The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned today that "more than 800,000 people" could flee the deadly fighting in Sudan due to military clashes.

According to UN High Commissioner Filippo Grandi, at least 73,000 people have arrived in Sudan's neighboring countries since the fighting began in mid-April.

"The UNHCR, together with governments and partners, is preparing for the possibility of more than 800,000 people fleeing the fighting in Sudan to neighboring countries," said Filippo Grandi on his Twitter account, quoted by Lusa.

Filippo Grandi, added that: "we hope it doesn't come to that, but if the violence doesn't stop, we will see more people forced to flee Sudan in search of safety."

This is the first time that the UNHCR has published such a precise figure to quantify the number of people who might flee to neighboring countries.

The UN refugee agency had previously mentioned "hundreds of thousands" of people.

So far, most people have fled to Chad and South Sudan.

On April 25, the UNHCR had indicated that 270,000 people could take refuge in these two countries, but gave no details about other countries neighboring Sudan, which also shares borders with Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Libya and the Central African Republic.

The fighting, which has left hundreds dead, has been between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese army since April 15, following tensions over the reform of the army and the integration of paramilitaries into the regular forces, as part of a political process aimed at putting the country back on the road to democracy after the 2021 coup d'état.