Over one million people have sought refuge in South Sudan due to the ongoing conflict in Sudan, according to the UN

Over one million individuals have escaped the conflict in Sudan, seeking safety in neighboring South Sudan, as reported by the United Nations.

In its most recent update regarding one of the most severe displacement crises globally, the UN released new figures on Tuesday indicating that over 770,000 people have crossed through the Joda border point on South Sudan’s northern frontier with Sudan in the past 21 months.

Additionally, tens of thousands have entered through other border locations, raising the total number of those who have fled to South Sudan since the outbreak of hostilities between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in April 2023 to over one million, according to a statement from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

“The influx of more than a million individuals into South Sudan is a striking and alarming figure that highlights the escalating nature of this crisis,” stated Sanaa Abdalla Omer from the UNHCR.

The majority of those crossing the border are South Sudanese citizens who had previously fled the civil war in their own country, the statement emphasized.

“The people of South Sudan continue to demonstrate remarkable generosity, welcoming those in distress and sharing their limited resources, but they cannot bear this enormous burden alone,” Omer remarked.

Two transit centers in Renk County, located on South Sudan’s northern border, which were intended for fewer than 5,000 individuals, are currently accommodating over 16,000.

The United Nations has urged for increased assistance for both displaced individuals and the communities that accommodate them, cautioning that essential resources in South Sudan, such as healthcare, water, and shelter, have become “critically strained.”

As the conflict nears its second anniversary, fighting persists between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), with both sides accusing one another of committing war crimes, including the targeting of civilians and indiscriminate shelling of residential areas, leading to the deaths of tens of thousands.

At least 20,000 individuals have lost their lives, and approximately 25 million people—half of the nation’s population—are experiencing severe hunger and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

Recently, the Famine Review Committee of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), supported by the UN, released a report detailing famine conditions in five regions, including Sudan’s largest displacement camp, Zamzam, located in North Darfur.

The report confirmed famine conditions in Abu Shouk and al-Salam, two camps for internally displaced persons in el-Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur, as well as in both residential and displaced communities in the Nuba Mountains of southern Sudan.