Thousands flee Sudan

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The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the UN Agency for Migration (IOM) and the Red Cross are providing water, food and other support in border regions, they reported in Geneva on Tuesday.

In Khartoum, the central medical laboratory was occupied by militants, a World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman said. The employees were kicked out. There is biological material there that should not be released under any circumstances, warned the WHO representative in Sudan, Nima Saeed Abiden.

A Red Cross equipment store had been looted, Farid Aiywar, representative of the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), reported. That is why hospitals could hardly be supported with medicines and other materials. According to WHO information, at least 460 people were killed and nearly 4,100 injured in the fighting. However, the actual number is probably considerably higher.

Thousands of people have already arrived in the bitterly poor neighboring countries of Chad and South Sudan. South Sudan is preparing to return 125,000 South Sudanese and 45,000 Sudanese refugees, said Marie-Helene Verney, the UNHCR representative in South Sudan. At least 20,000 people have arrived in Chad since the fighting began, UNHCR representative to Chad Laura Lo Castro said. The first refugees have also arrived in Egypt.

The refugees need drinking water, food, hygiene items, kitchen utensils, mats and plastic sheeting. Before the crisis, there were already 400,000 Sudanese refugees in Chad.

More than 800,000 people from South Sudan lived in Sudan, mainly in the capital Khartoum. Many returnees are likely to join families in regions that themselves suffer from conflict, climate change and food shortages. Three-quarters of the twelve million inhabitants already depend on humanitarian aid.

(SDA)

Source: Blick