Almost 90 per cent of the total displacement was attributed to conflict and violence, while some 10 per cent stemmed from the impact of natural disasters.

The capital of North Darfur could be about to fall to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces as they fight the Sudanese Armed Forces in the country's year-long civil war.

The fighting that erupted last April between militias has forced out at least 8.5 million people in what the UN calls the largest internal displacement crisis in the world.

Up to 15,000 people were killed in one city in Sudan's West Darfur region last year in ethnic violence, a United Nations report found.

UAE arms shipments support a war that has claimed more than 3,900 lives and work against efforts to put an end to the conflict.