Over 36,000 have fled key Sudan region since RSF seized El Fasher

More than 36,000 people have fled Sudan's Kordofan region since Saturday amid a surge in fighting, the UN's migration agency has said, following the capture last week of the city of El Fasher in neighbouring Darfur by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) after a siege lasting over a year.

- Carlos Mureithi

The strategic central area between the country's Darfur region and the Khartoum-Riverine area that includes the capital, Khartoum, to the east, has in recent weeks become the latest battleground in the two-year civil war between the Sudanese armed forces (SAF) and the paramilitary group.

An estimated 36,825 people fled five localities in North Kordofan state between 26 October - the day El Fasher fell to the RSF - and 31 October, the International Organization for Migration said on Sunday.

The people, most on foot, headed to Tawila, a town west of El Fasher that is sheltering more than 652,000 displaced people, the UN said.

Mirjana Spoljaric, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said in comments published yesterday that the situation in Sudan was “horrific” and history was repeating itself in Darfur.