At least 25 people have drowned as they tried to flee fighting between the army and paramilitary forces in southeast Sudan.
About 25 people died when a boat sank while crossing the Blue Nile in the southeastern state of Sennar. The majority of the dead are women and children,” the local resistance committee said in a statement.
The committee is one of hundreds across Sudan that have been on the frontlines coordinating aid and pro-democracy demonstrations since the start of the war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Force (RSF) last year.
The RSF announced on Saturday that it had captured a military base in Sinja, the capital of Sennar state, where more than 500,000 people have fled the war.
According to eyewitnesses, the RSF infiltrated neighboring villages and forced residents to flee across the Nile in small wooden boats. The United Nations said on Monday that at least 55,000 people had fled Sinja alone within three days.
Local authorities estimated on Thursday that about 120,000 displaced people have arrived in neighboring Gedaref state this week. State Health Minister Ahmad Al-Amin Adam said that 90,000 displaced people have been registered.
More than 10 million people are currently displaced in Sudan. The United Nations has called it the worst displacement crisis in the world.
The conflict has killed thousands of people in Sudan, which has a population of 48 million. According to some estimates, the number of dead has reached one hundred and fifty thousand.