War: 1m displaced in Sudan

DPA/NAN

The number of people displaced by conflict between rival military groups in Sudan rose to more than one million on Wednesday.

This is according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) of the United Nations.

Another 319,000 people have fled to neighboring countries, the IOM said, with Sudan’s northern neighbor Egypt taking in the largest share of refugees with more than 132,000.

According to the IOM, Chad hosted some 80,000 refugees and South Sudan hosted some 69,000.

The long-running power struggle in Sudan escalated violently on 15 April. The army, under the command of de facto President Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, is fighting the paramilitary units of his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

Both the generals together seized power in 2021.

Even before the current crisis, Sudan was one of the world’s poorest and most politically unstable countries, with 3.7 million internally displaced people due to previous crises.

Now, the IOM warns of a further worsening 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 difficult.