Over 81,000 people have fled Sudan’s North Darfur region since Oct. 26 amid escalating violence around the city of el-Fasher, the International Organization for Migration said Wednesday.
In a statement, the U.N. agency said its Displacement Tracking Matrix estimated that 81,817 people had been displaced from el-Fasher and surrounding areas, stressing that the figures are "preliminary and subject to change due to ongoing insecurity and rapidly evolving displacement dynamics."
Most of those displaced remain within the el-Fasher locality, while smaller numbers have moved to the localities of Kabkabiya, Mellit, Kutum, and Tawila in North Darfur, the IOM added.
Smaller displacement figures were also recorded in other Sudanese states, including Kosti in White Nile state; Ghbeish in West Kordofan; central and northern Jebel Marra in Central Darfur; West al-Junaynah and Kulbus in West Darfur; Shaeria in East Darfur; and East Jebel and al-Wihda in South Darfur, according to the statement.
Field teams reported "extreme insecurity along the roads, obstructing movement," the IOM said, adding that the situation "remains tense and volatile with persistent insecurity and ongoing population movements."
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state and a strategic city in the region, on Oct. 26 and carried out massacres of civilians, according to local and international organizations, triggering warnings that the takeover could cement a geographic partition of the war-torn country.
Meanwhile, the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned that the needs of families fleeing el-Fashe r to Tawila "are growing faster than the resources available."
In a statement, the agency said that families escaping the violence arrive in Tawila "exhausted, hungry and in urgent need of care,” adding that it is working with partners to provide therapeutic feeding, water and health services for children.
"But the needs are increasing at a pace that exceeds available resources, and current aid is not enough to meet them,” the agency said.
Out of Sudan’s 18 states, the RSF currently controls all five states of the Darfur region in the west, except some northern areas in North Darfur that remain under army control. The Sudanese army rules over most of the remaining 13 states in the south, north, east, and central regions, including the capital, Khartoum.
Since April 15, 2023, the Sudanese army and the RSF have been locked in a war that regional and international mediations have failed to end. The conflict has killed thousands of people and displaced millions of others.