Record Number of Internally Displaced People as First Aid Reaches West and East Darfur States

Moatinoon

The number of displaced people in Sudan has reached a record high of 4 million within a span of four months, according to the United Nations.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced on the day before yesterday that by August 1st, over 3 million people had been internally displaced across all 18 states of Sudan due to ongoing conflicts between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces. Furthermore, more than 884,000 people have fled to neighboring countries, including the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Sudan.

The international agency highlighted that residents of the capital make up more than 2.2 million of those fleeing, accounting for 73% of the total.

This number surpasses the count of internally displaced people resulting from the conflicts in the Darfur region, which numbered around 3.2 million.

Meanwhile, the announcement of the arrival of the first humanitarian convoy since the conflict began in East Darfur state on August 3rd, following a nine-day journey by road, also indicated that the first cross-border food delivery had taken place on the same date. This delivery, facilitated by the World Food Programme, came from Chad to West Darfur, one of the states facing severe food insecurity in the country.

This marks the first international aid entering the country through a neighboring state, Chad.

However, a warning was issued that nearly half of Sudans population would face high levels of acute food insecurity between July and September 2023, with 6.2 million of them being just one step away from famine.

The importance of increasing access to the Darfur region and all parts of Sudan was emphasized as critical to expanding the delivery of life-saving assistance to those in need.