Over 1,400 flee Sudan's North Darfur in single day as fighting intensifies

About 1,430 people were displaced from five villages in Sudan's North Darfur state in a single day due to worsening insecurity, the UN migration agency says.

The International Organization for Migration said in a statement on Thursday that around 1,430 people fled the villages of Shatmarta, Sangari, Goz Laban, Dal Barida and Khair Wajid in the Umbro locality on Tuesday because of escalating insecurity.

The organisation said some of the displaced moved to other areas within Umbro, while others crossed the border into neighbouring Chad.

It added that the security situation in the area “remains tense and volatile” and that it continues to closely monitor developments.

The latest displacement comes three days after the IOM reported that about 2,260 people had fled two villages in Umbro due to insecurity.

Fleeing civilians

According to the independent Emergency Lawyers group, villages in Umbro have been under attack for about a month by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), with assaults including raids on markets, the burning of villages and widespread looting.

The RSF controls four of Darfur's five states and much of the fifth, while the Sudanese army continues to hold parts of North Darfur as well as most of the country's other 18 states, including the capital, Khartoum.

Darfur accounts for roughly one-fifth of Sudan's territory, which spans more than 1.8 million square kilometers (695,000 square miles), while most of Sudan's estimated 50 million people live in areas controlled by the army.

Sudan has been engulfed in conflict since April 2023, when fighting erupted between the army and the RSF over plans to integrate the paramilitary force into the military. The war has triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, killing tens of thousands and displacing nearly 13 million.