More than 100,000 people have fled Sudan’s embattled Kordofan since October, the United Nations said on Tuesday, as fighting escalates across the vast southern region.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been engulfed in a brutal war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced over 11 million and triggered what the UN describes as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Data from the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Tuesday showed that an estimated 115,223 people were displaced from Kordofan between October 25 and February 5.

The surge followed more than 80 violent incidents recorded across North, South and West Kordofan states, the UN agency said.

The exodus from the southern region came after the RSF shifted its focus there, following its takeover of El-Fasher -- the Sudanese army’s last stronghold in the neighbouring Darfur region -- in October.