Over 200,000 displaced in Sudan’s Kordofan

More than 200,000 people have been newly displaced across Sudan’s Kordofan region due to intensified fighting since late last year, the United Nations has said, as continued drone attacks target critical water and electricity infrastructure in the region’s biggest city, el-Obeid.

The warning from the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) came on Wednesday as seasonal flooding in nearby North Darfur state also compounded the displacement crisis.

“The warning signs are impossible to ignore,” said IOM Director General Amy Pope.

“Across Sudan, families are fleeing violence, losing access to water, electricity and healthcare, and now facing the added burden of destructive floods.”

The war in Sudan – which erupted in 2023 amid a power struggle between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – has killed at least 59,000 people and forced some 14 million people from their homes.

According to the IOM, displacement in Kordofan’s Sheikan district, which includes the city of el-Obeid, has surged 25 percent over the past eight months.

In el-Obeid, drone attacks by the RSF on the city’s main power transformer have knocked out electricity needed to pump water, run hospitals and keep phone lines working, the organisation said.

In Blue Nile state, some 78,000 people have also fled their homes, the IOM said, while in West Darfur, about 18,000 others were displaced in the first half of August.

Meanwhile in North Darfur, heavy rains in the Tawila area have damaged nearly 1,350 homes, displacing more than 1,000 families, the UN organisation added.
“Sudan is one of the world’s largest displacement crises,” Pope said.

“The combined impact of conflict, infrastructure damage and flooding is stretching thousands of families beyond their limits.”

According to the UN, some 8.6 million people have been internally displaced in Sudan since the war began.

More than 4.2 million people also have fled to neighbouring countries.Some 33.7 million people require humanitarian assistance, according to the UN.

Reporting from one of the main roads leading to el-Obeid, Al Jazeera’s Almigdad Alruhaid described a route where drones belonging to the RSF have targeted army vehicles, oil tankers and cargo trucks.

The Sudanese army-held city has endured one of the longest sieges of the war, but the RSF “maintains position south and west of the city and still continues attacking nearby villages”, Alruhaid said, adding that this was further worsening the humanitarian situation in the region.

El-Obeid had a population of 750,000 before the war, but authorities now estimate it has reached 3.4 million, according to the Sudan Tribune.

Save the Children, a humanitarian group, said nearly 39,000 children have arrived in the city in the first six months of this year.