SUDAN
About 22,000 people have been displaced from Sudan’s Blue Nile state in the last week as fighting intensified in the Geissan district, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Tuesday.
OCHA said in a statement that continued violence is putting civilians at risk and forcing thousands to flee their homes.
“In Blue Nile State, local authorities report that nearly 22,000 people may have been displaced in the past seven days due to escalating fighting in the locality of Geissan,” it said.
The statement said that “many are sheltering in schools or have fled to other areas, including towards the state capital, Ed Damazine.”
The Geissan Emergency Room, a local aid body, said Sunday that nearly 20,000 people had fled the area of Medina 12 in the Geissan district because of the fighting and worsening security conditions.
Blue Nile has seen a new escalation in the last two days after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North launched attacks in several areas of the state.
OCHA also said attacks on Saturday on villages north and northwest of El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, caused casualties and displaced civilians, amid reports that civilian property and livestock were looted.
“In West Darfur State, civilians were reportedly killed and injured when a drone strike hit a fuel market in Adekong, near the border with Chad, last Thursday. The attack also damaged civilian property,” it said.
OCHA renewed its demand for all parties to the conflict “to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, respect international humanitarian law, and allow humanitarian organizations to operate safely and independently.”
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Monday that 450 people were displaced from the village of al-Qardud Abu Zeid in the al-Rahad district of North Kordofan because of deteriorating security in a single day.
Alongside Blue Nile and Darfur, fighting has continued since Oct. 25 in Sudan’s three Kordofan states — North Kordofan, West Kordofan and South Kordofan — between the army and the RSF.
Sudan has been at war between the army and the RSF since April 2023. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced about 13 million, according to UN and international estimates.
