The civil war in Sudan has forced more than 600,000 people to flee into neighboring Chad. The vast majority are women and children, and the UNHCR warns that “the influx of refugees shows no signs of abating”.
The current conflict began last April, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says the situation has now reached a “critical point” where international support is urgently needed.
“The conflict in Sudan has forced over 600,000 refugees and 180,000 Chadian returnees, the vast majority of them women and children, to flee into Chad, with more than 115,000 arriving since the start of 2024”, it reports.
A third of the refugees are said to be living in difficult conditions along the border, and the UNHCR is appealing for $80 million as soon as possible to “build three additional sites with essential services and infrastructure to relocate an additional 150,000 expected new arrivals”.
10 million displaced
The UN estimates that more than 10 million people have been displaced from their homes in the region since last April, when armed conflict broke out between rival factions of the Sudanese government. At the same time, many more are suffering from acute hunger and starvation.
According to the organization, some 16,000 people have been killed and some 35,000 injured in more than a year of civil war.
Sudan’s modern history has been marked by internal conflict and civil war, not least in the Darfur region, where up to 400,000 people have been killed since 2003. In 2011, the country also split in two when the southern parts declared themselves an independent state under the name of South Sudan. However, South Sudan has also suffered bloody civil wars, and there is still an ongoing conflict with the regime in the north over the country’s borders.
