Sudan crisis could worsen if paramilitaries declare parallel govt: UN

The crisis in Sudan could worsen if paramilitary forces fighting the army go ahead with plans to declare a parallel government, the United Nations warned Wednesday.

"For us, preserving the unity of Sudan, the sovereignty and the territorial integrity, remains a key ingredient for a sustainable resolution of the conflict," the UN secretary-general's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

At a high-profile event in Nairobi this week, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, at war with the Sudanese army for nearly two years, said they would sign a founding charter that would lead to the formation of a "peace and unity government" in Sudan.

Initially scheduled for Tuesday at Nairobi's state-owned Kenyatta International Convention Centre, the signing was postponed to Friday.

"We're very deeply concerned about any further escalation of the Sudanese conflict, and any steps like this one, which would increase the fragmentation of the country and risk making this crisis even worse," Dujarric said of the planned proclamation.

Sudan's foreign ministry, loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, criticized Kenya for allowing the event.

Since April 2023, the war between the army and RSF has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted more than 12 million and created the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.

Two days of fighting between Sudanese rivals have forced an estimated 10,000 families to flee a famine-hit displacement camp in the Darfur region, the UN migration agency said Wednesday.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) last week stormed Zamzam camp, home to at least half a million people, triggering clashes with the Sudanese army and allied militias, witnesses told AFP.

The International Organization for Migration said the violence since February 11 had displaced 10,000 families from Zamzam, just south of North Darfur state capital El-Fasher.

The agency cautioned that its data covers only the first two days of the reported attack as its collection capacity had been reduced due to funding constraints.

Beyond the camp, a further "1,544 households were displaced from various villages" near El-Fasher, the IOM said.

El-Fasher is the only state capital in the vast western region of Darfur that the RSF has not captured in its nearly two-year war with the Sudanese army.

With the military on the verge of retaking the capital Khartoum following a multi-front offensive on central Sudan, the paramilitaries have intensified attacks on El-Fasher in a bid to consolidate their hold on Darfur.

But the RSF has not managed to take the city, its attacks successively repelled by the army-aligned Joint Forces but sending tens of thousands of people fleeing.

Before the most recent attacks, there were already 1.7 million people displaced in North Darfur alone, with two million facing extreme food insecurity, according to the UN.

Established in 2004, Zamzam has received waves of displaced Sudanese during the current war, which began in April 2023.

Some aid officials told AFP the camp's population has swelled to around one million during the war.

Famine was first declared in Zamzam in August, and has since taken hold of two other displacement camps around El-Fasher.

According to a UN-backed assessment, famine is projected to spread to five more areas of the state including the capital El-Fasher by May.

Across Sudan, the war has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted over 12 million and created the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.