(CNN) — More than 3.1 million people have been forced to flee their homes amid an increasingly desperate humanitarian situation in war-torn Sudan.
Human rights groups warn of widespread ethnic violence, attacks on civilians and rampant sexual violence against women and girls, while warring factions, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), continue to fighting for control of the northeast African country.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported Wednesday that there are more than 2.4 million internally displaced persons in Sudan, while 737,801 people have crossed the border with neighboring countries.
The number of civilians continues to rise, according to the latest report from the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which states that 414,625 people, making up 483,672 households, have been displaced, representing an increase of 183,102 people compared to last week.
The number of refugees fleeing to neighboring countries, mainly Egypt, Chad and South Sudan, is also increasing, with an estimated 750,000 civilians having left Sudan entirely.
The World Food Program (WFP) claims that 20,000 refugees crossed into Chad in the past week alone, adding that many of them are “seriously injured” and claim to have been “deliberately” targeted in a “growing ethnic dimension of violence”.
“We can see that they have suffered, many have lost relatives, and we don’t even dare to ask them: ‘Where are the men?’ The response from the mothers is usually that they were killed. So you only see a lot of women, a lot of children,” said WFP Chad director Pierre Honnorat, describing scenes of despair from the Zabout refugee camp in Goz Beida in a call with journalists.
“Many are seriously injured and have heartbreaking stories of the violence they have suffered,” Honorat said, appealing for funding, adding that the “situation is really critical.”
In a statement, the WFP said its “urgent priorities include treating the injured and helping dangerously malnourished children crossing from Darfur into Chad.”
According to the WFP, one in 10 children displaced from Sudan is malnourished.
UN officials earlier this month condemned rising reports of gender-based violence in Sudan, with Save the Children warning of the “alarming number of adolescent boys and girls sexually assaulted and raped by armed combatants.”
Martin Griffiths, head of UN relief operations, said it was “inconceivable” that women and children in Sudan “are being further traumatized in this way.” He called Sudan a “crisis of humanity.”
The situation in Darfur, western Sudan, is also said to be “critical” as the UN receives “continuing reports of heavy fighting and attacks against civilians”.
In addition to clashes between the Regional Armed Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces, the OCHA report also notes increased reports of the presence of the Regional Armed Forces and militias from other Darfur states, as well as clashes in North Kordofan and South Kordofan, in an increasingly complex landscape of fighting across Sudan.
