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More than 100,000 people have fled Sudan’s conflict-hit Kordofan region since October, the United Nations said on Tuesday, as violence escalates across the vast southern area.
Sudan has remained locked in a brutal conflict since April 2023, with fighting between the national army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The war has claimed tens of thousands of lives, displaced more than 11 million people and sparked what the UN described as one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
Figures released on Tuesday by the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) showed that about 115,223 people were displaced from Kordofan between 25 October and 5 February.
The sharp rise followed more than 80 violent incidents recorded across the North, South, and West Kordofan states, the agency said.
Displacement increased after the RSF redirected its military operations towards the region, following its capture of El-Fasher in October. El-Fasher had been the Sudanese army’s last stronghold in neighbouring Darfur.
The fall of El-Fasher forced at least 127,000 people to flee and coincided with reports of mass killings, rape, abductions and widespread looting.
The UN has repeatedly warned that Kordofan now faces the risk of similar atrocities as it becomes a central battleground in the wider conflict.
On Monday, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said drone strikes in Kordofan killed nearly 100 civilians and injured 142 others in the two weeks leading up to 6 February.
He said both sides in the conflict carried out strikes that hit a range of targets, including a World Food Programme convoy, markets, health facilities, and residential neighbourhoods in North and South Kordofan.
Kordofan’s strategic location between RSF-controlled Darfur to the west and army-held areas of the Nile Valley to the east, north and centre has left the region increasingly vulnerable as both forces battle for control.
