Sudan crisis: More than 100K flee war-torn nation amid crumbling ceasefires

Foreign countries have carried out their own evacuation effort, with an airlift from outside the capital and long road convoys to Port Sudan where ships have ferried them abroad.

Sudan’s war has forced 100,000 people to flee across the border and fighting now its third week is creating a humanitarian crisis, UN officials said on Tuesday as gunfire and explosions echoed across the capital in violation of another ceasefire.

The conflict risks morphing into a broader disaster as Sudan’s poor neighbours deal with a refugee crisis and fighting blocks aid routes in a nation where two thirds of people already rely on some outside support.

“The risk is this is not just going to be a Sudan crisis, it’s going to be a regional crisis,” said Michael Dunford, East Africa director at the UN World Food Programme (WFP).

UN officials said UN aid chief Martin Griffiths aimed to visit Sudan, possibly on Tuesday, but the timing was still to be confirmed. The WFP said on Monday it was resuming work in the safer parts of the country after a pause earlier in the conflict when some WFP staff were killed.

The leaders of the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) who previously shared power show no sign of backing down, yet neither seem able to secure a quick victory, raising the specter of a prolonged conflict that could draw in outside powers.

Early on Tuesday, black smoke could be seen hanging over the capital Khartoum, which lies on confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers. Air strikes hit Bahri, on the east bank, while clashes flared in Omdurman to the west, witnesses said.

Hundreds of people have died in the fighting that pits the army under General Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan against the RSF under General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti. Each has blamed the other for the violation of a series of ceasefires.

The army has used airpower against RSF units dug into residential areas of Khartoum, damaging swathes of the capital area and reigniting conflict in Sudan’s far west Darfur region.