Sudan’s Kordofan region is spiralling deeper into humanitarian crisis as intensified fighting traps civilians in besieged towns and drives thousands from their homes.
Communities across the three Kordofan states face growing hunger, collapsing services and relentless insecurity as clashes block vital roads and cut off aid supplies.
The UN human rights office said famine has already been confirmed in Kadugli, where households trapped by siege conditions are struggling to access food, medicine and safe shelter.
It reported that at least 45,000 people have fled within or beyond the region in the past month alone, seeking safety from aerial strikes, shelling and expanding front lines.
The UN rights chief Volker Türk warned that he feared another wave of atrocities as violence accelerates, urging a ceasefire to allow humanitarian agencies to reach isolated populations.
His office said it had documented at least 269 civilian deaths in Kordofan since late October, though the real toll is likely higher due to disrupted communications.
It also cited reports of retaliatory killings, arbitrary detentions, abductions, sexual violence and forced recruitment, including of children, in areas affected by intensified clashes.
A drone attack on a mourning tent in El Obeid on 3 November reportedly killed 45 people, most of them women, while another strike in Kauda on 29 November left at least 48 civilians dead.
Türk said the suffering unfolding in Kordofan echoes the devastation that struck El-Fasher earlier this year, where an 18-month siege left lasting scars on already traumatised communities.
The UN warned that towns including Kadugli, Dilling and parts of El Obeid remain under siege or partial encirclement, deepening fears for civilians unable to escape the fighting.
