Worsening insecurity displaces over 5,000 people in Sudan’s West Darfur: UN migration agency

More than 5,000 people have been displaced from 10 villages in Sudan's West Darfur state amid rising insecurity and clashes between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Sunday.

In a statement, the UN agency said its Displacement Tracking Matrix teams estimated that 5,135 people had fled the villages in West Darfur's Sirba locality as of Aug. 8 following the outbreak of fighting in the Bir Saliba area.

The majority of affected households were displaced across the border into Chad, the agency said.

On Saturday, Darfur Governor Minni Arko Minnawi said the Sudanese army had repelled a large-scale attack by the RSF on Bir Saliba.

Bir Saliba lies north of El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, and is considered strategically important because of its location along routes leading to the city. The area has repeatedly witnessed fighting between the RSF and the army and its allied forces.

Fighting between the Sudanese army and the RSF has continued since April 15, 2023, following disputes over integrating the paramilitary force into the regular military. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions.

As of the end of June 2026, the IOM had recorded about 8.69 million internally displaced people in Sudan, along with more than 4.64 million people, who had returned to areas inside the country or from abroad.