Over 600 civilians flee Sudan’s South Kordofan as insecurity worsens: UN

By Adel Abdelrheem and Rania Abu Shamala

KHARTOUM, Sudan/ ISTANBUL (AA) – Around 650 additional civilians fled South Kordofan state in western Sudan due to worsening insecurity, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday.

In a statement, the UN agency said that 460 people were displaced from the city of Kadugli on Monday and Tuesday and headed to North Kordofan, White Nile state (south), and Khartoum.

The organization added that 145 more people fled from the city of Dilling, and another 45 from Al-Kuweik during the same period and took shelter in South Kordofan and West Kordofan.

The IOM earlier said that 575 people had fled from Kadugli, Dilling, and Al-Kuweik on Sunday due to rising insecurity.

According to UN estimates, more than 41,000 people fled escalating violence in North and South Kordofan states during November.

The three Kordofan states – North, West, and South – have seen weeks of fierce fighting between the army and the RSF, prompting tens of thousands of people to flee.

Of Sudan’s 18 states, the RSF controls all five states of the Darfur region in the west, except for some northern parts of North Darfur that remain under army control. The army, in turn, holds most areas of the remaining 13 states in the south, north, east, and center, including the capital, Khartoum.

The conflict between the Sudanese army and the RSF, which began in April 2023, has since killed thousands of people and displaced millions of others.