Hundreds of thousands of people in Sudan have fled their homes as fighting continues between rival forces, according to the latest data available on Tuesday.

The number of displaced people in their own country has doubled within a week, the UN Organisation for Migration (IOM) reported. It said more than 700,000 people had been displaced since the violence broke out in mid-April.

An IOM spokesman said whether the people are heading toward the country’s borders remains unclear.

Some 3.7 million people were displaced in Sudan even before the latest crisis.

More than 150,000 people had fled to neighbouring countries from Sudan by May 8, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), with the figures including Sudanese people and those of other nationalities who had found refuge in Sudan.

Conflict broke out unexpectedly in Sudan in mid-April after a long-simmering power struggle between de facto President Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and vice president Mohammed Hamdan Daglo.

There have been repeated ceasefires since then, but these have been repeatedly broken.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said 604 people had died in the violence, citing Health Ministry figures on Tuesday, while about 5,000 have been injured.

However, according to monitors, many casualties go unreported, and the numbers will likely be far higher.

(dpa/NAN)