Thousands of Sudanese continue to cross borders every day to escape violence and hunger. A year of war in Sudan: every day thousands of people flee to neighboring countries, the number of Sudanese refugees in Europe is growing Peace and Security
The military conflict in Sudan is approaching its first anniversary. Since 15 April 2023, more than 8.5 million Sudanese have been forced to flee their homes, with 1.8 million of them crossing borders into neighboring countries. This was reported by the press secretary of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Olga Sarrado.
Sudan and its neighbors are facing one of the world’s largest and most complex humanitarian crises, with more than 25 million people in need of assistance, UNHCR said. Thousands of Sudanese continue to cross borders every day to escape violence and starvation that usually occurs only in the early stages of a conflict.
According to the UN, armed conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Action Force, 18 million people face severe food shortages and five million are at risk of deathly malnutrition.
Furthermore, the war in Sudan threatens unity countries and could provoke regional instability from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated this at a meeting of the UN Security Council in March.
Crisis in the poorest country in the world
According to UNHCR, South Sudan is receiving the largest influx of people from neighboring Sudan.
“Since April 15 last year, 635,000 people have entered South Sudan,” said Marie-Hélène Verney, UNHCR representative in the country. That represents more than 5 percent of South Sudan’s population, she said.
Refugees at a UN transit center in South Sudan.
Such a number of refugees would be equivalent to 4.5 million in Germany, or 17.6 million in the United States, arriving in less than one year.
“This is the poorest country at peace,” Verney said, speaking from the South Sudanese capital Juba. She stressed that the arrival of refugees – an average of 1,800 every day – is putting extreme pressure on South Sudan’s infrastructure and society.
Distress
Sudanese crossing the border, mostly women and children, find themselves stranded in remote areas, often separated from loved ones and in desperate need of food, water, shelter and medical care.
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In addition, there are growing fears that South Sudan’s economy will collapse and the security situation will worsen after one of the key oil pipelines passing through Sudan was damaged and stopped working. The incident occurred in February in the Sudanese state of White Nile in an area under the control of the Rapid Reaction Force, which has been fighting the Sudanese army for power in the country for almost a year.
Because of the conflict, Sudan can no longer maintain the oil pipeline, Verney said, and this has a huge impact on South Sudan, as oil accounts for about 95 percent of the country’s declared revenues . In particular, inflation is rapidly growing there and, in general, there is no income. South Sudan was part of Sudan until 2011, and the two economies are closely interconnected.
International Community Response
As the refugee crisis worsens, calls for urgent action are growing. At the same time, UNHCR is already noting an increase in the number of Sudanese refugees in Europe: since the beginning of 2023, 6 thousand people have arrived in Italy through Tunisia and Libya, which is almost six times more than in the previous year.
Sudanese women in a refugee camp in Chad.
“Despite the scale of the crisis, we are still faced with an extremely low level of funding,” noted Olga Sarrado.
The regional Sudanese refugee response plan for 2024 is only seven percent funded. Likewise, the Humanitarian Response Plan within Sudan has only six percent of the required amount. 7 million people in five countries bordering Sudan. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is leading the response inside Sudan, which will require $2.7 billion this year to support the country’s 14.7 million people.