THE clash between the Sudanese army and paramilitaries has uprooted a staggering number of people, with more than 926,000 seeking refuge abroad and a total of 3.02 million internally displaced.
The UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, has warned that hunger and displacement due to the war are spiralling out of control. The total number of Sudanese people on the brink of famine is now over six million – and overall, more than 20 million people across Sudan are facing high levels of acute food insecurity as a result of conflict, economic decline and mass displacement.
The UN’s International Organisation for Migration has emphasised that the current estimate of displacements over the past 108 days surpasses the total recorded for the previous four years. But it also noted that access to many areas remains impossible because of the fighting, meaning that current assessments have been based on preliminary reports or estimates.
926,000 people have now sought refuge in neighbouring countries such as Egypt, Libya, Chad, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and Ethiopia. Sudanese nationals accounted for more than two-thirds of these arrivals, while foreign nationals and returnees made up the remaining third, IOM said.
To mark 100 days since the start of the conflict on 24 July, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said that it was “time for all parties to this conflict to immediately end this tragic war”, amid growing concerns for refugees fleeing Sudan.
The UNHCR says that conditions have been “harrowing” for those reaching shelter in neighbouring countries, where displacement camps are overcrowded and the looming rainy season has made relocation and aid deliveries harder.
Since mid-April, the conflict between Sudan’s armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has caused displacement, death, injury and an unfolding humanitarian crisis. Reports of looting, attacks on public institutions and the occupation of private homes continue in the capital Khartoum, while clashes persist in four out of the five Darfur states. More than 50 health facilities have been attacked.