Geneva — The International Organization for Migration warned Tuesday that Sudan's displacement crisis is worsening as increasing numbers of people flee fighting, hunger and sexual violence, thereby threatening "regional instability.
"The scale of this displacement and the corresponding humanitarian needs grows every day," Amy Pope, IOM director general, told journalists in Geneva on a video link from Port Sudan.
"Throughout this year, Sudan has been the world's largest displacement crisis. Today I can share that we will release new figures this week showing the displacement number has hit 11 million. That is up 200,000 just since September," she said, adding that an additional 3.1 million people have fled across borders as refugees.
"Nearly 30% of Sudan's population has been displaced. ... That is actually over 14 million people who are on the move right now," she said, noting that more than half of those displaced are women and more than a quarter are children under the age of 5.
"Unfortunately, many have been forced to flee repeatedly. They have little access to shelter; they have little access to livelihoods, and getting their basic needs met has been very, very difficult. The scale of displacement and humanitarian needs are growing every day," she said.
Since war between the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, erupted 18 months ago, more than 24,000 people have been killed, the United Nations reports.
The World Food Program reports 26 million people face acute hunger, and famine has broken out in Zamzam camp in North Darfur, home to half a million internally displaced people.
"The suffering is growing by the day," said Pope. "Frankly, half of the population now needs help. People do not have access to shelter. They do not have access to clean drinking water. They do not have health care. Disease is spreading fast. One in every two Sudanese is struggling to get even the minimal amount of food to survive."
Pope arrived in Port Sudan Monday on a four-day mission to "raise awareness of the needs and the cost of displacement" and to raise the profile of Sudan, which she called "the most neglected crisis in the world today."
She said more attention must be paid to Sudan's underreported conflict situation.
"Millions are suffering, and there is now the serious possibility of the conflict igniting regional instability from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa to the Red Sea."
"The collective failure to act means the devastation risks spilling over into neighboring countries," she warned, a warning shared by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, who expressed concern about the escalating hostilities and violence in Sudan's al-Jazirah state.
His spokesperson, Seif Magango, told journalists the high commissioner feared the fighting in al-Jazirah risked exacerbating further "attacks against civilians, ethnically motivated violence and atrocity crimes." He added that RSF ground forces reportedly have killed hundreds of people "amid widespread looting" in recent attacks on villages targeted in the region.
"Reports also indicate at least 25 cases of sexual violence in several villages in Sharq al-Jazira locality, including three medical personnel and an 11-year-old girl, who died as a result. Women and girls were also reportedly abducted," he said.
A report released Tuesday by the U.N. Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan accused the RSF of committing sexual violence "on a large scale" in areas under their control, including gang rapes and abducting and detaining victims in conditions that amount to sexual slavery.
"There are reasonable grounds to believe that these acts amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, including of torture, rape, sexual slavery and persecution on intersecting ethnic and gender grounds," it said.
The report also documents cases involving the SAF but concludes that "the majority of rape and sexual and gender-based violence was committed by the RSF."
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Besides the ongoing horrors, Turk's spokesperson observed that RSF forces were committing other violations that threatened the welfare of the Sudanese people.
"There are reports of burning of crops," said Magango. "At a time when over 25 million Sudanese are facing acute food insecurity because of the ongoing conflict, destruction of crops in a region considered the country's breadbasket can only exacerbate an already catastrophic situation."
Because of the ongoing violence, he said, thousands of families reportedly have been displaced from Al-Jazirah state into the neighboring state of Gedaref and nearby Kassala, "adding to the already dire displacement crisis in the country."
High Commissioner Türk reiterated his call on leaders of both warring parties to promptly take measures to de-escalate the situation and "to put a stop to violations by their forces."
