The UN raises to almost three million the displaced and refugees by the escalation of combats in Sudan

July 6 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Fighting between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has already caused almost three million people to leave their homes, both to move to other parts of the country and to cross the borders into neighboring nations, according to a report. new balance of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The UN has registered more than 2.2 million internally displaced persons, while almost 700,000 have fled to other countries in the area. Within this latter group, two out of three refugees have been identified as Sudanese, while the rest are returned refugees or third-country nationals.

The capital, Khartoum, and the Darfur region concentrate the bulk of the fighting and are also the areas that generate the most displacement. In the case of Darfur, “the situation is drastically deteriorating,” according to the IOM, which has warned that there are already 24.7 million people in Sudan — half the population — who urgently need humanitarian aid. .

The IOM director for the Middle East and North Africa, Othman Belbeisi, has called in a statement for “a permanent ceasefire” and the removal of any bureaucratic obstacles to guarantee that there are humanitarian corridors and that aid reaches the areas that They are now more inaccessible.

Several UN agencies warned on Wednesday of the rise in gender violence and focused, among other issues, on the special vulnerability of women and girls who move “in search of safer places.” For them, “the risk of sexual violence is especially high”, which is why the United Nations wants to reinforce surveillance in places of reception and reception, also in neighboring countries.