NAIROBI, June 20 (Xinhua) — Kenyan President William Ruto on Tuesday appealed to warring parties in Sudan to allow humanitarian agencies to operate freely.

The humanitarian agencies are ramping up aid operations in Sudan to alleviate the suffering caused by the two-month conflict and their work should proceed unimpeded, Ruto said in a statement. He made the remarks in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, when he met UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi who briefed him on the humanitarian and refugee crisis in Sudan.

The aid operations remain hampered by looting, violence and bureaucratic impediments amid insecurity, according to the United Nations.

Grandi told the president of Kenya, which is the chair of the Quartet Group of countries on the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development roadmap to peace in Sudan, that the situation has escalated and the number of refugees fleeing the war is expected to hit the two million mark.

“The saddest part is that the humanitarian staff are not respected and the UNHCR office in Khartoum has been destroyed. The huge number of refugees at the borders of Egypt and Chad have led to a lot of suffering,” Grandi said.