Thousands more flee as conflict in famine-stricken Sudan grinds eastwards
By Al Jazeera, November 3, 2025The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has forced thousands more people to flee in Sudan as it prepares a new offensive after atrocities committed during its assault on El-Fasher in the western region of Darfur.
The United Nations warned in a report released late on Sunday about the worsening humanitarian consequences as the RSF onslaught continues to forcibly displace civilians.
The RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti, released a video on the same day claiming it was “amassing a large force, heralding the imminent liberation of El-Obeid”.
El-Obeid, the state capital of North Kordofan in central Sudan, lies east of Darfur, where the RSF killed and displaced thousands of people over the past week after seizing control of El-Fasher from government forces.
The Sudanese Armed Forces currently hold El-Obeid, but both sides have been preparing for a major battle for control of the city.
In the RSF video, a soldier holding a weapon boasted that “all our forces have converged” on Bara, 50km (30 miles) northeast of El-Obeid.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), in a report released on Sunday, estimated that more than 1,200 people were displaced on Friday alone from Bara and Um Rawaba in North Kordofan.
This follows the displacement of 36,825 people from several localities in North Kordofan since last week.
In South Kordofan, the IOM said field teams estimated that 360 people were displaced from Abassiya and Delami towns on Saturday. Further displacement is expected as the situation remains “tense and highly fluid,” the UN agency said.
As the RSF and the army prepare for combat in El-Obeid, the humanitarian situation remains catastrophic across Sudan, particularly in and around El-Fasher.
UN teams estimated that an additional 8,631 people were displaced from El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, over the weekend. This brings the total number of people displaced from the area to more than 70,000 since the RSF captured the last major city in Darfur on 26 October, pushing out the Sudanese Armed Forces after an 18-month siege.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, told reporters in New York on Friday that reports of “serious violations,” including summary executions of several Red Crescent volunteers, have emerged since the RSF’s takeover of Bara last week.
Tens of thousands of starving and desperate people remain trapped inside El-Fasher, while the fate of several thousand who fled but have not yet reached Tawila or nearby towns remains unknown.
A video circulating online on Monday showed dozens of bodies scattered across roads surrounding El-Fasher.
The UN and international aid agencies have verified numerous accounts by survivors who said RSF fighters engaged in mass executions, torture, rape, sexual abuse, and kidnapping people for ransom.
“We have been hearing horror stories from many people arriving here and those who were here weeks before the RSF took over El-Fasher. Some said they were stopped as they tried to leave the city under siege, and their relatives, especially males, were abducted and imprisoned by the RSF. Many here are mothers and children,” Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan reported from Al-Dabbah in northern Sudan.
“Others say they saw their relatives being killed on social media by the RSF. Some witnessed artillery strikes leaving headless and mutilated bodies.”
Famine confirmed in two regions
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) announced on Monday that famine has been detected in El-Fasher and Kadugli, located in South Kordofan.
The UN-backed global hunger monitor, which in August confirmed famine spreading in Gaza, said 20 other areas in Darfur and Kordofan are also at serious risk of sliding into famine conditions.
It is estimated that 375,000 people were already living in famine conditions across Darfur and Kordofan as of September, while a further 6.3 million people across the country are suffering from extreme hunger and are at risk of sliding into famine.
More Sudanese civilians are expected to die of starvation and malnutrition without a ceasefire and safe humanitarian access, the IPC warned.
In Northern State, a large number of Sudanese have fled to Al-Dabbah. Many of those there have already been displaced several times, but some are preparing to move again to another refugee camp on the outskirts of the city, fearing that the conflict may soon reach Al-Dabbah.
“The streets were full of dead bodies,” Yahya Abdullah, who narrowly escaped from El-Fasher with his four children, told Al Jazeera from Al-Dabbah. He had earlier lost his wife in an RSF drone strike.
He said RSF fighters opened fire on people, including children, in the streets of El-Fasher with machine guns. “I heard one of them say, ‘Kill them all.’”
ICC investigates war crimes
The RSF is now under active investigation for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC), prosecutors announced on Monday.
In a statement from The Hague, the court said it is taking “immediate steps” to “preserve and collect relevant evidence for future prosecutions” concerning crimes committed in El-Fasher following the RSF’s capture of the city.
The court described the atrocities as “part of a broader pattern of violence that has afflicted the entire Darfur region” and said they “may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
The specific crimes under investigation include ethnically targeted attacks, sexual violence such as rape used as a weapon, abductions, indiscriminate attacks on civilians, and assaults on medical facilities.
In a briefing in June, ICC Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan said there were “reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been and continue to be committed in Darfur.”