The United Nations has said the surging violence in Sudan is likely to drive more than 1 million refugees out of the African country by October, as the 10-week conflict shows few signs of easing. Sudan descended into chaos after fighting erupted in mid-April between the military, led by Gen Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Gen Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo. Since then, over 3,000 people have been killed, the country’s Health Ministry said, while about 2.5 million people have been displaced, according to the UN.
The violence has been most acute in the capital, Khartoum, but also in the western Darfur region, where RSF and Arab militias are reportedly targeting non-Arab tribes, local rights groups and the UN said. Most of those who have escaped have fled east to Chad.
“We were talking about 100,000 people in six months (fleeing to) Chad. And now the colleagues in Chad have revised their figures to 245,000,” said Raouf Mazou, assistant secretary-general at United Nations High Commission for Refugees, at a news conference in the Swiss city of Geneva on Tuesday.
The province of West Darfur has seen some of the worst violence. In a report last week issued by the Dar Masalit sultanate, the leader of the African Masalit ethnic community accused the RSF and Arab militias of “committing genocide against African civilians.” He estimated that more than 5,000 people were killed in the province’s capital, Genena, over the past two months.
So far over 560,000 Sudanese have escaped to neighboring countries, with Egypt being the primary destination. “We expect, unfortunately, looking at the trends, that the conflict will continue and that many in Sudan will opt to (go to) Egypt,” Mazou said.
Peace negations mediated by the US and Saudi Arabia in the Saudi coastal town of Jeddah have all but broken down. The talks, which led to at last nine cease-fires, were formally adjourned last week with both mediators publicly criticizing the RSF and the army for continually violating agreed truces.