KHARTOUM, Sudan / ISTANBUL

More than 1,000 Sudanese civilians have fled Hilla Birno village in South Kordofan as insecurity worsened amid escalating violations by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Wednesday.

The UN agency said that its field teams estimated that 1,040 people had left the village because of deteriorating security conditions and moved to multiple sites across the Eastern Rural and Kadugli localities in South Kordofan.

The IOM warned that the situation remains highly volatile and unstable.

The organization said Tuesday that at least 1,455 people had fled South Kordofan in the past three days due to rising violence in the area.

The new wave of displacement followed attacks by the RSF – with support from its ally, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu – on several villages in the state.

The three Kordofan states – North, West and South – have seen heavy fighting in recent weeks between the Sudanese army and the RSF, displacing tens of thousands.

The RSF now controls all five Darfur states, out of Sudan’s 18 states, while the army holds most of the remaining 13 states, including Khartoum.

Darfur makes up about one-fifth of Sudan’s territory, but most of the country’s 50 million people live in army-held areas.

The conflict in Sudan between the army and the RSF, which began in April 2023, has killed at least 40,000 people and displaced 12 million, according to the World Health Organization.