Sudan: UN, 700 thousand displaced, doubled in one week

(ANSA) - KHARTOUM, 10 MAY - More than 700,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in Sudan because of the war, twice as many as a week ago: the UN said, while there is no end in sight to hostilities after more than three weeks of fighting between the army and paramilitaries.
Looting and fighting continued for the 25th consecutive day in Khartoum, as hundreds of members of the Beja tribe demonstrated in Port Sudan, a coastal town 850 kilometers east of the capital, demanding weapons to fight alongside the army.
The conflict has already caused more than 750 deaths and 5,000 injuries.
Nearly 150,000 refugees have left the country while more than 700,000 people have been displaced inside Sudan, according to the United Nations, more than double the 340,000 counted last Tuesday. Many have fled Khartoum, a city of five million inhabitants where those who have remained are now living barricaded in their homes.
Before the war, one in three Sudanese suffered from hunger. If the war continues, up to 2.5 million more people will go hungry every day, the UN predicts. As for the "pre-discussions", only "technical", on a temporary ceasefire between the two sides, underway in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, until yesterday there had been no "great progress".
(ANSA).