PORT SUDAN, SUDAN — Thousands have fled a town in southern Sudan since clashes erupted last week between the Sudanese army and rival paramilitaries, the United Nations’ migration agency said Sunday.
The conflict in Sudan, which erupted in mid-April 2023, has pitted the forces of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who leads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces [RSF].
“Between 1,000 and 3,000 households were displaced from Um Rawaba town” in North Kordofan state in the country’s south in just five days, the UN’s International Organization for Migration said.
Clashes broke out in the area last week between the army and the RSF, at the same time that the military led an advance on the central Sudan state of Al-Jazira, some 300 kilometres northeast.
Families fled “due to increased security concerns following continued clashes across the locality”, the IOM said.
In North Kordofan, over 205,000 people are currently displaced, according to the latest UN figures released on Wednesday.
Across the country, 11.5 million people are internally displaced, including 2.7 displaced in prior conflicts, in what the UN has called the world’s largest displacement crisis.
The war has also claimed the lives of tens of thousands and pushed the country to the brink of famine.
Last month, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification [IPC] review said that famine has gripped five areas in western and southern Sudan, and is expected to spread to five more.
Around 350,000 people in North Kordofan are currently experiencing emergency levels of hunger, the report found, the final stage before famine is declared.
The IPC said that “only a ceasefire can reduce the risk of famine spreading further”, with 24.6 million people, nearly half the population, already facing “high levels of acute food insecurity”.
