KHARTOUM - Tens of thousands of people from Sinnar State in central Sudan are fleeing to the eastern Gedaref State to escape recently intensified armed conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to local authorities.

"More than 135,000 people have been displaced from Sinnar to Gedaref, where we have established an emergency shelter to accommodate them," Mohamed Adam Mohamed from the Humanitarian Aid Commission in Gedaref State told Xinhua on Saturday.

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Ahmed Al-Amin Adam, Gedaref State's health minister, also confirmed that the state authorities established a main shelter center to receive the people fleeing the conflict in Sinnar State, adding nearly 100 families have been accommodated in the shelter.

However, many of the displaced complained of the difficulties they face at the shelter centers in Gedaref, including water shortage, deteriorated environment due to the beginning of the rainy season, and the potential spread of diseases by vectors such as mosquitoes and flies.

This has been a recent escalation of the deadly conflict between the two sides across Sudan since mid-April 2023, which has so far claimed at least 16,650 lives

Makka Ali, 69, fled from the Jabal Muya area of Sinnar to Gedaref on foot in three days. "We lost everything and we need to be provided with necessities of life," he told Xinhua.

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Jalila Saeed, who fled from Gezira to Sinnar in December last year, was displaced again from Sinnar to Gedaref due to the recent escalation in Sinnar.

 "We are now residing in a shelter center amid water shortage and at risk from mosquito and fly-transmitted diseases," said the 46-year-old woman, who fled to Gedaref with her elderly grandparents.

As clashes persist in Sinnar, more people are expected to flee eastward to Gedaref.

In this regard, the Al-Sinnari Observatory, a local legal organization, urged on Saturday humanitarian organizations to intervene to alleviate the suffering of displaced people, highlighting their multiple plights such as hunger, diseases, shortage of medicine, rainfall, and lack of shelters.

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Since June 24, armed clashes have been escalating between the army and the RSF in Sinnar, forcing thousands to flee towards Gedaref, Kassala and Blue Nile states.

This has been a recent escalation of the deadly conflict between the two sides across Sudan since mid-April 2023, which has so far claimed at least 16,650 lives, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in an update last month.

Over 7.7 million people have been displaced internally, while about 2.2 million others have crossed borders into neighboring countries to seek refuge, according to the figures released in late June by the UN International Organization for Migration.