KHARTOUM / ISTANBUL

More than 50,000 civilians have been displaced from the three states of Kordofan in southern Sudan because of worsening insecurity, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Thursday.

The UN agency said that a total of 50,445 people had fled from the Kordofan region between Oct. 25 and Dec. 17 as insecurity worsened.

The IOM said that its displacement tracking teams have documented 39 incidents that triggered waves of displacement from the region since Oct. 25.

The organization explained that around 40,350 people were displaced from six localities in North Kordofan, 9,845 from nine localities in South Kordofan and 250 from West Kordofan.

Sudanese authorities, the United Nations, and local and international rights groups have accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of abuses and rape in multiple cities in the region.

The rebel group has denied accusations of targeting civilians, though it sometimes acknowledged “violations” in Darfur and claimed to have launched an investigation into the abuses.

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.