Internally displaced persons

More resources are urgently needed for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) to meet the needs of thousands of refugees and internally displaced, who are fleeing the bloody showdown between rival military factions in Sudan.

That’s according to Faith Kasina, Regional Spokesperson for UNHCR who is based in Nairobi. Ezzat El-Ferri of UN News’s Arabic service began by asking her for the latest on the extent of internal displacement across the country so far.

Most people are familiar with the phenomenon of refugees, those forced to flee their country of origin, because of a well-founded fear of persecution or, in some places, because of armed conflict or natural disaster.

But there is another, equally vulnerable category of people, who don’t cross international boundaries, but find it necessary to relocate to a different region of their country.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says it’s extremely concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Al-Hol camp in Syria’s Al-Hasakeh Governorate, where 11 infants are reported to have died due to cold, in the past two days alone.

Over the last two months, approximately 23,000 people, mainly women and children fleeing hostilities in rural areas of neighbouring Deir Ezzour, have arrived in the camp. 

The presence of UN peacekeepers and other staff from the African Union-UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur, UNAMID, is a valuable “source of protection” to people in central Jabal Marra, an area that has been strongly affected by the long-running conflict across the Sudanese region.