Just more than a week after paramilitary troops took control of the city of El-Fasher, the UN claimed that more than 36,000 Sudanese residents had fled cities and villages in the Kordofan region east of Darfur.
The Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been engaged in a bloody fight since April 2023, and in recent weeks, the central Kordofan region—a strategic pivot between the Darfur regions of Sudan and the Khartoum-Riverine heartland to the east—has emerged as the most recent battlefield.
In a statement released late Sunday, the UN migration agency said that 36,825 individuals had evacuated five areas in North Kordofan between October 26 and October 31.

On Monday, locals in North Kordofan's towns and villages reported a significant increase in the RSF and army presence.
The army and RSF forces are fighting for control of El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, which serves as an airport and a vital command and logistics centre connecting Darfur and Khartoum.
In a video released by the RSF late on Sunday, a member stated, "Today, all our forces have converged on the Bara front here," referring to a city north of El-Obeid. Bara was reportedly taken over by the RSF last week.
Suleiman Babiker, who resides in Um Smeima, west of El-Obeid, told AFP that "the number of RSF vehicles increased" after El-Fasher was taken by the paramilitary.

"We stopped going to our farms, afraid of clashes," he stated to AFP.
"There has been a big increase in army vehicles and weapons west and south of El-Obeid" over the past two weeks, according to another local resident who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.
Last week, Martha Pobee, the assistant UN secretary-general for Africa, expressed concern over "ethnically motivated reprisals" and "large-scale atrocities" committed by the RSF in Bara.
She cautioned against trends similar to those in Darfur, where following El-Fasher's downfall, RSF forces have been charged with mass murder, sexual assault, and kidnappings of non-Arab populations.
Tens of thousands have already been dead, almost 12 million have been displaced, and the conflict has caused the greatest famine and displacement crisis in history.