Sudan: Refugees flee to neigbouring countries as clashes resume

Clashes resumed between Sudan's military and a powerful paramilitary force after a three-day cease-fire expired Wednesday morning, a protest group and residents reported.

The fighting has killed thousands of people and forced more than 2.5 million people to flee their homes to safer areas in Sudan and neighboring countries, according to the U.N. migration agency.

The U.N. said Wednesday that within the last month, it has helped truck 17 tons (15.4 metric tons) of aid to various parts of Sudan, including 50 truckloads in the first two days of the latest cease-fire.

“We will continue to deliver, cease-fire or not,” U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq said at the World body's headquarters while emphasizing that the fighting needs to stop so that the world body can reach all people in need.

438 trucks with 17K tons of aid (50 of those trucks moved during the first two days of the most recent cease fire). 

Moreover, Haq also said the UN “is alarmed by the impact that attacks on health care are having on women and girls in the country," and that two-thirds of hospitals are closed in areas impacted by the fighting, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).

He added that several maternity hospitals are also out of action: "Of the more than two-and-a-half million women and girls of reproductive age in Sudan, nearly 263,000 are estimated to be pregnant” and “one third of them will give birth in the next three months.”

All of them, he stressed, “need access to critical reproductive health services.”

Sudan descended into conflict in mid-April after months of worsening tensions exploded into open fighting between rival generals seeking to control the African nation. The war pits the military, led by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhane, against the Rapid Support Forces, a militia-turned-paramilitary force commanded by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Daglo.

Thousands of people escaping the ongoing conflict in Sudan have arrived in Chad amid violence in the West Darfur region.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), over 115,000 Sudanese refugees have fled to the neighbouring country since the fighting began in April.

The UNHCR's Representative in Chad, Laura Lo Castro, spoke with the refugees who she says "described terrifying scenes, in which everyone had to flee for their lives."

She also spoke of what the refugees described as "massacres" in which they "had to leave behind little children who couldn't run, people who were injured and the elderly."

Mocktar Arbab, a Sudanese refugee, told reporters of his experience fleeing Sudan.

Arbab also showed reporters where he was "shot in the back."

The UNHCR said it is working closely with neighbouring governments and partners to provide medical care for refugees and to prepare for new arrivals as the fighting continues.

Sudan descended into conflict in mid-April after months of worsening tensions exploded into open fighting between rival generals seeking to control the African nation. 

The war pits the military, led by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, against the Rapid Support Forces, a militia-turned-paramilitary force commanded by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo.

The fighting has killed thousands of people and forced more than 2.5 million people to flee their homes to safer areas in Sudan and neighbouring countries, according to the UN migration agency.