GENEVA: The UN refugee agency warned on Tuesday that an earlier projection that conflict in Sudan would prompt 1 million people to flee across its borders is likely to be surpassed.
So far, the conflict between warring military factions that began in mid-April has caused nearly 600,000 people to escape into neighboring countries including Egypt, Chad, South Sudan and Central African Republic.
“Unfortunately, looking at the trends, looking at the situation in Darfur, we’re likely to go beyond 1 million,” Raouf Mazou, UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Operations, said in response to a question about its estimate in April for the coming six months.
He was referring to ethnically motivated attacks and clashes in the Darfur region, which suffered a major conflict in the early 2000s killing some 300,000 people.
He did not give details on how far above 1 million he expected refugee numbers fleeing abroad to reach. The United Nations estimates more than 2.5 million people have been uprooted since April, most within Sudan.
The latest wave of violence in Darfur has been driven by militias from Arab nomadic tribes along with members of the Rapid Support Forces, a military faction engaged in a power struggle with Sudan’s army in the capital, Khartoum, witnesses and activists said.
Witnesses told Reuters this month an increasing number of Sudanese civilians fleeing El Geneina, a city in Darfur hit by repeated attacks, have been killed or shot at as they tried to escape by foot to Chad.
“Lots of women and children are now arriving with injuries. It’s very concerning,” Mazou said.
He described access to refugees in Chad as “extraordinarily difficult” because the start of the rainy season was making it harder to reach refugees and move them away from the border into safer camps.
The UNHCR has already had to revise its forecast for people fleeing into Chad from Sudan to 245,000 from 100,000 people, he said.
“There’s been less and less people wanting to stay at the border as the situation deteriorates in Darfur,” he said.
Over 1 million may flee Sudan conflict, UN refugee agency says
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Over 1 million may flee Sudan conflict, UN refugee agency says
- "Unfortunately, looking at the trends, looking at the situation in Darfur, we're likely to go beyond 1 million," said Raouf Mazou of UNHCR
- He was referring to ethnically motivated attacks and clashes in the Darfur region, which suffered a major conflict in the early 2000s killing some 300,000 people
20 Palestinian families abandon homes near Jericho after repeated attacks by settlers
- The families belong to Az-Zayed clan, one of the few remaining Bedouin communities in the occupied West Bank and Jordan Valley
LONDON: Repeated attacks by Israeli settlers have forced 20 Palestinian families to leave their homes in the Shallal Al-Auja community north of Jericho and move to another area, Al-Baidar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights said on Tuesday.
The families belong to Az-Zayed clan, one of the few remaining Bedouin communities in the occupied West Bank and Jordan Valley, the organization said. Their way of life is under threat as a result of settler policies, as well as limited access to water and land, it added.
The clan has faced an increase in attacks by settlers in recent months, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported, including threats, denial of access to pastures, and vandalism of properties.
Al-Baidar said that actions of the settlers “were an integral part of a structured scheme to displace indigenous Palestinians from the Jordan Valley and take over their land to make room for colonial settlement construction.”
Excluding East Jerusalem, which was occupied and annexed by Israel in 1967, there are about 3 million Palestinians and 500,000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank.
