Egypt on Thursday repatriated dozens of its military personnel who had been held by Sudan’s paramilitary force, which is locked in a deadly struggle with the Sudanese army to control the strategic African country.

The latest attempt at a cease-fire between the rival Sudanese forces faltered as gunfire rattled the capital of Khartoum. As global pressure to stop the violence failed, Japan and the Netherlands flew transport planes closer to the conflict-battered nation ahead of a possible evacuation of their citizens.