More than 36,000 people have fled communities in the Kordofan region east of Darfur, the UN migration agency (IOM) says. This comes after the RSF militia took the town of al-Fashir in Darfur a little over a week ago, with reports of brutal massacres that left hundreds dead.
Kordofan – strategically located between the Darfur region and the capital region around the Nile – has become the latest battlefield in the fighting between the Sudanese army and the RSF (Rapid Support Forces), which has lasted since April 2023.
Intense attacks
On Monday, residents of North Kordofan reported a sharp increase in activity from both the RSF and the army in several communities in the state.
"We have stopped going to our farms for fear of fighting," says Suleiman Babiker in Um Smeima west of al-Ubayyid.
Both sides are fighting to take control of al-Ubayyid, the capital of North Kordofan, which is described as an important logistical hub connecting Darfur and Khartoum and also houses an airport.
There are also warnings that famine is hitting areas in Sudan. The UN-backed Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) in Rome – which calculates the extent of hunger and famine – says that famine is prevailing in al-Fashir and in the RSF-besieged town of Kadugli in the Kordofan region.
Another 20 regions in Sudan are threatened by acute food shortages, the IPC reports on its website.
Crimes against humanity
UN representatives warn of large-scale war crimes and ethnically motivated acts of revenge, especially in the city of Bara in North Kordofan.
Meanwhile, prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) say that RSF's attack inside the previously besieged city of al-Fashir (El-Fasher) could be assessed as a crime against humanity – which in many cases can be compared to the charge of genocide.
The court's prosecutor's office said in a statement on Monday that "these atrocities are part of a broader pattern of violence that has affected the entire Darfur region since April 2023."
"Such actions, if they continue, may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity," the prosecution continues.
The conflict between the Sudanese army and the RSF has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 2023, displaced nearly 12 million people and created what is often described as the world's largest humanitarian crisis.
