Mass exodus from Sudan as deadly fighting enters third week

Hundreds of thousands of Sudanese have fled Khartoum and the Darfur region to seek refuge in neighbouring countries amid ongoing deadly clashes between Sudan’s army and the rival paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). But the violence that grips the country is making it hard for them to leave.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled Sudan in the past two weeks, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. But thousands remain trapped in the country.

Violent battles between the forces of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former number two Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary RSF, have rocked the country since April 15. The deadly clashes have sparked a mass exodus of civilians, the scale of which is still hard to pin down.

Tens of thousands of people from the western Darfur region, which is especially volatile, have crossed the border into Chad. Others are trying to reach South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Egypt or Ethiopia, raising fears of vast displacement from a country with 45 million inhabitants, one of the largest in Africa.

Fruitless truces

Despite the latest three-day ceasefire set to expire at midnight, army forces clashed with paramilitaries on Sunday in Sudan’s capital Khartoum. Fighting was reported around the army headquarters in the centre of the city, with the Sudanese army also carrying out air strikes in the capital’s twin city of Omdurman across the Nile River. 

Although countries like Saudi Arabia, France and the United States have managed to repatriate nationals and diplomats back home in recent days, millions of civilians living in Khartoum are caught up in the chaos gripping the megacity. Without outside help, they face a dilemma: risk their lives on the road or stay cloistered in their homes, where they endure crippling shortages of water and electricity.     

“To leave the city, you have to dodge bombing raids. Roads are no longer safe and armed attacks happen frequently. Travel costs have also quadrupled and there is a gas shortage,” explains Omar*, a Sudanese journalist whose family managed to flee Khartoum on April 26. 

“In the east of the country where I live, things are still calm. Some people come here to seek refuge in big cities like Kassala, Al-Qadarif and Port Sudan. Others head towards Ethiopia in the east or Egypt in the north to flee the country.”

More than 14,000 Sudanese people and a further 2,000 nationals from other countries have crossed into Egypt since the conflict began, according to the country’s government.

Meanwhile, International Organisation for Migration (IOM) spokesperson Eric Mazago told AFP on Thursday that more than 3,500 people have moved southeast into Ethiopia between April 21 and 25. 

A ‘race against the clock’ in Chad

Another hot spot in the Sudan conflict is the western region of Darfur, still scarred by a war that erupted in 2003. Its capital, El Geneina, has seen a surge in attacks on civilians in recent days. 

At least 20,000 people crossed into Chad during the first 10 days of fighting, according to the UNHCR, despite its government closing the border with Sudan at the start of the conflict on April 15.

The country already hosted more than 400,000 Sudanese refugees across 13 camps in local communities, who had fled the 2003 to 2010 genocide. 

Border villages in Chad like Koufron, Midjiguilta and Dize Birte have seen the highest influx of displaced people. Humanitarian organisations on the ground are trying to provide emergency aid by supplying water, food, health care and temporary shelter. 

We’re in “a race against the clock” said UNHCR deputy representative in Chad Jérôme Merlin, calling on the international community to help. “In two months, maybe less, the rainy season will form large rivers or ‘wadis’, which will make it very difficult to provide aid.”  

‘Premature’ returns to South Sudan

As more and more people seek sanctuary in neighbouring countries, South Sudan is also seeing the arrival of civilians feeling violence. At least 14,000 people have crossed the border, UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told AFP on Saturday.  

“These people come from different places in Sudan. They have travelled by bus or by their own means of transport,” explains Faith Kasina, a UNHCR representative based in Nairobi who is coordinating the humanitarian response. “They have decided to go back to their home country because they have family there, even though most have left for security reasons,” she says. 

Since 2013, South Sudan has been caught in a civil war between President Salva Kiir’s government and a rebellion led by former vice president Riek Machar. 

In a statement released on April 26, head of the UNCHR Filippo Grandi expressed his worry that South Sudanese refugees “have been forced to prematurely return home to deep uncertainty”. 

“Just a few kilometres away”

As Sudan enters a third week locked in deadly conflict, the long-simmering power struggle between the country’s army and paramilitary RSF group carries on. The rival forces accuse each other of violating the latest ceasefire, mediated by the United States, Saudi Arabia, the African Union and the United Nations on Thursday.    

“There are two distinct situations taking place in Khartoum and El Geneina in Darfur that are preventing Sudanese people from fleeing,” says Claire Nicolet, who leads the Sudan operations for Doctors Without Borders. “It’s very difficult to leave Khartoum, but once outside, the situation gets easier. In Darfur’s capital El Geneina, however, the roads around the city are dangerous. It takes about an hour to get to the border of Sudan from El Geneina, but right now it’s an impossible journey to make.”

The UNHCR team stationed along the Chad border made similar observations, and had expected a much larger influx of refugees to arrive.  

“The majority of Sudanese people who have reached Chad so far came from villages close to the border, just a few kilometres away,” says UNHCR representative Merlin. If there is a lull in the fighting, “we expect a bigger wave of arrivals”, he explains.

Faced with a bloody crisis in the making, the African Union on Thursday called on Sudan’s neighbours and international partners to “facilitate the transit” of civilians fleeing the violence “without hindrance”. 

*Name has been changed upon request

AFP/FRANCE24