Over 130,000 Sudanese evacuated

Mohamed Adam Mohamed of the Humanitarian Assistance Committee in Gedaref state said that over 135,000 people have been evacuated from Sinnar to Gedaref. The committee has set up emergency shelters to receive the evacuees.

Meanwhile, Ahmed Al-Amin Adam, head of Gedaref state health authority, also confirmed that the state government had established a main shelter to receive evacuees from Sinnar state, adding that nearly 100 families had been provided with shelter.

Many evacuees said they faced many difficulties at shelters in Gedaref, such as lack of clean water and the risk of disease spread by mosquitoes and flies due to the onset of the rainy season.

As fighting continues in Sinnar, more people are expected to continue to evacuate eastward to Gedaref. In response, the Al-Sinnari Observatory, a local legal organization, has called on humanitarian organizations to provide assistance to alleviate the hardships faced by the evacuees, including lack of food, medicine, shelter, and the risk of disease.

Since June 24, fighting has been ongoing between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF in Sinnar, forcing thousands of people to flee to Gedaref, Kassala and Blue Nile states. In the latest clashes in the capital Khartoum on July 13, the SAF said over 100 RSF fighters were killed and dozens more wounded.

Sudan has been in crisis since April 15, 2023, when tensions between the SAF and RSF led to fighting in the capital Khartoum and other parts of the country. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the conflict that erupted in April 2023 has claimed the lives of at least 16,650 people.

According to figures released by the United Nations International Organization for Migration in late June, over 7.7 million people in Sudan have been internally displaced, while about 2.2 million others have crossed borders into neighboring countries to seek refuge.