KHARTOUM, Sudan/ISTANBUL

More than 1,200 people were newly displaced from South and North Kordofan in southern Sudan due to escalating insecurity, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Sunday.

The UN agency said in a statement that its field displacement teams recorded the displacement of 780 people from the city of Dilling in South Kordofan between Wednesday and Friday as security conditions deteriorated.

The situation in the area remains highly tense and volatile, and it is closely monitoring developments, the organization added.

The agency said 510 more people were displaced from the village of Al-Sanjouqi, in the Umm Dam Haj Ahmed locality of North Kordofan, also due to security conditions.

The displaced people moved to various locations within the Umm Dam Haj Ahmed and Sheikan localities in North Kordofan, the agency said.

On Dec. 18, the IOM said the number of displaced people across Sudan’s three Kordofan states – North, West and South Kordofan – reached 50,445 between Oct. 26 and Dec. 17.

The three states have seen weeks of fierce fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), forcing 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.