The number of people displaced inside Sudan on Wednesday by fighting between rival military factions rose to more than one million.
According to the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM), another 319,000 people have fled to neighbouring countries, Egypt, Sudan’s northern neighbour, took in the largest share of the refugees, with more than 132,000 people. Chad accepted 80,000 refugees and South Sudan about 69,000.
A long-simmering power struggle in Sudan escalated violently on April 15. The army under the command of de-facto president Abdel Fattah al-Burhan is fighting the paramilitary units of his deputy, Mohammed Hamdan Daglo.
The two generals jointly seized power in 2021.
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Even before the current crisis, Sudan was one of the poorest and politically unstable countries in the world with 3.7 million internally displaced people due to previous crises.
Now, the IOM warns of a further deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the country with a total population of around 46 million.
The fighting is making access to basic goods and fuel increasingly difficult.
Volker Turk, UN rights chief, said the recent fighting in Sudan has killed hundreds of civilians and forced more than one million people to flee the violence.
Turk, who met with both generals in Sudan in November 2022, said his office had received reports of fighter jets and clashes in the capital, Khartoum overnight despite a ceasefire.
He told a Geneva news briefing where he addressed crises from around the world that “many civilians are virtually besieged in areas where fighting has been relentless.
“General al-Burhan, General Dagalo, you must issue clear instructions, in no uncertain terms to all those under your command, that there is zero tolerance for sexual violence.
“Civilians must be spared and you must stop this senseless violence now,” he said.