800,000 refugees, returnees may flee Sudan for neighboring countries: UN

GENEVA

The UN refuge agency has set an initial planning figure of more than 800,000 refugees and returnees that might flee conflict-torn Sudan for neighboring countries, a UNHCR spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Olga Sarrado told a UN press briefing that around 600,000 of the total would be Sudanese refugees, as well as refugees hosted by Sudan.

Furthermore, more than 200,000 refugees from neighboring South Sudan and elsewhere now in Sudan may be forced to return home prematurely, Sarrado said.

The figures are projections for financial and operational planning, she added.

She noted that over 100,000 refugees, including Sudanese refugees, South Sudanese returning home prematurely, and others who were themselves refugees in Sudan are believed to have fled Sudan for neighboring countries.

Sarrado said that the most significant cross-border movements so far had been Sudanese refugees arriving in Chad and Egypt, and South Sudanese returning to South Sudan, adding that most new arrivals were women and children.

"While UNHCR had large operations in many neighbouring countries, the previous week they had deployed additional emergency teams and activated our global supply chain, including orders for some 70,000 core relief items from our global stockpiles for Chad and South Sudan," Sarrado said.

Paul Dillon, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that there were some 334,000 internally displaced persons because of fighting, according to the IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix.

The number of the displaced over the past two weeks exceeded all conflict-related displacements recorded in Sudan in 2022, Dillon said, adding that about 72% of all new internal displacements were reported in western Sudan’s Darfur region alone.

Humanitarian plan for Sudan only 14% funded

Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that $1.7 billion Humanitarian Response Plan for Sudan was only 14% funded.

The OCHA calls on all donors to support humanitarian groups without delay so the much-needed assistance could be provided shortly, Laerke said.

Partners on the ground, where the situation allows, continued to operate, he said.

Tarik Jasarevic, for the World Health organization (WHO), said that six containers for treating injuries and severe acute malnutrition were being offloaded at Port Sudan.

As soon as possible, another 13 metric tons of supplies will be flown in from the WHO logistical hub in Dubai, Jasarevic said.

At least 528 people have been killed and more than 4,500 injured in fighting between two rival generals in Sudan – army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander Mohammed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo – since April 15, according to Sudan's Health Ministry.

A disagreement had been fomenting in recent months between the army and the paramilitary force over RSF integration into the armed forces, a key condition of Sudan's transition agreement with political groups.

Sudan has been without a functioning government since October 2021, when the military dismissed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s transitional government and declared a state of emergency in a move decried by political forces as a “coup.”

Sudan’s transitional period, which started in August 2019 after the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir, was scheduled to end with elections in early 2024.