NAIROBI
More than 5,000 people were displaced from a town in southeastern Sudan over the course of four days due to deteriorating security conditions, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Monday.
In a statement, the UN agency said its field teams estimated that 5,355 people, representing 1,071 families, were displaced from the town of Qaisan and seven villages in the locality, in the Blue Nile state.
The displacement, on Aug. 12-15, was due to worsening security conditions, it added.
The affected families fled to other locations within Qaisan, as well as to the localities of Al-Roseires and Wad Al-Mahi, also in the Blue Nile state.
The situation in the area remains tense and volatile, the IOM said.
On Aug. 11, the IOM said 2,500 people, representing 500 families, were displaced from Qaisan due to worsening insecurity and clashes in the area.
On that same day, Qaisan authorities said the Sudanese army had repelled an attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the allied Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) on the town near the Ethiopian border.
The Sudanese army controls large parts of the Blue Nile state, while the SPLM-N has fought the government since 2011, demanding autonomy in both South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
Since April 2023, the RSF and the Sudanese army have been fighting a war over a dispute related to integrating the paramilitary force into the military.
The war has killed tens of thousands of Sudanese and displaced around 13 million, triggering famine in one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
