The number of people displaced inside Sudan by fighting between rival military factions rose to more than one million on Wednesday, according to the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

The IOM said another 319,000 people have fled to neighbouring countries. It said Egypt, Sudan’s northern neighbour, took in the largest share of the refugees, with more than 132,000 people.

According to the IOM, Chad took in some 80,000 refugees and South Sudan about 69,000.

A long-simmering power struggle in Sudan escalated violently on April 15.

The army, under the command of de-facto president Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, is fighting the paramilitary units of his deputy, Mohammed Hamdan Daglo.

The two generals jointly seized power in 2021.

Even before the current crisis, Sudan was one of the poorest and politically unstable countries in the world, with 3.7 million internally displaced people due to previous crises.

Now, the IOM warns of a further deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the country, with a total population of around 46 million.

The fighting is making access to basic goods and fuel increasingly difficult.

(dpa/NAN)