\n Over 36,000 Sudanese civilians have fled towns and villages in the Kordofan region east of Darfur, according to the UN, as the paramilitary warned that its forces were massing along a new front line.\n<\/p>\n
\n In recent weeks, the central Kordofan region has become a new battleground in the two-year war between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.\n<\/p>\n
\n Central Kordofan is strategic because it is located between Sudan's Darfur provinces and the area around the capital Khartoum.\n<\/p>\n
\n The widening of the war comes just over a week after the RSF took control of El-Fasher -- the army's last stronghold in Darfur.\n<\/p>\n
\n The RSF has set up a rival administration there, contesting the pro-army government operating out of the Red Sea city of Port Sudan.\n<\/p>\n
\n In a statement late Sunday, the UN's migration agency said an estimated 36,825 people have fled five localities in North Kordofan between October 26 and 31.\n<\/p>\n
\n Residents on Monday reported a heavy surge in both RSF and army forces across towns and villages in North Kordofan.\n<\/p>\n
\n The army and the RSF, at war since April 2023, are vying for El-Obeid, the North Kordofan state capital and a key logistics and command hub that links Darfur to Khartoum, and hosts an airport.\n<\/p>\n
\n The RSF claimed control of Bara, a city north of El-Obeid last week.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Today, all our forces have converged on the Bara front here,\" an RSF member said in a video shared by the RSF on its official Telegram page late on Sunday, \"advising civilians to steer clear of military sites\".\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Afraid of clashes' -\n<\/p>\n
\n Suleiman Babiker, who lives in Um Smeima, west of El-Obeid, told AFP that following the paramilitary capture of El-Fasher, \"the number of RSF vehicles increased\".\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We stopped going to our farms, afraid of clashes,\" he told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n Another resident, requesting anonymity for fear of reprisal, also said \"there has been a big increase in army vehicles and weapons west and south of El-Obeid\" over the past two weeks.\n<\/p>\n
\n Awad Ali, who lives in al-Hamadi on the road linkinig West and North Kordofan, said he has seen \"RSF vehicles passing every day from the areas of West Kordofan toward El-Obeid since early October\".\n<\/p>\n
\n - Reprisals -\n<\/p>\n
\n Kordofan is a resource-rich region divided administratively into North, South and West Kordofan.\n<\/p>\n
\n It \"is likely the next arena of military focus for the warring parties,\" Martha Pobee, assistant UN secretary-general for Africa warned last week.\n<\/p>\n
\n She cited \"large-scale atrocities\" perpetrated by the RSF, adding that \"these included reprisals against so-called 'collaborators', which are often ethnically motivated.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n She also raised the alarm over patterns echoing those in Darfur, where RSF fighters have been accused of mass killings, sexual violence and abductions against non-Arab communities after the fall of El-Fasher.\n<\/p>\n
\n At least 50 civilians, including five Red Crescent volunteers, were killed in recent violence in North Kordofan, according to the UN.\n<\/p>\n
\n Both the RSF, descended from Janjaweed militias accused of genocide two decades ago, and the army face war crimes allegations.\n<\/p>\n
\n The United States under Joe Biden in January this year concluded that \"members of the RSF and allied militias have committed genocide in Sudan\".\n<\/p>\n
\n But international action on Sudan has largely been muted and peace efforts have failed so far.\n<\/p>\n
\n The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced nearly 12 million more and created the world's largest displacement and hunger crises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over 36,000 Sudanese civilians have fled towns and villages in the Kordofan region east of Darfur, according to the UN, as the paramilitary warned that its forces were massing along a new front line. In recent weeks, the central Kordofan region has become a new battleground in the two-year war between Sudan's army and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-151700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n