KHARTOUM, Sudan/ISTANBUL 

At least 1,730 people have been displaced in Sudan’s North Kordofan and North Darfur states due to escalating insecurity and ongoing armed clashes across the country, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Sunday.

In a statement, the UN agency said its field teams estimated that 230 people fled from the Al-Mazroub area in North Kordofan last Thursday as a result of deteriorating security conditions.

On Friday, Sudanese authorities announced the killing of a tribal chief and several local elders in North Kordofan following an attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The rebel group denied any involvement.

The IOM said that 1,500 more people were displaced from the Abu Gamra area in North Darfur and moved to several locations in the Kornoi area in the state, where the situation remains “highly tense and unstable.”

On Saturday, Darfur regional governor Minni Arko Minnawi announced that joint forces of armed movements allied with the Sudanese army had achieved a victory over the RSF in Abu Gamra, regaining control of the area from the RSF.

In recent weeks, violent clashes have intensified across the three Kordofan states—North, West, and South—between the Sudanese army and the RSF, amid the civil war that has raged since mid-April 2023.

Over the past few weeks, the RSF’s territorial control has sharply declined across Sudan as the army expanded its advances, regaining ground in Khartoum and White Nile State.

The Sudanese army and the RSF have been fighting a war since April 2023 that has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced 14 million, according to the UN and local authorities. Research from US universities, however, estimates the death toll at around 130,000.