The UN Security Council said Friday he was “concerned” about the rise in violence in Sudan, a country torn apart by war since April.

The Security Council “strongly condemned” in a statement the attacks on civilians and the extension of the conflict “into areas where large populations of displaced persons, refugees and asylum seekers live”.

“The members of the Security Council expressed their concern over the spread of violence and the worsening humanitarian situation in Sudan,” the statement said.

Fighting that has raged since mid-April between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Force (RSF) paramilitaries has displaced 7.1 million people, Stephane Dujarric, the UN secretary-general’s spokesman, said on Thursday, calling “this displacement crisis” “the most important worldwide”.

Added to this number are 1.5 million people who have taken refuge in neighboring countries, he added.

The war between the head of the army, the general Abdel Fatah al Burhanand of Mohammed’s fellow general and former associate Hamdan Naglohead of the DTY, expanded last week to al-Jazeera province, in the central-eastern part of the country, which until now had escaped the conflicts.

The fighting is closing in on Wad Madani, where many displaced people from the capital Khartoum have taken refuge. The city had been turned into a center for the distribution of aid by humanitarian organizations.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), up to 300,000 people have fled Wad Madani in a “new wave of large-scale displacement”.

The Security Council called on the warring parties to allow “rapid, safe and unimpeded humanitarian access throughout Sudan.”

He also condemned the December 10 attack on a convoy belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross and called for “an increase in humanitarian aid to Sudan.”

During the eight months of war in Sudan, 12,000 people have been killed, according to a conservative estimate by the Armed Conflict and Event Data Project.