UN: Sudan ‘Spiraling Out of Control’ as One Million Flee Country

A Chadian army officer reacts as Chadian cart owners transport belongings of Sudanese people who fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, while crossing the border between Sudan and Chad, in Adre, Chad August 4, 2023. (Reuters)
A Chadian army officer reacts as Chadian cart owners transport belongings of Sudanese people who fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, while crossing the border between Sudan and Chad, in Adre, Chad August 4, 2023. (Reuters)
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UN: Sudan ‘Spiraling Out of Control’ as One Million Flee Country

A Chadian army officer reacts as Chadian cart owners transport belongings of Sudanese people who fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, while crossing the border between Sudan and Chad, in Adre, Chad August 4, 2023. (Reuters)
A Chadian army officer reacts as Chadian cart owners transport belongings of Sudanese people who fled the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, while crossing the border between Sudan and Chad, in Adre, Chad August 4, 2023. (Reuters)

More than one million people have fled Sudan to neighboring states and people inside the country are running out of food and dying due to lack of healthcare after four months of war, the United Nations warned on Tuesday.

Fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has devastated the capital Khartoum and sparked ethnically-driven attacks in Darfur, threatening to plunge Sudan into a protracted civil war and destabilize the region.

"Time is running out for farmers to plant the crops that will feed them and their neighbors. Medical supplies are scarce. The situation is spiraling out of control," UN agencies said in a joint statement.

The war has caused 1,017,449 people to cross from Sudan into neighboring countries, many already struggling with the impact of conflicts or economic crises, while those displaced within Sudan are estimated to number 3,433,025, according to the latest weekly figures published by the IOM.

Fighting erupted on April 15 over tensions linked to a planned transition to civilian rule, exposing civilians in the capital and beyond to daily battles and attacks.

The millions who remain in Khartoum and cities in the Darfur and Kordofan regions have faced rampant looting and long power, communications and water cuts.

"The remains of many of those killed have not been collected, identified or buried," but the UN estimates that more than 4,000 have been killed, Elizabeth Throssell, spokesperson for the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a briefing in Geneva.

Reports of sexual assaults have increased by 50%, said UN population fund official Laila Baker.

Blackout

Large swathes of the country have been suffering from an electricity blackout since Sunday that has also taken mobile networks offline, according to a statement from the national electricity authority.

Seasonal rains that increase the risk of water-borne diseases have destroyed or damaged the homes of up to 13,500 people, the UN estimates.

In a speech on Monday, army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan accused the RSF of aiming "to take the country back to an era before the modern state" and "committing every crime that can be imagined."

The RSF has accused the army of trying to seize full power under the direction of loyalists of Omar al-Bashir, the longtime leader who was toppled during a popular uprising in 2019.

Efforts led by Saudi Arabia and the United States to negotiate a ceasefire in the current conflict have stalled, and humanitarian agencies have struggled to provide relief because of insecurity, looting and bureaucratic hurdles.



Syria Expects First Transfer with US Bank 'Within Weeks'

FILE PHOTO: A view of the Syrian central bank, after the ouster of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 12, 2025. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A view of the Syrian central bank, after the ouster of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 12, 2025. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi/File Photo
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Syria Expects First Transfer with US Bank 'Within Weeks'

FILE PHOTO: A view of the Syrian central bank, after the ouster of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 12, 2025. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A view of the Syrian central bank, after the ouster of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 12, 2025. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi/File Photo

Syria expects to have its first transaction with a US bank "in a matter of weeks", Syrian central bank governor Abdelkader Husriyeh said on Thursday, a day after a high-level meeting between Syrian and US commercial banks.

The resumption of transfers between Syrian and US banks would be a key milestone in the push by Syria’s new rulers to reintegrate the country into the global financial system after 14 years of civil war, Reuters reported.

Husriyeh on Wednesday held a virtual conference bringing together Syrian banks, several US banks and US officials, including Washington's Syria Envoy Thomas Barrack, with the aim of speeding up the reconnection of Syria's banking system to the global financial system.

This follows US President Donald Trump’s announcement in May that all sanctions on Syria would be lifted. That has been followed up with executive orders formally lifting some of the measures.

Syria's reintegration into the global financial system would be a major step towards enabling the kind of large financial transactions needed to kickstart its reconstruction and economic activity, and help rein in a highly informal, cash-based economy.

Husriyeh extended a formal invitation to US banks to re-establish correspondent banking ties following the ouster of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, whose crackdown on 2011 protests resulted in Western countries imposing one of the world’s strictest sanctions regimes.

"We have two clear targets: have US banks set up representative offices in Syria and have transactions resume between Syrian and American banks. I think the latter can happen in a matter of weeks," Husriyeh told Reuters.

Among the banks invited to Wednesday’s conference were JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and CitiBank, though it was not immediately clear who attended.