More than 90,000 Sudanese take refuge in Chad to flee the fighting

The number of refugees in Chad who have fled the fighting between the forces of the two rival generals in Sudan for more than a month is "increasing very quickly" and is around 90,000, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was alarmed on Monday. refugees (UNHCR).

The UN estimated them at 76,000 three days earlier. "As of now, we think we are close to 90,000 people," Raouf Mazou, Assistant High Commissioner for UNHCR Operations, told reporters in N'Djamena.

The UN estimates to date at a thousand dead and more than a million internally displaced persons and refugees the toll of this conflict which began on April 15. Mr. Mazou mentioned him, "more than 250,000 people who have left Sudan" for neighbouring countries since the start of this war.

In Chad, where they are mainly piled up in makeshift camps in the east, close to the border in this desert area, "more than 90% are women and children", he specified, at the end of a four-day visit to Chad.

The Assistant High Commissioner said he feared "the rainy season which will soon begin and will constitute an additional obstacle to bringing them assistance".

"We congratulate Chad for having shown solidarity" but "Chad cannot do it alone", concluded Mr. Mazou. "We urge the international community to share this burden with neighboring countries of Sudan and provide urgent support," he said.

On May 17, the United Nations and its partners appealed for $3 billion to help millions of people in Sudan and hundreds of thousands fleeing to neighbouring countries.

Including $470.4 million "to support refugees, returnees and host communities in the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan".