Displacement is worsening in Sudan’s Blue Nile state as thousands of people flee fighting in Geissan locality, while authorities have restricted the activities of civil society groups and closed some community-run emergency response centres, a civil society initiative said.
Ali Hajo, secretary-general of the Blue Nile Civil Society Initiative, said more than 15,000 people displaced from Geissan had moved to areas including Bakuri and Tandaru, while others had fled to Wad Al-Mahi and Al-Roseires localities.
The figures could not immediately be independently verified.
The International Organization for Migration said last week that nearly 14,000 people had been displaced from Geissan and Kurmuk localities in August as security deteriorated. It said 12,470 people had fled Geissan town and 12 villages between Aug. 11 and 18, with many moving towards Al-Roseires and Wad Al-Mahi.
Hajo said displaced people were sheltering in schools and makeshift camps, where heavy rains were worsening already difficult living conditions.
He said security authorities had restricted civil society activities, including by shutting emergency-response kitchens and suspending emergency response rooms that provide assistance to displaced people.
Hajo also alleged that military intelligence had arrested or pursued several activists involved in humanitarian and community work.
The latest displacement follows renewed fighting in and around Geissan locality, near the Ethiopian border. Sudanese authorities said on Aug. 11 that the army had repelled an attack by the Rapid Support Forces and allied Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-A) forces on Geissan.
Hajo warned that restrictions on civilian initiatives and local aid centres, combined with rising displacement and limited humanitarian assistance, could further worsen conditions for civilians affected by the conflict.
Sudan’s war began on April 15, 2023, when fighting erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.
The conflict grew out of a power struggle over the transition to civilian rule and plans to integrate the RSF into the army. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 13 million and plunged the country into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
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