About 6,000 people, the vast majority of them women, have fled Sudan and sought refuge in the Central African Republic in the two weeks since deadly hostilities broke out between the army and paramilitaries, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced on Sunday.

“This number consists of 70% women, 15% girls and 10% men and approximately 400 returnees,” UNHCR said on Saturday. A representative in the Central African Republic confirmed these numbers to AFP on Sunday.

Millions of Sudanese have been caught between shelling and fire since a merciless power struggle broke out on April 15 between the forces of the head of the armed forces, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the second-in-command of the military regime, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. or “Khameti”, leader of the highly feared Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The Sudanese Ministry of Health spoke yesterday Saturday of at least 528 dead and 4,599 injured – but the official count is considered to be a real underestimate.

The Central African Republic, one of the poorest countries in the world, where civil war has been raging for years, neighbors Sudan in the Wakaga province (north-east). On Thursday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that nearly 3,000 people had entered the country and set up “makeshift camps” near the border community of Am Dafok.

“The movement between Sudan and the Central African Republic is facing many problems, which has caused a large increase in the prices of basic products,” the United Nations pointed out, while “120,000 people are in need of food aid” in the north of the country .

In Birao, the capital of Wakaga, the price of a bag of sugar (50 kg) has doubled since the conflict broke out in Sudan and has reached 80,000 Central African Republic francs (or about 122 euros), OCHA said.

According to the UN, 75,000 civilians were displaced within Sudan, while at least 20,000 fled to Chad, 4,000 to South Sudan, 3,500 to Ethiopia. It is estimated that at least 270,000 people will leave the country if the conflict continues.