More than four million people have fled Sudan amid war, UN says

UN official says the ‘devastating milestone’ shows the damage of the displacement crisis after two years of fighting.

More than four million people have fled Sudan since the start of its civil war in 2023, officials with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) say.

“Now in its third year, the four million people is a devastating milestone in what is the world’s most damaging displacement crisis at the moment,” agency spokesperson Eujin Byun said at a Geneva media briefing on Tuesday.

“If the conflict continues in Sudan, … we expect thousands more people will continue to flee, putting regional and global stability at stake.”

Sudan shares a border with Chad, South Sudan, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, the Central African Republic and Libya.

In addition to refugees who have left the country, about 10.5 million people have been displaced internally in Sudan, according to UN estimates.

Patrice Dossou Ahouansou, a UNHCR official, said 800,000 of the refugees have arrived in Chad, where their shelter conditions are dire due to funding shortages with only 14 percent of funding appeals met.

“This is an unprecedented crisis that we are facing. This is a crisis of humanity. This is a crisis of … protection, based on the violence that refugees are reporting,” he said.

The war has been raging in Sudan between its military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group.

In recent months, the violence has been intensifying in the western region of Darfur, where the RSF has been besieging the city of el-Fasher, compounding hunger in the area.

A World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF aid convoy delivering food to el-Fasher came under attack this week, according to the UN’s children’s aid agency.

“We have received information about a convoy with WFP and UNICEF trucks being attacked last night while positioned in Al Koma, North Darfur, waiting for approval to proceed to el-Fasher,” UNICEF spokesperson Eva Hinds said on Tuesday.

Sudan has seen growing instability since longtime President Omar al-Bashir was removed from power in 2019 after months of antigovernment protests.

In October 2021, the Sudanese military staged a coup against the civilian government of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, leading to his resignation in early 2022.

Sudan’s army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and rival Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who leads the RSF, had shared power after the coup but then started fighting for control of the state and its resources in April 2023.