ED Damazin / El Roseires — Director of Social Welfare and Chairman of the High Committee for Emergencies in Blue Nile state, Ezzeldin Ali Suleiman, said that the number of people who fled the renewed fighting that erupted in El Roseires and the area south of the town on September 1, reached 66,000. About 9,000 of them fled to places within the state.

He told Radio Dabanga's Sudan Today programme that the agricultural season in the region is seriously affected by the large displacement waves following intercommunal violence in July and earlier this month.

The director also said that the state government had already announced a food gap earlier, despite humanitarian aid provided by relief organisations. With growing food insecurity and poverty rates, the damage to the agricultural season due to displacement comes as a blow to the region. Not to mention the recent damage to farmland caused by floods.

Refuge sites for the displaced in Blue Nile state have been reduced to four camps due to the newly displaced moving to other areas. Suleiman further mentioned the return of a large number of refugees from Ethiopia and South Sudan to the areas of Bau, Kurmuk, El Tadamon, Geisan, and Ed Damazin.

He appealed to the United Nations and international agencies for urgent assistance because large numbers of people have also been affected by the heavy rains in August, on top of those who fled the violence in the area of El Roseires and the returning refugees.