Attacks in Sudan’s Darfur bring new surge in people leaving their homes

• Violence in western Sudan has displaced more than 84,000 people this month alone.
• At least 440,500 people were displaced in 2018, five times more than in 2020.
• Aid workers are worried that there will be as many refugees as there were during the Darfur war.

Violence in western Sudan has displaced more than 84,000 people this month alone, increasing the number of people displaced so far this year, as per UN reports.

The numbers have not been this high since January 2021. According to UN figures, at least 440,500 people were displaced in 2018, five times more than in 2020.

Aid workers are worried that there will be as many refugees as there were during the Darfur war in the early 2000s.

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A peace agreement from 2020 calls for a peacekeeping force, but it hasn’t been used much yet.

Jibril Ibrahim, the Minister of Finance and the commander of an armed group, stated that it has been difficult to raise the funds necessary to implement the deal.

Arab militias attacked Gimir tribe settlements in the Kulbus area of West Darfur in June, killing 125 people and forcing 50,000 others to leave their homes.

“Before we finish responding to one emergency or major attack, another two have already happened,” stated Will Carter of Norwegian Refugee Council. “So far, nothing is averting this from becoming a new large-scale displacement emergency.”

In South Kordofan state, which is home to a separate protracted civil war, violence last month between the Hawazma and Kenana tribes in Abu Jubayhah resulted in the deaths of 19 people and the displacement of 15,150, according to UNOCHA.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch said that the Sudanese transitional government and military leaders who took over in October did not do enough to protect people after international peacekeepers left in 2021 or to deal with the root causes of the conflict, such as land and resource disputes.

Read more: United Nations warns of ‘alarming rise’ of hunger in Sudan