Heavy fighting in Sudan has displaced 700,000 people within the country since the middle of April, the United Nations said on Tuesday, adding the figure had doubled in a week.
Sudan was thrown into chaos when fighting broke out on 15 April between the forces of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). At least 750 people have died and thousands injured.
"There are now more than 700,000 internally displaced by the fighting which began on April 15," Paul Dillon, spokesman for the International Organization for Migration said.
"Last Tuesday, the figure stood at 340,000," he added.
Even before the beginning of the fighting, 3.7 million people were registered as internally displaced in Sudan, added Dillon.
Another 150,000 people have fled the country since the beginning of the conflict, according to numbers released by the UN refugee agency on Monday.
"Many IDPs are sheltering with relatives, while others are gathering in schools, mosques and public buildings," said Dillon.
He said the IOM was "conscious of the enormous pressures" placed on host communities "already suffering from the effects of more than three weeks of fighting".
The conflict has seen aid workers killed, health facilities attacked and aid convoys looted. The UN projects that the number of "acutely food insecure people" in Sudan could increase by between two and 2.5 million if the war is prolonged.
Mediation
Meanwhile, the latest truce talks in Saudi Arabia yielded no progress, with a Saudi diplomat saying both sides consider themselves "capable of winning the battle".
Saudi Arabia has assumed a major role in evacuations from Sudan, dispatching naval and commercial vessels to bring thousands of civilians across the Red Sea from the Sudanese coastal city of Port Sudan.
The Jeddah talks, which are set to continue "in the following days", aim to reach "an effective short-term halt" to the fighting, facilitating aid delivery and restoring basic services, the Saudi foreign ministry said.
Mediation efforts have multiplied elsewhere.
The African Union – which suspended Sudan following a coup in 2021 – and East African regional bloc IGAD are pushing for discussions mediated by South Sudan's President Salva Kiir.
Dafaallah al-Haj, the envoy of Sudanese army chief Burhan, met with Kiir in South Sudan's capital Juba on Monday.
Haj later told reporters that, "Our response to the initiative of Saudi Arabia and the United States doesn't exclude the role of IGAD" and Kiir.
Haj added that if the RSF "rebels put down their arms, we will pardon them."
(with AFP)
