UNHCR: More than a million people displaced after Sudan conflict
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According to the spokesperson, Egypt has received and still receives the largest number of Sudanese refugees.
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Sudanese refugees near the border between Sudan and Chad in Koufroun, Chad, on May 9, 2023 (Reuters)
UNHCR Spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh has confirmed that more than a million people have been displaced by the Sudan conflict so far, including around 843,000 people displaced internally and around 250,000 people who have fled across Sudan's borders.
According to Saltmarsh at a Geneva briefing on Friday, Egypt has received the largest amount of Sudanese refugees - around 110,000 - since the start of the conflict more than any other country.
"Many of those who have approached us are in a distressed state having been exposed to violence or traumatic conditions in Sudan, and having suffered arduous journeys," Saltmarsh added, stating that the pace has increased with around 5,000 arriving every day.
This comes after UN aid chief Martin Griffiths decried on Thursday multiple serious breaches of an agreement by Sudan's warring parties last week to spare civilians and civilian infrastructure and to allow the passage of badly needed aid.
He told AFP that "there are breaches of the declaration however, which are important and egregious, and which have happened since the signing."
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Only one month in, around 1,000 people have been killed, mainly in and around Khartoum, as well as in the long-troubled western region of Darfur.
The UN highlighted on Wednesday that half of Sudan's population needs humanitarian aid and that more than $3 billion will be needed this year alone to provide urgent assistance inside the country and to those fleeing across its borders.
Fighting has been condensed in the capital Khartoum but other areas, most notably the western Darfur region bordering Chad, have also seen heavy fighting.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Thursday called on the international community to exert all possible pressure on the fighting sides in Sudan to resolve the conflict and end "the wanton violence."
The fighting has plunged "this much-suffering country into catastrophe," Turk expressed.
Addressing a special session of the UN Human Rights Council on the situation in Sudan, Turk urged "all states with influence in the region to encourage, by all possible means, the resolution of this crisis."
