Insecurity displaces nearly 1,700 people in Sudan’s Blue Nile: UN migration agency

Nearly 1,700 more people have been displaced from villages in southeastern Sudan's Blue Nile state amid worsening insecurity, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Saturday.

In a statement, the UN agency said its field teams estimated that 1,690 people were displaced from the villages of Abigo, Balang and Gambarda in Al-Kurmuk locality on Sept. 5.

The affected families fled to Baw locality, also in Blue Nile state, the agency said.

"The situation remains tense and volatile," the IOM said.

On Thursday, the IOM announced that around 3,000 people, comprising 500 families, had been displaced from three villages in Al-Kurmuk locality because of escalating insecurity on Aug. 31.

Blue Nile state has witnessed a military escalation in recent days following attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its ally, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), on several areas.

On Friday, authorities in Al-Kurmuk said the Sudanese army had repelled an attack by the RSF and the SPLM-N on the Al-Baraka area.

In addition to Blue Nile and Darfur, clashes between the Sudanese army and the RSF have continued since Oct. 25 across the three states of the Kordofan region -- North, West and South Kordofan.

Sudan has been engulfed in a war between the army and the RSF since April 2023. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced around 13 million, according to UN and international estimates.