Nearly 50,000 Civilians Flee Sudan's Blue Nile State in 2026

(MENAFN) Close to 50,000 civilians have been uprooted from their homes across Sudan's Blue Nile state since the start of this year, as armed clashes continue to ravage the southeastern region, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported Tuesday.

The IOM said in an official statement that precisely 49,512 individuals — equivalent to 9,899 families — were forced to abandon their communities between Jan. 11 and May 4 alone.

Displacement was heaviest in Kurmuk, where 28,020 people fled their homes, followed by Bau with 18,722 and Geissan with 11,855, according to IOM figures.

Those displaced have scattered across seven sites within Blue Nile state. The state capital, Damazin, absorbed the largest share, taking in 25,630 uprooted residents, the organization noted.

Of those newly displaced, 78 percent are currently sheltering at informal gathering points, while 13 percent have taken refuge in schools and public buildings and the remaining 9 percent are staying with host families.

Blue Nile state has become a flashpoint for overlapping armed conflicts involving the Sudanese army, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) — a rebel faction that has waged an insurgency against the central government since 2011 in pursuit of regional autonomy for South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

The broader national crisis traces back to April 2023, when the RSF turned its weapons against the Sudanese army following a breakdown in negotiations over absorbing the paramilitary group into the country's formal military structure.

The resulting war has spiraled into one of the most severe humanitarian catastrophes on the planet, claiming tens of thousands of lives and displacing an estimated 13 million people across Sudan.

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