Northern Sudan sees influx of 40,000 displaced by conflict, official says

July 4, 2025 (DONGOLA,) – An estimated 40,000 people have been displaced to two cities in Sudan’s Northern State, fleeing conflict in the Darfur and Kordofan regions as well as the Owainat border triangle, a local official said on Friday.

The influx into the cities of Dongola and Al-Dabbah highlights the widening humanitarian fallout from fighting in several parts of the country.

Abdel Rahman Khairy, the Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid in the Northern State, stated that Al-Dabbah had taken in over 6,000 families, totalling approximately 30,000 people. He told the Sudan Tribune that they had fled from El Fasher and Al-Maliha in North Darfur, and from Al-Nuhud and Al-Khuwayy in West Kordofan.

El Fasher has been besieged by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for over a year. The RSF also recently took control of Al-Maliha, Al-Khuwayy, and Al-Nuhud after battles with the army.

Separately, security instability in the remote Owainat border triangle, located where Sudan, Libya, and Egypt meet, has driven 1,091 people to seek refuge in Dongola since June, Khairy said.

The Sudanese army withdrew from the Owainat area in June after an RSF attack. The army accused Libyan forces under Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar of aiding the RSF in capturing the territory.

“The flow of displaced people to the state from the Darfur, Kordofan, and Owainat regions is continuous,” Khairy said, adding that local authorities and aid groups were working to provide shelter and food.

The commissioner also appealed for international assistance for another 5,000 Sudanese who had fled the Owainat region into Egypt. He said they are currently in a camp west of Toshka and require urgent help from the U.N.’s migration and refugee agencies to be transported back to Sudan.