Floods and violence displace residents of desert country

Civil war forced 14 million people in Sudan to flee their homes. Sudan is mostly desert, but in the short summer rainy season, there are floods, which can make the country’s dirt roads muddy and impassable. The muddy roads used to force a lull in the fighting of Sudan’s civil war, but now, drones from far away attack remote villages even in the rainy season. Residents find it difficult to flee the violence given the floods and mass killings of villagers who attempt to flee:

Escalating conflict in Sudan has displaced another 200,000 people from their homes, including nearly 11,000 who fled two villages in North Kordofan over three days, further straining an already dire humanitarian situation…the recent escalation had forced another 200,000 people to flee their homes, adding to the country’s existing displacement crisis.

“Sudan is facing mounting displacement and humanitarian pressures as escalating conflict and destructive seasonal flooding compound an already grave humanitarian situation,” the UN said. “Humanitarian access is further disrupted by delays in global supply chains, particularly through the Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz, adding pressure to an already fragile response.” Intensified fighting and drone strikes on the main electricity transformer in El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, “triggered prolonged power outages, disrupting water pumping, health facilities, and telecommunications.”

“Displacement has surged…with more than 200,000 people newly displaced across the wider Kordofan region since late 2025.”

In North Darfur, heavy rains in the Tawila area “destroyed or damaged nearly 1,350 homes last week, displacing over 1,000 families.”

Sudan’s civil war has already killed at least 400,000 people.

The UN’s Volker Turk warned last month that ⁠a “catastrophe” is occurring around the city of El-Obeid, where the Rapid Support Forces militia is committing frequent summary executions, abductions, torture and sexual violence. The RSF is fighting against Sudan’s army and is seeking to take control of the city from the army.

Both the RSF and the army have killed thousands of civilians using drones. In a village near El-Obeid, an RSF drone killed 65 people at a funeral gathering. Earlier, “a drone attack” by the RSF “hit a kindergarten in” the town of Kalogli, killing 50 people, including 33 children, reported the Associated Press. Then it returned to kill paramedics at the scene.

Millions of people in Sudan lost power last year due to drone strikes on a key power plant.

The RSF has killed at least 250,000 people from non-Arab ethnic groups in Sudan’s western Darfur region. It committed genocide against the Masalit people. And it slaughtered tens of thousands of the Zaghawa people, including thousands of children, after seizing the major city of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. The RSF also has kidnapped thousands of people and held them for ransom, torturing many of them.