Tens of Thousands Displaced as Fighting Intensifies in Southeast Sudan

OCHA

Fresh fighting in southeast Sudan is exacerbating civilian suffering, with reports that over 136,000 people have fled their homes in search of safety, UN humanitarians have said.
“People are facing multiple protection risks and have reported widespread looting of homes and personal possessions,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a flash update issued lately.
Humanitarian partners receiving displaced people from Sennar state in the southeast of Sudan are scaling up response to meet their needs, it added.
Sennar, Sinja, and Ad Dinder localities were already hosting about 286,000 displaced people before the escalation in clashes there in late June.
They are encountering numerous safety threats, with reports of widespread looting of their homes, vehicles and personal belongings, by Rapid Support Forces (RSF) members.
Local shops and markets have also been targeted, depriving civilians of vital resources and intensifying insecurity.
OCHA further reported that those displaced in Sennar have been arriving in neighbouring states of Gedaref, Kassala, and Blue Nile.
About 26,000 people – including 6,800 children – are reported to have reached Gedaref. They are gathering at a local market in desperate need of food, water and shelter, according to an OCHA team in the area.
An additional 1,000 people from Sennar have arrived at the reception centre in Kassala state.
Furthermore, over 30,000 people have arrived in Blue Nile state. Most of them are being hosted in school buildings, which were already hosting other displaced communities.
This indicates that the newly displaced from Sennar may have already been displaced at least once before.
Responding to the influx, UN humanitarian teams have been distributing ready-to-eat meals and drinking water to families.
They are also providing basic health services through a mobile clinic and supporting a common kitchen capable of feeding about 15,000 people.
However, even as humanitarian partners are expanding their response in the wake of heightened displacement, more assistance is required to meet increasing needs, OCHA said.
The RSF on June 24 began a campaign to seize the city of Sennar, a trading hub, but quickly turned to the smaller towns of Sinjah and Al-Dinder, prompting an exodus of civilians from all three, mainly to neighboring Al-Gedaref and Blue Nile states.
Images on social media showed people of all ages wading across the Blue Nile.
Activists in both states say there is little shelter or food aid for the incomers. In Gedaref, they faced an onslaught of heavy rain while stranded in the state capital’s main market with no tents or blankets after schools that had served as displacement centers were emptied by the government, the local resistance committee said.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration said in a statement that since June 24, an estimated total of 136,130 people had been displaced in Sennar.
The state was already home to more than 285,000 people displaced from Khartoum and Al-Gezira states, meaning that many of those leaving over the last two weeks were likely to have been displaced for the second or third time. It also said that villages in Gedaref state, one of several possible targets for the RSF campaign, had also seen an exodus.
To the west of the country, local activists said at least 12 people were killed by artillery fire on a livestock market on Wednesday in the city of Al-Fashir which has seen a months-long fight for control between the RSF and the army and allied armed groups.