KHARTOUM, Sudan/ ISTANBUL

Nearly 2,000 civilians were displaced from Sudan’s western city of Heglig in West Kordofan after an arduous nine-day displacement journey following the city’s takeover by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), local media said Tuesday.

Qamar El-Din Mohamed, the governor of the White Nile State, said that 1,850 displaced people had arrived in the city of Kosti from West Kordofan, the state news agency SUNA reported.

White Nile Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Lamyaa Ahmed Abdullah said national organizations, civil society groups, and local benefactors have begun providing food assistance, shelter, and medical services to the displaced civilians.

The new wave of displacement followed the RSF’s takeover of Heglig and its oilfield last week.

The three Kordofan states – North, West, and South – have seen weeks of fierce fighting between the army and the RSF, prompting tens of thousands of people to flee.

Of Sudan’s 18 states, the RSF controls all five states of the Darfur region in the west, except for some northern parts of North Darfur that remain under army control. The army, in turn, holds most areas of the remaining 13 states in the south, north, east, and center, including the capital, Khartoum.

The conflict between the Sudanese army and the RSF, which began in April 2023, has since killed thousands of people and displaced millions of others.