International Aid group, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), has expressed its deep concerns over the escalating violence in Wad Madani, the capital of Al Jazira state in Sudan. 

The humanitarian organisation’s concerns stem from the fact that the city has more than 700,000 people, including at least 84,000 that have been displaced from Khartoum, the country’s capital. 

“Wad Madani has been a place of refuge for those displaced from Khartoum, including for humanitarian and medical evacuation efforts. Now the fighting is approaching, and heavy artillery and gunfire have been heard for three days,” William Carter, NRC’s country director, said in a statement on Sunday. 

“A continuous flow of people, many of them who already ran for their lives just a few months ago, are now rushing towards already heavily burdened and resource-depleted cities in neighbouring states. We are also extremely worried for highly vulnerable families in Wad Madani who have been crammed into displacement sites in schools for months and have nowhere to hide from violence, no means to escape and nowhere else to flee.” 

Since April 15, Sudan’s Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces have been engaged in a crossfire in Khartoum. The crisis has led to the death of at least 10,000 people, and more than 6.3 million people have been uprooted from their homes. The crisis has escalated to other parts of the country. 

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said at least 57 warehouses of aid groups have been looted since the war began.  

Those displaced internally are now living in public buildings and schools. At least 15,000 are moving to neighboring Sennar and Gedaref states. 

The crisis has also forced many Sudanese people to seek refuge in neighbouring South Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Chad. 

A series of peace accords to resolve the war between RSF’s Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo and SAF’s Abdulfatah al-Burhan have failed. 

Humanitarian agencies noted that if the war is not brought to an end, what the northeastern African country is witnessing currently is the beginning of “a larger tragedy yet to unfold.”

“I have never, in all my years, seen such a horrific mega-catastrophe with so little attention or resources to reach people in their hour of greatest need,” said Jan Egeland, NRC’s secretary-general. 

NRC said it is concerned because Al Jazira State is one of the few sanctuaries left in the country. 

The international NGO called on the parties to the conflict to protect human life and properties while allowing the safe delivery of aid to those in need.