More than 200,000 people have been newly displaced across Sudan's Kordofan region since late 2025 as fighting intensifies and seasonal flooding destroys homes, the International Organization for Migration, the U.N. migration agency, said Wednesday.
The agency said displacement in Sheikan locality, which includes the city of El Obeid in North Kordofan, has risen 25% over the past eight months. Sudan already has 8.6 million internally displaced people, with large numbers also sheltering in neighboring countries.
Amy Pope, the organization's director general, said the combination of conflict, damaged infrastructure and flooding is stretching thousands of families beyond their limits and that suffering will deepen without urgent action to protect civilians and restore basic services.
Field monitoring teams estimated that about 11,000 people fled the villages of Umm Sumayma and Abu Haraz in Sheikan between Aug. 16 and 18 because of deteriorating security. The families moved elsewhere within the same locality, where conditions remain volatile.
Drone strikes on El Obeid's main electrical transformer have caused prolonged power outages that disrupted water pumping, hospitals and telecommunications, the agency said.
Displacement has also risen elsewhere. Clashes in and around Geissan in Blue Nile state uprooted 7,800 people, some of whom crossed into Ethiopia, and nearly 18,000 people were displaced in West Darfur during the first half of August.
Heavy rainfall in Tawila, North Darfur, destroyed or damaged about 1,350 homes in a single week, displacing more than 1,000 families, while additional flooding in Kabkabiya and Shangil Tobaya forced dozens of families into temporary shelters.
The agency warned that humanitarian access has been further disrupted by delays in global supply chains, particularly through the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, adding pressure to an already fragile relief operation.
More than 4.5 million people have returned to Sudan over roughly the past 18 months, including significant numbers to Khartoum. Many are returning to areas where water systems, electricity, health facilities and schools have been destroyed.
The war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces began in April 2023. It has killed at least 59,000 people and forced some 14 million from their homes, according to Al Jazeera.