More than 6,500 Sudanese families have fled escalating clashes between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the city of Qatana and surrounding villages in White Nile State, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has reported.
According to the UN agency, at least 6,514 families have been displaced from 18 villages and have sought refuge in the Al-Qurashi area of Al-Jazira State, east of White Nile State.
Fighting remains intense in the region, with the RSF maintaining control over Qatana city despite the army’s continued advances.
On Tuesday, Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused the RSF of carrying out a horrific massacre that left 433 civilians dead in Qatana’s villages. The RSF has not issued a response to the allegations.
The RSF has been steadily losing ground to the army in central Sudan, including in Khartoum and El-Jazira states, as well as in southern White Nile and North Kordofan.
However, the paramilitary force remains dominant in four out of Darfur’s five states and has not extended its reach into Sudan’s northern and eastern regions.
In Khartoum State, which comprises three cities, the army now controls 90% of Bahri in the north, most of Omdurman in the west, and 60% of central Khartoum, where key sites such as the presidential palace and the international airport are located.
Military forces have nearly encircled these strategic areas, while RSF fighters remain entrenched in neighbourhoods in the east and south.
