Six months of war between Sudan’s army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed up to 9,000 people, the United Nations said on Sunday.
UN undersecretary-general Martin Griffiths said that the war has created one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history.
Sudan has been engulfed in chaos since mid-April, when simmering tensions between military chief General Abdel-Fattah Burhan and the commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open warfare.
In a statement marking the six months since the conflict began, Mr Griffiths said: “For six months, civilians have known no respite from bloodshed and terror.
“Horrific reports of rape and sexual violence continue to emerge.”
The fighting was initially centred in the capital Khartoum but quickly spread to other areas across the east African nation, including the already war-torn western Darfur region.
Mr Griffiths said the fighting has killed up to 9,000 people and forced millions out of their homes, either to what they regard as safer areas inside Sudan or out to neighbouring countries.
The UN migration agency estimates that more than 4.5 million people were displaced inside Sudan, while over 1.2 million others sought refuge in neighbouring countries.
He said the conflict has led to communities being torn apart — “vulnerable people with no access to life-saving aid and mounting humanitarian needs in the neighbouring countries where millions have fled.”
Mr Griffiths said the fighting has also left 25 million people, more than half of the country’s population, in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.
Adding to the dire situation facing the Sudanese people, a cholera outbreak was reported in the capital and other areas in the country, with more than 1,000 suspected cases detected in Khartoum and the provinces of Kordofan and Gedarif, he said.
Since the outbreak of the war, the greater Khartoum area — the cities of Khartoum, Omdurman and Khartoum North — has become a battleground, with air strikes and shelling taking place in densely populated areas.
There have been repeated reports of rape and gang rape in Khartoum and Darfur.
The recent atrocities in Darfur prompted the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor to declare in July that he was investigating allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the latest fighting there.