At the rate of 20k per day… Sudanese have been displaced 4 times in search of safety

Reports indicate that more than half of the displaced Sudanese, estimated at 11.3 million people, have been forced to flee multiple times, with some of them changing their destination four times in search of safety as the war rapidly expanded and spread to 70 percent. surface of the earth.

Tom Fletcher, the UN under-secretary for humanitarian affairs, described it as a crisis Displacement Sudan’s is “epic” and the fastest in the world, as fighting forces an average of 20,000 people a day to move to safe places.

At the end of a week-long tour in which he visited Port Sudan – the current seat of the Sudanese government – and a series of displaced persons and refugee camps in the west of the country and inside Chadian territory, he drew FletcherA grim picture of the conditions of those fleeing war.

He said in a statement on Friday:Sudan “In the grip of an epic multi-faceted crisis, it is experiencing the world’s worst hunger crisis, with 26 million people – more than half the country’s population – going hungry… I have heard stories of rape, sexual slavery and horrific violence against women and girls.”

A UN official pointed to a significant increase in rates malnutrition Among children, cases of cholera, dengue and malaria are on the rise.

He explained: “These numbers are unlike anything we’ve seen in recent years, yet the world is not responding as it should.

Horrible stories

Displaced Sudanese tell heartbreaking stories of the scale of the tragedy. In an emotional video clip, Sana Al-Sheikh says: “The fighting forced us to change displacement destinations three times, and I buried my son and daughter in two different destinations, far from each other.

In fact, safe havens for civilians are shrinking as uncertainty increases in the few cities left out of the war, some of which are vulnerable to drone attacks, leading to a state of terror among residents and displaced people.

According to Salma Ahmed, a displaced woman who arrived in the northern city of Atbara Khartoum After three repeated journeys of the displaced, the suffering of the displaced increases and solutions are withdrawn as the insecure areas expand.

Ahmed tells Sky News Arabia: “When the war broke out in… Khartoum The options for escape were wide and I was able to go out with my family to the city of Wad Madani in the center of the country, but after the fighting reached the city, we were forced to flee to the city of Sennar in the southeast of the country, before taking the long, hard way to Atbara last April, after the war had spread to cover most of the central and southeastern regions of the country.

In a tone that contains a lot of bitterness and fear, Ahmed says: “Since the second week of November, the security situation has started to change in the city of Atbara, which was my third destination on my journey of displacement with my family from the beginning.” war… Many displaced people like me started preparing to look for a new destination before they left.”

She adds: “The circle of war is expanding rapidly and we have no choice but to continue to search for safety, no matter how long the displacement journey is or how many destinations there are.”

A continuous spiral

Under the pressure of poor living conditions in the places of displacement, tens of thousands of residents of Khartoum and other cities were forced to return to their homes, only to find themselves forced to leave again.

Local authorities in the capital Khartoum and other war-affected areas are trying to entice residents to return, but a lack of services and the continuation of the conflict – albeit at a reduced pace – in addition to the massive destruction caused to homes and infrastructure are all factors hindering the safe return of those fleeing.

In fact, many of those who tried to adapt to wartime conditions were forced to flee as fighting intensified and food and health conditions worsened.

In this context, lawyer Othman Al-Aqib says he remained committed to staying in his home in the suburb of Haj Youssef, east of the capital Khartoum, despite the intensity of the fighting, but was forced to leave after 18 months of holding it. on.

He explained to Sky News Arabia: “Health conditions It’s getting worseInfectious diseases It is spreading everywhere amid great difficulty in providing essential treatment and food for those living at war.”

He added: “For a long time we tried to be patient, to stay at home and adapt to the war and its harsh conditions, but we were finally forced to leave after the war lasted for a long time and deadly diseases spread.” because of… malnutrition“.

Al-Aqib points to extremely complex security conditions in light of the high rate A crime Armed robbery, shootings and indiscriminate bombing continue, inflicting heavy damage on the remaining residents and forcing them to leave.