“More than 800,000 people” could flee the deadly fighting in Sudan, warned Monday the head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi. So far, at least 73,000 people have arrived in countries neighboring Sudan since fighting erupted in mid-April, according to UNHCR, which mentioned 50,000 people last Friday.
Hundreds of deaths since April 15
“UNHCR, together with governments and partners, is preparing for the possibility that more than 800,000 people will flee the fighting in Sudan to reach neighboring countries,” Filippo Grandi said on his Twitter account. “We hope it doesn’t come to that, but if the violence doesn’t end, we will see more people forced to flee Sudan in search of safety,” he added. This is the first time that the UNHCR has published such a precise figure to quantify the number of people who could flee to neighboring countries. The UN refugee agency had so far mentioned “hundreds of thousands” of people.
The majority of people have so far fled to Chad and South Sudan. On April 25, the UNHCR had indicated that up to 270,000 people could take refuge in these two countries. But he did not give details including other neighboring countries of Sudan, which also shares borders with Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Libya and the Central African Republic. The fighting, which has left hundreds dead, has pitted the two generals in charge of the country since their 2021 putsch since April 15, trapping millions of Sudanese.
Humanitarian and health disaster
Airstrikes, gunfire and explosions rocked the Sudanese capital again on Monday, despite the announcement of a truce in fighting between the army and paramilitaries, which has brought Sudan to the brink of a humanitarian and health “catastrophe”. according to the UN. On Sunday, Filippo Grandi said on his Twitter account that more than 3,000 South Sudanese who were in Sudan “are now fleeing to their country every day”.