More than 800,000 may flee Sudan violence: UN

US citizens and other nationalities disembark from a US Navy fast transport ship to escape the conflict, at the Jeddah Sea Port, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on May 1, 2023. (Reuters)

• The UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan warned that the humanitarian crisis was turning into a “full blown catastrophe”

GENEVA: More than 800,000 people may flee Sudan as a result of fighting between military factions, including many who had already come there as refugees, a UN official said on Monday.
“Without a quick resolution of this crisis we will continue to see more people forced to flee in search of safety and basic assistance,” Raouf Mazou told a member state briefing in Geneva.
“In consultation with all concerned governments and partners we’ve arrived at a planning figure of 815,000 people that may flee into the seven neighboring countries.”
The estimate includes around 580,000 Sudanese, he said, with the others existing refugees from South Sudan and elsewhere.
So far, he said some 73,000 people have already fled to Sudan’s seven neighbors: South Sudan, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Central African Republic and Libya.
At the same briefing, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Sudan warned that the humanitarian crisis was turning into a “full blown catastrophe” and that the risk of spillover into neighboring countries was worrying.
“It has been more than two weeks of devastating fighting in Sudan, a conflict that is turning Sudan humanitarian crisis into a full blown catastrophe,” Abdou Dieng, resident and humanitarian coordinator in the country, said via video link.