More than 36,000 Sudanese civilians have fled towns and villages in the Kordofan region of eastern Darfur, the United Nations said, just over a week after paramilitary forces seized the town of al-Fashir.
In recent weeks, the central Kordofan region – a strategic area between the Darfur provinces and central Sudan around Khartoum – has become the new scene of conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Response Force (RSF), which have been in a brutal conflict since April 2023.
An estimated 36,825 people fled five local communities in North Kordofan between October 26 and 31, the UN migration agency said late Sunday.
On Monday, residents reported a large increase in the presence of both the RSF and the military in the towns and villages of North Kordofan.
Both the army and the RSF are fighting for el-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan and a key logistics and command center linking Darfur and Khartoum, which also houses an airport.
“Today, all our forces are concentrated on the front here,” said a member of the RSF in a video shared by the RSF on Sunday, referring to the town north of el-Obeid. The RSF took control of Bara last week.
Suleiman Babiker, a resident of Um Smeima, west of al-Obeid, told AFP that after the capture of al-Fashir, the number of RSF vehicles had increased.
– We stopped going to our properties, fearing conflict – he told AFP.
Another local resident, who requested anonymity for security reasons, also stated that “in the past two weeks there has been a large increase in military equipment and weapons of the army west and south of al-Obeid.”
Martha Pobee, the UN assistant secretary-general for Africa, warned last week of “mass atrocities” and “ethnically motivated reprisals” by the RSF in Bara.
She warned of repeating patterns similar to those in Darfur, where RSF fighters have been accused of mass killings, sexual violence and kidnappings against non-Arab communities after the fall of al-Fashir.
The conflict has already killed tens of thousands of people, displaced almost 12 million and created the world’s largest crisis of displacement and hunger.
(Vijesti.ba)
