UN warns of humanitarian ‘catastrophe’ as over 800,000 may flee Sudan violence

More than 800,000 people may flee Sudan as a result of fierce fighting between rival generals, a UN senior official warned on Tuesday (2 May), as bloody clashes in the country intensified despite the latest truce.

“Without a quick resolution of this crisis, we will continue to see more people forced to flee in search of safety and basic assistance,” the UN’s Raouf Mazou told a member state briefing in Geneva, as warnings multiplied of the potential for a “catastrophic” humanitarian crisis with hundreds of thousands of refugees. He said that since 15 April 2023 when clashes broke out in western Sudan some 73,000 people have already fled to the neighboring countries — Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, and South Sudan.

Concurring with this assessment, also the UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan warned the humanitarian crisis was turning into a “full blown catastrophe” and that the risk of spillover into neighboring countries was worrying.

Meanwhile, fierce fighting between regular army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy turned rival, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) raged on Tuesday as both have flouted multiple ceasefires. Hundreds have been killed and thousands wounded as air strikes and artillery exchanges have gripped swathes of greater Khartoum, sparking the exodus of thousands of Sudanese to neighboring countries. Kenyan President William Ruto has joined the voices calling on the warring generals “to heed the calls by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the African Union and the international community to cease fire,” warning the conflict had reached “catastrophic levels”.