“I spent the night in fear, unable to go out of my house, as people were being killed everywhere,” she said, worrying about how she would protect her five-year-old son and three-year-old daughter.

Panicked by the sounds of shooting and warplanes flying overhead, she tried calling her husband at work, only to learn from friends that he had been shot dead.

I spent the night in fear, unable to go out of my house, as people were being killed everywhere – Arafa

No time to mourn

With no time to mourn and no clear plan, she fled Khartoum with her two young children in a desperate bid to escape. Setting out by bus, she arrived in Madani, a city 135 kilometres southeast of Khartoum, where a local man offered to help them leave the country.

Together with five others, they were driven to Port Sudan, the country’s main eastern seaport. From there they walked for a whole day before finding transport towards the Egyptian border.

“I was scared, tired, and without hope,” she said, noting that she spent 80 hours without food or water. “The road was difficult, and the continued sound of gunfire was deafening. I did not think we would make it. I was holding my children in my arms, fearing the war, the journey to asylum, and the long road ahead.”

Nowhere else to go

After crossing the border, they were eventually driven to Cairo and dropped off in a square in the unfamiliar city. With nowhere else to go, Arafa and her children spent the night on the street.

Arafa said that in the morning, a South Sudanese woman was passing by and saw her.

“She advised me to go to the office of UNHCR and register with them,” she said, adding that her family is now registered for assistance with the agency and is living with the kind South Sudanese woman.

‘We are together, with the refugees’

Like the other countries neighbouring Sudan that have been impacted by the conflict, Egypt already hosts a large refugee population.

With UNHCR operations in these countries already acutely underfunded, the refugee agency said increased support will be vital to respond to the humanitarian needs of those fleeing the violence.

That includes about 60,000 Khartoum residents that have fled the city for safety.

We are together, hand by hand, with the refugees, listening to them – Randa Osman, UNHCR

Randa Osman, an assistant field officer with UNHCR, provided an update from the Shagarab Refugee Camp in eastern Sudan.

“Despite the ongoing conflict, we are together, hand by hand, with the refugees, listening to them, and being with the people we serve in all situations in Sudan,” she said.

Amid airstrikes, armed attacks, and urban warfare, more than 100,000 Sudanese have already reportedly escaped into neighbouring countries, with their harrowing stories echoing the plight of tens of thousands of others who are frantically fleeing, since fierce fighting between rival military groups began on 15 April.

Fleeing with nothing

“We fled Sudan for Chad,” said Halime Issakh Oumar, who is now a refugee. “We want to be safe. There is no security. We came with nothing, not even food or something to drink.”

Ms. Oumar’s story mirrors those of almost 21,000 Sudanese who sought refuge in neighbouring Chad. Another 10,000 Sudanese have fled to Central African Republic, and, as of Thursday, 47,000 have escaped to safety in Egypt, according UN reports.

In these countries as well as neighbouring Ethiopia and South Sudan, thousands of men, women, and children are arriving, some after perilous journeys, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and other UN entities.

Assisting growing numbers of refugees

Africa’s second largest refugee-hosting country, Sudan hosts more than 1.14 million refugees. Before the onset of the conflict, more than 3.7 million people were internally displaced, and now, there are many more, UNHCR said.

As the warring military factions have repeatedly broken fragile ceasefire agreements, several UN agencies say the numbers of refugees will continue to grow.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is currently recording more than 1,000 daily arrivals in Ethiopia, where the majority – 39 per cent – are returning Ethiopians, and 17 per cent are Sudanese and third country nationals from more than 50 other countries.

Raghuveer Sharma, who moved to Sudan from India in 2021, had worked at a steel plant outside Khartoum at the outset of the conflict. For a full week, armed groups had entered the premises daily, looting and firing weapons indiscriminately, taking a hostage, and demanding vehicles and mobile phones, he told UN News.

“We made a plan that as soon as armed groups entered the guest house, we would not let them come inside,” he said. “As long as we had vehicles and mobile phones, our lives would be spared.”

Grateful for being evacuated, he said that “after this experience, I will not go back, even if the situation improves.”

Women and children rest after crossing into Koufroun, a Chadian village situated on the Chad-Sudan border.

A ‘perfect storm’

The UN estimates that as many as 270,000 Sudanese could end up crossing the seven international borders of the 48 million-strong nation – the third largest country in Africa.

UNHCR said on Thursday that the agency is expecting an outflow of 860,000 refugees and returnees from Sudan.

The World Food Programme (WFP) warned of “a perfect storm” in Chad, where the influx of refugees is unfolding weeks before the onset of the lean season between harvests, which is expected to leave an estimated 1.9 million people severely food insecure.

Pounding rains arriving about the same time, threaten to turn swathes of desert into rivers, imperiling deliveries of key food assistance to the refugees and other vulnerable groups, the agency said.

