Additional 1.8 million people to flee Sudan by year-end

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says it needs 1 billion dollars to assist fleeing refugees from Sudan as fighting continues in the embattled country. The fighting in Sudan has added to the rising cases of Humanitarian challenges before the UN agencies as hopes remained raised about possible peace deals between the Army and rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, RSF…

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, appealed for $1 billion on Monday to help refugees fleeing violence in Sudan, saying it expects nearly 1.8 million to arrive in five neighboring countries by year’s end.

The figure is roughly double what UNHCR estimated in May, just after the clashes in Sudan started.

More than a million people have left Sudan to neighboring countries as a result of violence between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Khartoum and elsewhere.

South Sudan, which is expected to receive one-third of the 1.8 million refugees, has received thousands of people, many of whom are sick and stressed after crossing the White Nile River, according to the humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières.

Others died on board the boats throughout the around three-day journey, according to the report.

Sudan was thrown into chaos on April 15 after months of tensions between the military and a rival Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces erupted into open violence.

Khartoum and other urban centers have been turned into battlegrounds as a result of the conflict.

Many citizens are without running water or electricity, and the country’s health-care system is on the verge of collapsing.

The fighting is estimated to have killed at least 4,000 people, according to Liz Throssell, a spokesperson for the U.N. human rights office