All Rami Badawi wants is to escape Sudan with his family, but there is a major hitch: his passport is locked inside the shuttered French embassy.
"My family refuses to travel outside the country without me," the 29-year-old Badawi said, but "my passport is trapped at the French embassy in Khartoum."
Badawi said he had handed over the passport on April 4 and was supposed to pick it up two weeks later, ahead of a planned trip to France to be trained in agricultural technology.
Ever since, he and his six family members have been sheltering at home, trying to weather the storm of deadly urban combat outside as food and other supplies have dwindled dangerously.
Most embassies have been shuttered since foreign governments rushed out diplomats and their families by road, air and sea in a mass exodus.
Another Sudanese, Iqbal Belah, 65, said she was eligible for a "family reunion" visa in Germany where her husband and son live.
But, "with the embassy closed and without my passport," she said she does not know whether she will ever be able to join them.
For now, she is focused on a more immediate escape plan - leaving her battle-torn neighborhood.
"We are a few meters away from the fighting," she told AFP. "My seven-year-old granddaughter trembles at every bombardment.
"Her father and I hold her tight and try to reassure her, but nothing helps, she never stops shaking."
There has been one known case where a foreign mission handed over passports to local staff - the Chinese embassy, which posted two numbers on Twitter and, when contacted, invited people to visit and retrieve their passports.
A Dutch government website said officials "are actively looking at how to support" Sudanese whose passports had to be left behind at the embassy, and urges them to email the foreign ministry.
The Dutch embassy, responding to a user on Twitter, said in a statement: "We deeply regret the current situation you're in. We were forced to close the embassy and evacuate our staff.
"Unfortunately, this means we can't get to your passport."
Many Sudanese government buildings have been targeted in the fighting, and Sudanese civil servants who had already been hiding out have been put on open-ended leave.
Even if people wished to venture out to try to apply for a new passport, this would be extremely dangerous.
"If you go outside, your life is threatened," said Badawi.
There has been one known case where a foreign mission handed over passports to local staff -- the Chinese embassy, which posted two numbers on Twitter and, when contacted, invited people to visit and retrieve their passports.
A Dutch government website said officials "are actively looking at how to support" Sudanese whose passports had to be left behind at the embassy, and urges them to email the foreign ministry.
The Dutch embassy, responding to a user on Twitter, said in a statement: "We were forced to close the embassy and evacuate our staff. Unfortunately, this means we can't get to your passport."
Emma DiNapoli, a U.K-based lawyer specialised in international humanitarian law, said that "what is striking is that the governments involved have not yet taken any action".
"Governments could be liable," said DiNapoli, stressing that international humanitarian law "guarantees freedom of movement."