KHARTOUM, Sudan/ISTANBUL — In a stark illustration of Sudan's unrelenting civil war, more than 35,000 civilians have been uprooted from their homes in North Kordofan state over just four days, fleeing a surge of insecurity fueled by intensified clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported on Thursday that an additional 1,100 people escaped the strategic city of Bara alone, joining waves of displacement that have overwhelmed makeshift shelters in the southern White Nile state.
The IOM's statement painted a grim picture of the chaos, noting multiple displacement waves from key localities including Sheikan, Rahad, Bara, Umm Ruwaba, and Umm Damm Haj Ahmed between October 26 and 29. Families, many already displaced multiple times since the conflict erupted in April 2023, have converged on Ed-Dueim, a riverside hub in White Nile state ill-equipped to handle the influx. "These are not just numbers; they represent families torn apart, children without schools, and communities on the brink of collapse," said IOM spokesperson Safa Msehli in Geneva, emphasizing the agency's urgent call for safe corridors and increased funding.
This latest exodus comes on the heels of a deadly RSF drone strike earlier Thursday on the Zareibat Sheikh El Borai area, where Sudanese authorities confirmed multiple deaths and injuries among civilians. Local health officials in North Kordofan reported at least 12 fatalities, including women and children, with dozens more wounded in what they described as a "cowardly aerial assault" on a residential neighborhood. The attack, attributed to RSF's increasingly sophisticated drone arsenal—bolstered by foreign suppliers—highlights the paramilitary group's tactical shift toward air dominance in contested regions. Witnesses recounted scenes of panic as explosions ripped through mud-brick homes, sending shrapnel flying and igniting fires that consumed nearby sorghum fields during the harvest season.
The fall of Bara to RSF forces on October 25 has accelerated this humanitarian spiral. Once a SAF stronghold recaptured in September 2024 after a grueling siege, the city—strategically located just 59 kilometers south of the oil-rich capital El Obeid—served as a logistics hub for army supplies. Its loss not only severs vital supply lines but also raises alarms of an impending RSF push toward El Obeid, potentially bisecting Sudan along ethnic and regional fault lines. Analysts warn that such an advance could entrench a de facto partition, with the RSF consolidating control over western Darfur and Kordofan while the SAF clings to the east and north.
Compounding the tragedy, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) announced on Wednesday that five Sudanese Red Crescent volunteers were killed in Bara on October 27 while distributing food aid, identifiable by their official vests. Three others remain missing, underscoring the perilous risks faced by aid workers in a conflict where humanitarian personnel have become deliberate targets. "These brave souls were the lifeline for thousands, murdered in cold blood while trying to save lives," IFRC Secretary-General Jagan Chapagain said, condemning the attack as a violation of international law. The incident brings the total number of aid workers killed in Sudan since 2023 to over 84, according to UN tallies, eroding the already fragile delivery of relief in hard-to-reach areas.
This violence in North Kordofan is but one thread in the broader tapestry of Sudan's cataclysmic war, now in its third year. What began as a power struggle between SAF commander Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF leader Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo—known as Hemedti—over civilian rule has morphed into a full-scale civil war, claiming an estimated 20,000 lives and displacing over 15 million people, the world's largest displacement crisis. UN reports peg the internal displacement figure at 8.8 million as of February 2025, with another 3.5 million fleeing as refugees to Chad, South Sudan, and beyond. Famine has been confirmed in North Darfur's Zamzam camp, where acute malnutrition ravages children, and cholera outbreaks—exacerbated by flooded displacement sites—have infected over 6,000 in Tawila locality alone since May.
The RSF's recent gains extend beyond Kordofan. On October 26, the group captured El Fasher, the last major SAF outpost in North Darfur after an 18-month siege, triggering reports of mass atrocities. Activists and medics estimate at least 1,500 civilians killed in reprisal attacks targeting non-Arab tribes like the Zaghawa, with eyewitnesses describing summary executions, rapes, and looting. Satellite imagery and social media videos corroborate scenes of burned villages and mass graves, evoking the Janjaweed-era horrors of the 2000s Darfur genocide—from which the RSF evolved. The U.S. State Department renewed its January 2025 genocide determination against the RSF, while the UN Fact-Finding Mission's September report labeled the conflict a "war of atrocities," implicating both sides in war crimes including infrastructure destruction and aid obstruction.
In El Fasher, the RSF's drone campaign has been particularly ruthless. Strikes on October 10-11 obliterated a displacement shelter at Dar al-Arqam camp, killing 57—including 22 women and 17 children—in what Doctors Without Borders called a "deliberate massacre." Similar aerial assaults have crippled hospitals, markets, and water systems across Darfur and Kordofan, with the UN's Radhouane Nouicer warning of a "siege from the air" that endangers millions. The RSF denies targeting civilians, but evidence from intercepted drones—like the four Bayraktar Akinci models downed near El Fasher—points to UAE-supplied weaponry fueling the escalation.
Humanitarian agencies are sounding desperate alarms. The 2025 Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan, seeking $4.2 billion, is only 27% funded, hampering efforts to reach 13.5 million in need. IOM, UNHCR, UNICEF, and WFP leaders, fresh from field visits, described returning families in Khartoum—over one million since January—facing destroyed homes and non-functional services. In White Nile, IOM teams report overcrowding in Ed-Dueim's schools-turned-shelters, where 14 of 17 million school-aged children nationwide remain out of class, vulnerable to recruitment and abuse.
On the diplomatic front, international mediation efforts have faltered. The EU's October 20 conclusions condemned the "brutality" of both factions, rejecting partition and demanding a ceasefire. Arab nations like Egypt, Turkiye, and Qatar echoed calls for truces following El Fasher, pledging aid but urging inclusive talks. U.S.-brokered "Quad" discussions with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE aim to revive the stalled Jeddah process, but RSF's parallel "Government of Peace and Unity"—signed in February—complicates legitimacy claims. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres labeled the El Fasher fall a "terrible escalation," invoking Security Council Resolution 2736 for civilian protection and access.
For displaced families like that of Fatima Ahmed, a 42-year-old mother of five from Bara, survival is a daily ordeal. "We left everything—our farm, our animals—running from drones that don't distinguish soldier from child," she told IOM enumerators in Ed-Dueim, her voice trembling as she clutched a tattered blanket. Her husband was injured in the Zareibat strike, and her youngest son suffers from malnutrition, his ribs stark against his skin. Stories like hers echo across camps: dehydration, trauma, and fear of reprisals for perceived loyalties.
In Rahad, another flashpoint, an RSF drone hit an oil press factory on October 22, killing three workers and wounding eight, further straining local hospitals. Locality director Dr. Saad Al-Sharif Ibrahim decried it as a "crime against humanity," vowing resilience. Yet, with rainy season floods looming—displacing 4,300 in Al Jazirah last September—the window for aid narrows.
As Sudan teeters, experts like Alan Boswell of the International Crisis Group caution that RSF momentum, if unchecked, could cascade into wider famine and ethnic cleansing. "The world cannot afford another ignored genocide," Boswell said. With over 30 million—two-thirds of the population—in need, the IOM urges immediate global action: fund the appeal, enforce access, and prioritize peace. Until then, North Kordofan's displaced remain pawns in a war devouring a nation.
