The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated the number of people who entered Ethiopia to flee the current situation in Sudan at 18,000.

"The people who arrived from Sudan to Ethiopia through the border town of Metema have exceeded 18,000," the agency said in its latest update on the situation on Thursday, adding that so far more than 440 people have entered Ethiopia through the Kermuk border crossing in Benishangul, Ethiopia, in Gumuz region.

She noted that new arrivals were also reported at the Pagak / Bubier border crossing in the Gambella region of Ethiopia for the first time since the start of the conflict in Sudan.

Figures from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs showed that the arrivals were of 60 nationalities, most of them Ethiopians, Sudanese and Turks.

Sudan has witnessed bloody armed clashes between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in the capital, Khartoum, and other areas since April 15, as they accuse each other of igniting the conflict.