The United Nations Security Council said Friday it was “concerned” about worsening violence in Sudan, a country torn by war since April.
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In a press release, the council condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the attacks on civilians and the spread of the conflict “to areas where large numbers of displaced persons, refugees and asylum seekers live.”
“Members of the Security Council expressed concern about the spread of violence and the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Sudan,” the same source said.
The fighting between the army and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (FSR) that has been raging since mid-April has displaced 7.1 million people, a UN spokesman said on Thursday, describing this “displacement crisis” as the “largest in the world”. “.
In addition, there are 1.5 million people who have sought refuge in neighboring countries, the United Nations said.
The war between the head of the army, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, and his deputy, General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, head of the feared FSR, spread last week to the state of al-Jazeera in the middle east of the country. The previously spared country is approaching the town of Wad Madani, which served as a humanitarian center and refuge for formerly displaced people.
According to the International Organization for Migration, up to 300,000 people have fled Wad Madani in al-Jazeera state, in a new wave of “large-scale” displacement, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, said on Thursday.
The Security Council called on the warring parties to allow “quick, safe and unimpeded humanitarian access throughout Sudan.”
He condemned the attack on an International Committee of the Red Cross convoy on December 10 and called for “intensification of humanitarian assistance to Sudan.”
According to a conservative estimate by the Armed Conflict and Event Data Project, 12,000 people have died in Sudan's eight months of war, while nearly 6.8 million people have been forced to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.