“The Sudanese are not moving by choice, they are simply fleeing to find safety,” said Mohamed Refaat, IOM Head of mission in Sudan.
Speaking from Port Sudan to journalists in Geneva, he urged all member states and “all those who can provide support” to the Sudanese people to ensure their protection.
Violent bombing alert
The latest reports from the war-torn country indicate that paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) allies have bombed residential buildings in Dilling, South Kordofan, over the past 48 hours.
The RSF has been at war with the Sudanese army since April 2023 following a failed transition to civilian rule. On October 26, paramilitary forces invaded El Fasher – the regional capital of North Darfur – after a 500-day siege, triggering further mass displacements. Deep concerns remain for those still believed to be stuck inside the city and who have had to eat peanut shells and animal food to survive the ordeal.
“People are afraid”
“These displacements from Kordofan are not happening sporadically, they are happening because people are afraid,” said IOM’s Refaat. He noted that people were now fleeing Babanusa, Kadugli and El-Obeid.
Underscoring his deep concerns about vulnerable people on the move, the veteran humanitarian official noted that “only women and children” are arriving in the White Nile and Gedaref in the east.
Deep insecurity and violence persist across Sudan, increasing protection risks for civilians and hampering safe access for humanitarian assistance.
The situation is rapidly deteriorating in Kadugli, the capital of Southern Kordofan state, where there are growing concerns. six Bangladeshi peacekeepers killed in drone attacks last Saturday. The UN peacekeepers were at a logistics base in the city, deployed with the UN force in Abyei, the disputed region on the border with South Sudan.
Hundreds of thousands of people in danger
“In the town of Kadugli, we estimate that there are about 90,000 to 100,000 people in that area who will be displaced if something happens, if the fighting continues, if they can leave the town,” Refaat said. He added that El-Obeid – the capital of North Kordofan – appeared to be only “a few steps away from being the next town attacked… we estimate that more than half a million people will already be affected”.
Returning to the crisis in El Fasher, the IOM official stressed that the UN agency’s movement monitoring matrix had recorded more than 109,000 people who had managed to flee the city and its surrounding villages since their fall at the end of October at the hands of the RSF.
“Many of them are still stuck in neighboring villages and cannot travel further due to logistical problems. [and] security concerns,” he said, fueling concerns among those trying to survive as essentials for survival have been “completely wiped out,” UN humanitarian teams warned a week ago.
Asked about the impact of severe cuts in funding for humanitarian work within the UN and beyond, the IOM chief of mission explained that the agency had lost $83 million in resources this year alone. This forced humanitarian teams to “massively” reduce their footprint, Refaat said.
“Because of these cuts, we have to choose which lives we can save and which support we have to stop. So we would go through places where we know people absolutely need people, but we would leave them and not be able to help them because we have to prioritize those who are absolutely dying.”
Publicado anteriormente en Almouwatin.
