The UN migration agency has warned about the worsening situation in western Sudan as fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) intensifies, sparking a new wave of refugees.
At least 1,510 people escaped the city El-Fasher over a five day period in October according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) amid intense fighting in the area.
The agency said the displaced have scattered across various sites in El-Fasher and Tawila in North Darfur, warning that “the situation remains tense and volatile, raising fears of a worsening humanitarian crisis.”
The Sudanese army said it repelled an RSF attack on El-Fasher from three directions, inflicting “heavy losses in lives and equipment.”
Local groups said hundreds of families fleeing the city arrived in Tawila urging international organisations to “act urgently to provide aid and assistance.”
The war between the army and the RSF, which began in April 2023, has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced 14 million, according to UN and local authorities. Research by U.S. universities estimates the true death toll at around 130,000.
Advanced weapons are pouring into Sudan, fuelling the ruinous civil war and endangering security across the region according to an investigation by The Washington Post.
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What began as a power struggle between Sudan’s two most powerful men has devolved into a sprawling, hellishly complex war that analysts say threatens the long-term security of countries well beyond its borders.
It has sucked in fighters from Libya, Chad, Mali, South Sudan and the Central African Republic — even from as far afield as Colombia — along with weapons that reportedly originate from Turkey, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
On Saturday, Darfur regional governor Minni Arko Minnawi announced that joint forces of armed movements allied with the Sudanese army had achieved a victory over the RSF in Abu Gamra, regaining control of the area from the RSF.
In recent weeks, violent clashes have intensified across the three Kordofan states—North, West, and South—between the Sudanese army and the RSF.
Over the past few weeks, the RSF’s territorial control has sharply declined across Sudan as the army expanded its advances, regaining ground in Khartoum and White Nile State.
