The UN refugee agency UNHCR fears that a large number of refugees are now trying to escape from Sudan, mainly to neighboring Chad. A large number of residents have already left Sudan and the Darfur province.
UNHCR coordinator Jens Hesemann says that up to 90,000 refugees could arrive in the next three months.
Quarter million fixed
The UN estimates that around 260,000 civilians are stranded along or near the border between Chad and Sudan.
Chad is also preparing further efforts.
"We are sending humanitarian funds and identifying new safe places to receive refugees," says Gassim Cherif, a spokesman for the Chadian government.
Cherif emphasizes that cooperation with several UN agencies, such as UNHCR, the humanitarian cooperation agency IOM and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs OCHA, is being intensified.
The urgent crisis in the previously besieged city in the Darfur region of Sudan is prompting the UN Security Council to meet – but not until Friday in a week. The demand for an emergency meeting comes from Britain, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Norway.
War crimes reports
A total of 24 of the council's 47 member states support the meeting on the RSF (Rapid Support Forces) militia group's capture of the city - and extensive reports of war crimes, murder, sexual violence and persecution in al-Fashir (El Fasher) and its surroundings.
The RSF paramilitary force took the city around October 26 after an 18-month siege. About 65,000 residents have fled the city since then, according to the UN. A large proportion of the refugees are women and children.
Around 650,000 internally displaced people in the ongoing civil war between the RSF and the Sudanese army had taken refuge in al-Fashir before the siege.
