Five million people have been displaced by civil war in Sudan, which is facing a rapidly mounting humanitarian emergency after months of serious fighting between the military and a rival paramilitary force.
The displacement figure, provided by the International Organization for Migration, echoes a warning from the UN’s main refugee agency, UNHCR, that more than $1bn would be needed to support those fleeing the violence into neighbouring countries.
According to the IOM, more than 4 million people have been internally displaced in Sudan since the fighting erupted in mid-April between the army, led by Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.
The agency said a further 1.1 million people had fled to neighbouring countries, more than 750,000 of them to Egypt or Chad.
It said about 24.7 million Sudanese, roughly half the country’s population, were in need of humanitarian aid and protection.
International efforts to mediate in the conflict have so far failed. There have been at least nine ceasefire agreements and all have broken down, while shortages of food, water, medicines and fuel have worsened due to the disruption of trade routes, which has also pushed up prices.
On Tuesday, the UNHCR appealed for $1bn to provide essential aid and protection to more than 1.8 million people expected to arrive in five neighbouring countries by the end of 2023, amounting to a twofold increase on what it initially estimated in May.
“The crisis has triggered an urgent demand for humanitarian assistance, as those arriving in remote border areas find themselves in desperate circumstances due to inadequate services, poor infrastructure and limited access,” said Mamadou Dian Balde, the UNHCR regional bureau director for the east and Horn of Africa and Great Lakes.
“Partners active in this response are making every effort to support those who are arriving and their hosts, but without enough donor resources these efforts will be severely curtailed.”
Balde reported a dire health situation among new arrivals in Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan, including high malnutrition rates and disease outbreaks such as cholera and measles.
“It is deeply distressing to receive reports of children dying from diseases that are entirely preventable, should partners have had sufficient resources,” Balde said.
Sudan was plunged into chaos almost five months ago when long-simmering tensions between the military escalated into open warfare. The fighting has reduced Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, to an urban battlefield, with neither side managing to gain control of the city.
Meanwhile, in the western Darfur region – the scene of a genocidal campaign in the early 2000s – the conflict has morphed into ethnic violence, with the RSF and allied Arab militias attacking ethnic African groups, according to rights groups and the UN.
Formal peace negations mediated by the US and Saudi Arabia in the kingdom’s coastal town of Jeddah were adjourned in late June, with both mediators publicly calling out the RSF and the army for continually violating truces.
