at the level of its executive committee to discuss developments in the situation in Sudan, at the invitation of Saudi Arabia, the current chairman of the Islamic Summit.

The battles in Khartoum and other regions, especially Darfur (west), resulted in more than 500 dead and 5,000 wounded, according to official statements that are believed to be much less than the reality.

The ongoing battles in Sudan have forced more than 334,000 people to flee inside the country, and more than 100,000 others to seek refuge in neighboring countries, according to a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration in Geneva on Tuesday.