The UN refugee agency warned Tuesday of “further displacement” of people from Sudan after thousands streamed into neighbouring Chad and South Sudan despite a tenuous cease-fire between the two warring Sudanese generals battling for control of the country.
The fighting has plunged Sudan into chaos, pushing the already heavily aid-dependent African nation to the brink of collapse.
The figures could rise, she cautioned. Sarrado did not have figures for the five other countries neighbouring Sudan, but UNHCR has cited unspecified numbers of those fleeing Sudan arriving in Egypt.
‘The UNHCR was scaling up its operations’, she said, even as foreign governments have raced to evacuate their embassy staff and citizens from Sudan. Many Sudanese have desperately sought ways to escape the chaos, fearing late their all-out battle for power once evacuations are completed.
Several previous cease-fires have failed, although intermittent lulls during the weekend’s major Muslim holiday allowed for dramatic evacuations of hundreds of diplomats, aid workers and other foreigners by air and land.More than 800,000 South Sudanese refugees live in Sudan, a quarter of them in the capital of Khartoum, where they are directly affected by the fighting.