Star Metro - Fears of Sudan refugee influx to West misplaced: US official

The conflict between the army and rival paramilitary forces entered its fourth month on Saturday, leaving at least 3,000 dead according to a conservative estimate, and numerous truces have fallen apart.

Three million people have been displaced internally or fled to other countries, according to the International Organization for Migration.

As Western governments face pressure to lower migrant arrivals, Julieta Valls Noyes, US Assistant Secretary of State for population, refugees, and migration, said the international community needed to address the root causes of the Sudan crisis.

"I don't think that the tragedy or the concern is where these people wind up. The tragedy and the concern is that they have to flee in the first place," she said in an interview in Kenya's capital Nairobi.

"What we need to focus on is not where the people are going but why they are leaving," she said.

Many Sudanese who would otherwise have fled "haven't been able to move because there's no safety, there's no fuel, they can't get out of where they are", she added.

"That's the tragedy."

She said the US government would provide $380 million in humanitarian assistance to Africa -- including towards the crisis in Sudan -- adding to the $4 billion in funding from Washington to the continent this financial year.

Last month, the United Nations said a record 110 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced from their homes.

The war between Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), erupted in mid-April.

Diplomatic efforts to end the violence continue but have failed to bear fruit, and numerous ceasefires have been broken.

Talks brokered by the United States and Saudi Arabia were adjourned last month after several truces were systematically violated.

M.Johnston--SMC