Central Sudan Violence Displaces 2,000 People in 3 Days The Media Line Staff Renewed fighting in central Sudan has driven roughly 2,000 people from their homes in recent days, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Monday, marking the latest escalation in a conflict that has devastated the country for more than two years. According to the […]
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The Media Line: Central Sudan Violence Displaces 2,000 People in 3 Days
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Central Sudan Violence Displaces 2,000 People in 3 Days
The Media Line Staff
Renewed fighting in central Sudan has driven roughly 2,000 people from their homes in recent days, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Monday, marking the latest escalation in a conflict that has devastated the country for more than two years. According to the agency, families fled a cluster of towns and villages around Bara in North Kordofan between Friday and Sunday as clashes intensified between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
North Kordofan and neighboring Darfur have become the primary battlegrounds in the war between the army and the paramilitary RSF, a rivalry that erupted in 2023 after the two factions — once aligned during Sudan’s attempted democratic transition — turned their weapons on each other. The World Health Organization estimates the conflict has killed at least 40,000 people and displaced 12 million, though aid organizations warn the real toll is significantly higher.
The IOM reported that recent movements add to a broader exodus from North Kordofan, where some 38,990 people fled between late October and mid-November. Residents have been leaving areas including Sheikhan, Er Rahad, Um Rawaba, Um Siala, and Sakra. Most are heading toward the Khartoum-Omdurman region or deeper into Sheikan as fighting approaches their communities.
Local groups recorded heavy casualties in late October when RSF fighters attacked Bara, killing at least 47 people — including women and children — according to the Sudan Doctors Network. Volunteers working with charitable kitchens in West Kordofan told The Associated Press that attendance has plummeted in Babanusa, suggesting many families have already fled as RSF forces claimed to be moving toward the army’s headquarters there.
Conditions remain dire in Darfur, where atrocities have been reported amid the RSF’s capture of the strategic city of El Fasher. Aid groups say hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands displaced in recent weeks. The Sudan Doctors Network said Sunday the RSF had gathered bodies from the streets and buried some in mass graves while burning others, describing the actions as an attempt to destroy evidence of abuses against civilians.
Satellite images analyzed by independent researchers appear to corroborate those claims. The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab said the visuals show “burning of objects that may be consistent with bodies,” following RSF operations inside El Fasher, including a fire at a hospital compound identified in recent imagery.