The UN says more than 10 million people in Sudan have now fled their homes as war continues

GENEVA — The number of internally displaced persons Sudan has reached more than 10 million people as the war drives about a quarter of the population from their homes, the U.N. migration agency told The Associated Press on Monday.

More than 2 million other people have been displaced abroad, mainly to neighboring Chad, South Sudan and Egypt, International Organization for Migration spokesman Mohammedali Abunajela said. The IOM said internally displaced persons include 2.8 million people who fled their homes before the current war began.

“Imagine a city the size of London that is displaced. It is, but it happens under the constant threat of crossfire, with famine, disease and brutal ethnic and gender-based violence,” IOM Director-General Amy Pope said in a statement.

The latest conflict in Sudan began in April last year when rising tensions between army leaders and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces culminated in open fighting in the capital Khartoum and elsewhere in the country.

The war has devastated Sudan, killing more than 14,000 people and injuring thousands more, while pushing its population the brink of famine.

Last month, the UN Food Agency warned warring parties that there was a serious risk of spread hunger and death in the vast western region of Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan if they do not allow humanitarian aid.

Pope called for a united response from the international community, saying less than a fifth of the funds the IOM requested for the response have been provided.

Together, the number of refugees and internally displaced persons means that more than a quarter of Sudan’s population of 47 million people has fled.

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