8 million Sudanese displaced by conflict since April 2023 : United Nations

The United Nations (UN) says nearly 8 million people have been forced from their homes in Sudan over the past months of conflict.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported the alarming figure on Wednesday.

High Commissioner Filippo Grandi just concluded a visit to Ethiopia, where many of the displaced people have fled to.

Grandi called for “immediate and additional support” for the displaced.

The UNHCR is, meanwhile, facing a chronic underfunding.

Since April 2023, more than 100,000 people have crossed into Ethiopia from Sudan. The figure includes close to 47,000 refugees and asylum seekers.

The latest wave of violence has left nearly half of Sudan’s 49 million people in need of humanitarian aid.

The UN says 12,000 people had been killed by the end of 2023, but the actual death toll is believed to be higher.

And the International Criminal Court (ICC) has accused Sudan’s government and the rebels of war crimes in the flash-point Darfur region.

In July 2023, the ICC’s Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan launched a war crimes investigation into the conflict.

On Monday, he reported to the UN Security Council that he had “grounds to believe” crimes established under the Rome Statute, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and crimes of aggression, are being committed in the restive region. The situation in Darfur, he said, is “dire by any standard.”

“We are collecting a very significant body of material, information and evidence that is relevant to those particular crimes,” Khan said.

Clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began in April last year. It has been the latest flare-up in a conflict that has been besetting the country for more than 20 years.

International agreements and peacekeeping forces have worked to curb violence and bring the situation under control but these efforts have been of no use.