UN alarmed by new escalation in Sudan
Published: Tuesday, Dec 19th 2023, 16:11
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The United Nations has expressed alarm at the increasing fighting in Sudan and the resulting refugee movements. A spokesman for the UNHCR refugee agency spoke on Tuesday in Geneva of panic among residents of the embattled town of Wad Madani in the east of the country.
Since the most recent fighting began last week, up to 300,000 people have fled from Wad Madani and the surrounding area, some of them on foot.
Fighting has been going on for days in the Sudanese state of Al Jazirah, south-east of the capital Khartoum. The paramilitary militia Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is attempting to take control of Wad Madani in particular. More than half a million people, mainly from Khartoum, have fled to this area since the conflict began.
The armed forces under the leadership of de facto head of state Abdel Fattah al-Burhan have been fighting against the paramilitary RSF in Sudan since mid-April. This is a quasi-army that emerged from militias in the Darfur region and is led by former deputy ruler Mohammed Hamdan Daglo. The conflict is having a severe impact on the civilian population, particularly in the capital Khartoum and in the crisis region of Darfur. According to UN figures, more than seven million people are on the run.
The authorities in Wad Madani have now declared a state of emergency, said a spokesperson for the UN emergency aid organization OCHA. All humanitarian measures have had to be interrupted due to the violence. The health care situation is also dramatic - in the regions affected by the conflict, 70 percent of hospitals are no longer functional. While almost 25 million people in Sudan are dependent on aid, the UN and its partners have only been able to reach around five million people with aid.
©Keystone/SDA
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