Sudan fighting uproots 2.5 million as bodies line Darfur streets
UN calls on Sudan's neighbours to keep their borders open despite security worries as 550,000 flee abroad, with more than 2,000 people killed in the conflict.
More than 2,000 people have died across the country due to the fighting / Photo: AFP.
Bodies have lined the streets in Sudan's western Darfur region as the United Nations said that more than two months of fighting had forced over 2.5 million people from their homes.
A three-day ceasefire due to end on Wednesday at dawn brought a brief respite to the capital Khartoum, gripped by the war that erupted on April 15 between two rival generals.
The number of people uprooted from their homes by the conflict has topped 2.5 million, including about 550,000 who have fled abroad, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Filippo Grandi, the head of the UN's refugee agency, urged Sudan's neighbours to keep their borders open despite security worries.
"My appeal to all the neighbouring countries is to say I understand your security concerns, but please keep your borders open because these people are really fleeing for their lives," he said in an interview.
The fighting has killed more than 2,000 people nationwide, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project said.
According to the United States State Department, up to 1,100 have been killed in the city of El Geneina alone, the capital of West Darfur state in a region wracked by some of the bloodiest violence.
The UN has spoken of possible "crimes against humanity" in Darfur, where the conflict has "taken an ethnic dimension", the world body said in a statement with the African Union and East African regional bloc IGAD.
Civilians shot as they fled
Bodies have remained on the streets of El Geneina, where months of unrest have left shops either vacant or gutted by looters.
Residents have fled the city en masse, many grabbing whatever they could to flee to the border with Chad.
Some described being shot at by fighters and subject to searches during the perilous journey.
The conflict sees the army, led by Abdel Fattah al Burhan, battle the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
"Almost 900 wounded and 15,000 Sudanese refugees from West Darfur's capital and its surroundings have reached the Chadian town of Adre in the last four days," the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity said on Monday.
At least 150,000 people have fled Darfur into Chad since the start of the fighting, according to the UN.
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