CAIRO/DUBAI (Reuters) -Sudan's&nbsp;warring factions&nbsp;signed an agreement late on Saturday&nbsp;for a&nbsp;seven-day&nbsp;ceasefire&nbsp;as fighting that has plunged the country into chaos&nbsp;and&nbsp;displaced more than a million entered its sixth week.
The&nbsp;ceasefire&nbsp;will take effect at 9:45 p.m. Khartoum time (1945 GMT) on Monday, the sponsors of the talks, the United States&nbsp;and&nbsp;Saudi Arabia, said in a joint statement.
Numerous previous&nbsp;ceasefire&nbsp;agreements were violated. However, this agreement will be enforced by a U.S.-Saudi&nbsp;and&nbsp;international-supported monitoring mechanism, the statement said without providing details.
The agreement also calls for distributing humanitarian assistance, restoring essential services&nbsp;and&nbsp;withdrawing forces from hospitals&nbsp;and&nbsp;essential public facilities.
"It is past time to silence the guns&nbsp;and&nbsp;allow unhindered humanitarian access. I implore both sides to uphold this agreement &mdash; the eyes of the world are watching," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
The fighting between&nbsp;Sudan's&nbsp;army&nbsp;and&nbsp;the&nbsp;paramilitary&nbsp;Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has led to a collapse of order. Stocks of food, cash&nbsp;and&nbsp;essentials are rapidly dwindling,&nbsp;and&nbsp;mass looting has hit banks, embassies, aid warehouses&nbsp;and&nbsp;even churches.
Aid groups have said they are unable to provide sufficient assistance in Khartoum, the capital, in the absence of safe passage&nbsp;and&nbsp;security guarantees for staff.
AIR STRIKES
Air strikes were reported on Saturday&nbsp;by eyewitnesses in southern Omdurman&nbsp;and&nbsp;northern Bahri, the two cities that lie across the Nile from Khartoum, forming&nbsp;Sudan's&nbsp;"triple capital". Some of the strikes took place near the state broadcaster in Omdurman, the eyewitnesses said.
"We faced heavy artillery fire early this morning, the whole house was shaking," Sanaa Hassan, a 33-year-old living in the al-Salha neighbourhood of Omdurman, told Reuters by phone.
"It was terrifying, everyone was lying under their beds. What's happening is a nightmare," she said.
The&nbsp;RSF&nbsp;is embedded in residential districts, drawing almost continual air strikes by the regular armed forces.
Eyewitnesses in Khartoum said that the situation was relatively calm, although sporadic gunshots could be heard.
The conflict, which began on April 15, has displaced almost 1.1 million people internally&nbsp;and&nbsp;into neighbouring countries. Some 705 people have been killed&nbsp;and&nbsp;at least 5,287 injured, according to the World Health Organization.
In recent&nbsp;days ground fighting has flared once again in the Darfur region, in the cities of Nyala&nbsp;and&nbsp;Zalenjei.
Both sides blamed each other in statements late on Friday&nbsp;for sparking the fighting in Nyala, one of the country's largest cities, which had for weeks been relatively calm due to a locally brokered truce.
A local activist told Reuters there were sporadic gun clashes near the city's main market close to&nbsp;army&nbsp;headquarters on Saturday&nbsp;morning. Almost 30 people have died in the two previous&nbsp;days of fighting, according to activists.
The war broke out in Khartoum after disputes over plans for the&nbsp;RSF&nbsp;to be integrated into the&nbsp;army&nbsp;under an internationally backed deal to shift Sudan towards democracy following decades of conflict-ridden autocracy.
(Reporting by Nafisa Eltahir, Maggie Michael, Muhammad Al Gebaly; Moaz Abd-Alaziz&nbsp;and&nbsp;Adam Makary in Cairo; Khalid Abdelaziz in Dubai;&nbsp;and&nbsp;Patricia Zengerle in Washington; Writing by Nafisa Eltahir; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise&nbsp;and&nbsp;Cynthia Osterman)

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Sudan's army and paramilitary RSF sign seven-day ceasefire