UNHCR Representative in Chad Laura Lo Castro told a briefing in Geneva that thousands of Sudanese refugees had already arrived in Chad, Sudan's neighbor to the west, over the past 10 days.
"For the moment, we are working with 20,000 refugees, operational figure, but we are planning for up to 100,000 worst case scenario," the official said.
UNHCR Representative in South Sudan Marie-Helene Verney said that 4,000 Sudanese refugees had already crossed south into South Sudan and that this figure may reach 45,000. She also noted that around 125,000 South Sudanese refugees in Sudan are highly likely to return home, but accommodating them might turn out to be a challenge.
"In South Sudan, the planning figure that we have for the most likely scenario is 125,000 returns of South Sudanese refugees into South Sudan and 45,000 [Sudanese] refugees. We know the returns will take place earlier, they are mostly from Khartoum, and the refugee flows are likely to be afterwards," she said.
On April 15, violent clashes broke out between the Sudanese armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), with the epicenter in Khartoum. The military accused the RSF of mutiny and launched airstrikes against their bases. Abdel Fattah Burhan, the head of the Sudanese military, issued a decree disbanding the RSF. The parties have introduced a number of temporary nationwide ceasefires since then, but they have not contributed to the settlement of the conflict yet.
The Sudanese Health Ministry on Friday put the overall death toll in the clashes at around 600 people, while the World Health Organization reported earlier in the day that at least 459 people were killed and 4,072 others injured as a result of the conflict.