“It’s a perfect storm,” said Pierre Honnorat, WFP Country Director and Representative in Chad. “The lean season coming in June, and the rainy season that will cut off all those regions.”

Everything lost ‘in the blink of an eye’

The Sudanese people’s stories paint a somber picture of how conflict can instantaneously shatter lives.

A 16-year-old Sudanese girl had made it across the Chadian border to safety.

“I would love to go back to my country,” she said, “but only if we are safe there.”

While many have managed to escape the fighting and reach safety, Arafa said her own family’s future feels far from secure.

“I can’t believe I am here in Egypt now, but I am still afraid of everything,” Arafa said. “I need help. I am afraid of the future. I lost my home, my husband, and my country in the blink of an eye. I don’t want to lose my children too. I want them to be safe.”

Non-food items are distributed in Koufroun, a Chadian village situated on the Chad-Sudan border.

According to news reports, Russian airstrikes targeted the capital Kyiv for the third time in four days, following on from what Russian authorities said was an assassination attempt by drone strike, on President Vladimir Putin, earlier on Wednesday.

Ukrainian authorities, who deny any involvement in the drone incident in Moscow, said Thursday morning’s large-scale attack on Kyiv was repulsed by the city’s air defences without casualties. There were drone explosions in the southern coastal city of Odesa, news reports said.

“We are extremely concerned for the plight of civilians after almost a week of nightly airstrikes and attacks which have killed and injured dozens of people”, Humanitarian Coordinator Matthew Hollingworth said.

Critical infrastructure has also been destroyed, compounding the dire humanitarian situation, he added.

Carnage in Kherson

Mr. Hollingworth said it was “particularly alarming to see how dozens were killed or injured in Kherson, when a train station and a supermarket where people buy their groceries, were hit during the busiest hours of the day.”

More than 20 were killed due to Russian shelling nearly the southern Ukrainian city, according to news reports, with over 45 people injured. Those who died included three engineers who were trying to repair damage inflicted by earlier attacks.

“We share the grief of families who have lost loved ones and wish a quick recovery to those injured”, said the UN Humanitarian Coordinator.

Ukrainian troops recaptured the city of Kherson last November, following some eight months of Russian occupation, but shelling continues from across the Dnipro River.

Briefing journalists in New York on Thursday, UN Deputy Spokesperson, Farhan Haq, said that in eastern Ukraine, a power plant was reportedly hit close to the front line of the fighting, cutting energy supplies for around 100,000, according to the Ukrainian Government.

‘Humanitarian crisis’ in Marinka

“Our colleagues on the ground also warn about the humanitarian crisis in the area surrounding Marinka, in the Donetsk region. Here, some 5,000 civilians – according to the colleagues – are enduring heavy ground fighting and hostilities that have escalated over the past two months”, Mr Haq continued.

The UN humanitarian coordination office, OCHA, issued a flash update warning that the crisis was “rapidly unfolding”, across the contested area, where heavy ground fighting has “dramatically escalated over the past two months.”

OCHA said the neighbouring communities of Kurakhove and Vuhledar, home to a further 24,000 civilians – were also impacted, both due to the violence and pressure over limited services and resources, with people taking refuge there from other parts of Donetsk.

So far, the UN and partners have provided 13 truckloads of humanitarian aid for the three communities, targeting around 15,000 in need.

“WFP takes this issue extremely seriously and will not tolerate any interference in its distribution of critical food aid to the most vulnerable women, men and children”, the agency said in a statement released on Wednesday night.

The agency has already launched a comprehensive investigation, and “taken swift action to establish all the facts and further strengthen our controls.”

Food distribution on hold

As a result, WFP has temporarily paused all food distributions in Tigray, saying that they will not resume until they can ensure aid will get to its intended recipients.

The brutal conflict between Ethiopian Government forces and the rebel fighters of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front erupted in November 2020, fought primarily across the northern province, but spilling into other parts of northern Ethiopia, drawing in forces from Eritrea, with allegations of war crimes committed on all sides.

Hundreds of thousands were reportedly killed and despite the formal cessation of hostilities in early November last year, the major humanitarian crisis exacerbated by the fighting, has continued.

Working with authorities

WFP said that it was working closely with the regional authorities to identify any individuals involved in diverted aid away, and would aim to “close any loopholes in the process of identifying and registering beneficiaries.”

“WFP is also strongly reiterating to our cooperating partners that they monitor and report any illicit activities, and that they are enforcing the agreed controls”, the statement continued.

‘Stringent controls’

The agency said that it prided itself on ensuring that donor funds were used properly, putting stringent controls in place, “in order to best serve the millions of the hungry who depend on WFP’s lifesaving and life-changing assistance.”

WFP noted that 84 per cent of the region was in a state of food crisis.

“WFP is resolutely committed to ensure life-saving food assistance reaches those most in need efficiently and effectively.”