(MENAFN) The United Nations aid chief on Sunday described the plight of displaced civilians in Sudan’s North Darfur state as “unspeakable,” noting that more than half of those fleeing are children.

“Unspeakable suffering in Tawila. Over half of the fleeing survivors are children,” Tom Fletcher wrote on X.

“One injured woman I met walked into the camp after surviving an attack, carrying her friend's starving child,” he added. “They're asking the world if help is coming.”

The UN relief agency said Fletcher visited Tawila and “met and spoke to women who fled El-Fasher only a few weeks ago.” He described the displaced Sudanese as “carrying terrifying stories of brutal violence. The world has not protected them. We must do better.”

Fletcher also visited El-Geneina in West Darfur and Zalingei in Central Darfur, according to the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Earlier in the week, he met with Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in Port Sudan.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that over 99,000 people have fled El-Fasher and nearby villages since Oct. 26. Last month, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized El-Fasher, controlling all five Darfur states, while Sudan’s army holds most of the remaining 13 states, including Khartoum.

Darfur accounts for roughly one-fifth of Sudan’s territory, though most of the country’s 50 million people live in army-held areas. Since April 2023, the army-RSF conflict has killed at least 40,000 and displaced 12 million, according to the World Health Organization.

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