Civil society organisations (CSOs) in Nuba Mountains, Sudan’s South Kordofan region, have said that nearly 180,000 people who fled the fighting in Khartoum are now stranded.

Development Diaries reports that the authorities in Dilling are not allowing travel buses carrying newly displaced persons to get to Kadugli, Kordofan.

It is understood that as many as ten buses travelling from Khartoum to Kadugli were stopped on their way on 10 June.

While the authorities and military intelligence officers have highlighted the lack of security on the road leading to Kadugli as their reason for turning away travellers, displaced persons are being left in dire situations.

Travellers, mostly women and children, are being made to wait outside buses in very complex humanitarian conditions as they have to sleep on the ground during heavy rainfall.

The coordinator of the civil society coalition in Nuba Mountains, Kojo Abajo, said those stranded on their way to Kadugli are in need of humanitarian and medical aid.

‘Most of them are women, young people, and children. They have faced many problems on their way to the Nuba Mountains and are now in dire need of humanitarian and medical aid’, Dabanga quoted Abajo as saying.

‘A large number of Nuba are still trapped in Khartoum where they are used as human shields. They need to be evacuated as most of them are very poor, and cannot pay the high transportation tariffs’.

Abajo further appealed to the international community to urgently intervene and provide immediate support as a large number of civilians are still trapped in Khartoum where they are used as human shields.

Photo source: Will Swanson