KHARTOUM, Sudan / ISTANBUL

More than 1,600 Sudanese civilians fled the town of Kertala in South Kordofan in one day as insecurity escalated alongside rising abuses by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Sunday.

The UN agency said that field teams from its displacement tracking matrix estimated that 1,625 people left Kertala on Nov. 28 because of worsening security conditions tied to RSF violations.

The agency said that the displaced people moved to scattered sites across Dalami locality, warning that conditions in the area remain volatile and tense.

Earlier Sunday, the Sudanese army seized several areas west of Abbasiya Tagali in South Kordofan after clashes with the RSF and its ally, the SPLM-North faction, witnesses told Anadolu.

On Friday and Saturday, the army repelled an RSF attack on Kertala in the same state.

The latest wave of displacement follows RSF attacks – with support from the SPLM-North faction – on several villages in South Kordofan, including abductions of young people for forced recruitment.

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, according to rights groups.

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 killed at least 40,000 people and displaced 12 million, according to the World Health Organization.