Hundreds of thousands of people are displaced in Sudan and tens of thousands fled for neighboring countries, U.N. officials said while warning of increasing human rights abuses and aid concerns.
Most of the capital Khartoum, the Darfur region and North Kordofan has become too dangerous to operate in, the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday.
More than 50,000 people have now fled Sudan to Chad, Egypt, South Sudan and the Central African Republic, said Filippo Grandi, head of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, and this includes Sudanese nationals and refugees forced to return home by the fighting.
"The outflow will grow unless violence stops," he said.
Khartoum, which has suffered two weeks of clashes between the military led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces led by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, was still being rocked by gunfire and explosions despite the 72-hour ceasefire announced earlier in the week.
It's particularly dire in Darfur, where sites hosting internally displaced people were burned to the ground and civilian houses and other shelters were hit by bullets.
"The suspension of some humanitarian programs is likely to exacerbate protection risks," Axel Bisschop, UNHCR's representative in Sudan, told reporters.
"It is extremely concerning that assistance that is so desperately needed – especially for the newly displaced – cannot be provided," he said. "Innocent civilians, including women and children, will only continue to suffer."
But in areas such as Gedaref, Kassala, White Nile and Blue Nile, and in South and West Kordofan, he said, refugee settlements are so far relatively calm with health care, water and other essential services still intact.
About 33,000 refugees fled Khartoum for refugee camps in White Nile State, while 5,000 went to Kassal and 2,000 went to the camps in Gedaref.
At least 20,000 people crossed to Chad and 14,000 fled to South Sudan. Egypt reported 16,000 crossings. Among those leaving Khartoum were tens of thousands of refugees in Sudan who had fled violence in South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
#Sudan's Human rights situation dramatically deteriorating. Hundreds of thousands have fled. Thousands of others trapped by the fighting & face acute shortages. We call on the parties to immediately end hostilities. Protecting civilians must be paramount https://t.co/mWw4W66NON pic.twitter.com/nBlfqwub7l
— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) April 28, 2023
Prisoners on the loose, too
The U.N. human rights office reported deadly ethnic clashes and almost 100 people killed this week as civilians suffer widespread fear, trauma and deprivation.
It said the death toll in the conflict has risen to at least 512, according to the latest figures from the Sudanese Ministry of Health.
Thousands remained trapped in residential areas where fighting has taken place and are facing air strikes, shelling, and use of heavy weapons, said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the office.
"It is deeply alarming that inmates have been released from, or escaped from, a number of prisons. We are very worried about the prospect of further violence, amid a generalized climate of impunity," she said.
Almost 16 million people, or a third of the country’s population, were already in need of humantarian aid before the fighting started, but the U.N.'s US$1.7 billion plan for helping them is only 13.5% funded.
More than 60% of Khartoum's health facilities have been shuttered and just 16% are still functioning as they once did, according to the World Health Organization, whose spokesperson, Christian Lindmeier confirmed 25 attacks on health care facilities since the start of the fighting.
This story has been updated with additional details.
