Sudanese refugees and South Sudanese returnees travel atop a truck transporting them from the border towards the Upper Nile State town of Renk, South Sudan, 12 May 2023. Fleeing the armed conflict between the Sudanese military and the RSF (Rapid Support Forces) militia which started last 15 April, some 40 000 people have arrived into South Sudan according to the UNHCR. Most of the refugees are part of the some 800 000 South Sudanese who had fled the war in South Sudan in the first place and they are returning to a country which is barely out of conflict itself with tensions still remaining in many areas and more than 2 million internally displaced people. The scarcity of food and water and the military escalation had made the stay of most civilians impossible in Sudan. Upon arriving at Joda border crossing the refugees head to a transit area set up by the UNHCR in the small town of Renk, where various UN agencies assist them with registration, food, health check and logistics to either leave Renk which is not equipped to house a large refugee population. EPA-EFE/AMEL PAIN 
"These are refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced people, people being forced away by conflict, by persecution, by different and increasingly complex forms of violence," said Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
"Conflict remains a very, very deep driver of displacement." In its report on global trends in forced displacement, UNHCR said that there had been a yearly increase in the number of people forcibly displaced over the last 12 years.
UNHCR estimates that forced displacement has continued to increase in the first four months of 2024, and that the number of those displaced is likely to have exceeded 120 million by the end of April.
"Unless there is a shift in international geopolitics, unfortunately, I actually see that figure continuing to go up," Grandi said, referring to the risk of new conflicts.
The conflicts that have driven displacement include the war in Sudan, which Grandi described as "one of the most catastrophic ones" despite garnering less attention that other crises. More that 9 million people have been internally displaced and another 2 million have fled to neighbouring countries including Chad, Egypt and South Sudan, Grandi said.
"People are arriving in the hundreds every day," he said, referring to the influx of people seeking safety in Chad. In Gaza, Israel's bombardment and ground campaign have caused around 1.7 million people – nearly 80% of the Palestinian enclave's population – to become internally displaced, many of them multiple times.
Grandi warned that the possible crossings of Gazans into Egypt from the southern border town of Rafah to escape Israel's military offensive would be catastrophic.
"Another refugee crisis outside Gaza would be catastrophic on all levels, including because we have no guarantee that the people will be able to return to Gaza one day," Grandi said. (Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)