UN says 200,000 people fled Sudan due to conflict

GENEVA

The UN refugee agency on Friday said some 200,000 people have fled Sudan since the conflict began and hundreds of thousands have been internally displaced.

"As violence in Sudan continues for a fourth week, nearly 200,000 refugees and returnees have been forced to flee the country, with more crossing borders daily seeking safety," Olga Sarrado, UNHCR spokeswoman, told a UN press briefing in Geneva.

"Additionally, hundreds of thousands have been internally displaced with many more people confined to their homes, unable to access necessities," Sarrado further said.

The humanitarian response to this emergency is "challenging and costly," she said, as it is difficult not only because Sudan faces insecurity, but also as refugees and returnees are arriving in remote border areas in neighboring countries where services and infrastructures are non-existent.

On April 15, fighting erupted between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the capital Khartoum and its surroundings. More than 600 people have been killed and thousands injured, according to the World Health Organization.

A disagreement had been fomenting in recent months between the army and paramilitary forces over RSF's integration into the armed forces, a key condition of Sudan's transition agreement with political groups.

Sudan has been without a functioning government since October 2021, when the military dismissed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok's transitional government and declared a state of emergency in a move decried by political forces as a "coup."

Sudan's transitional period, which started in August 2019 after the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir, is scheduled to end with elections in early 2024.