As many as 300,000 people have fled fighting on a new front in Sudan's war, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday night.

Fighters from a paramilitary force that has been battling the army for eight months advanced into the city of Wad Madani, the capital of the El Gezira state. They also seized the town of Rufaa, witnesses said.

Wad Madani had been a haven

The takeover of Wad Madani, a city packed with displaced people and an aid hub during the current conflict, could be a turning point in the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces' (RSF) advance through western and central regions of Sudan.

The city lies about 170 kilometers (105 miles) southeast of the capital Khartoum and is an important agricultural region in a country facing worsening hunger.

At least 250,000 to 300,000 people had fled El Gezira since the eruption of clashes four days ago, the IOM said in a statement.

"Fleeing again will completely deplete our resources," Heba Abdelrahim, who had come to Wad Madani with her family from Khartoum, told Reuters. "Thinking logically we will wait until we don't have any other choice."

Videos posted by the RSF showed fighters in pick-up trucks driving along streets in Wad Madani and over a bridge across the Blue Nile that it had been fighting over with the army. Witnesses said they also raided nearby villages.

In one video, RSF fighters carrying rifles stood with their arms around Coptic priests, who said they had not been able to flee but asked the RSF for help leaving the city.

The videos were not verified. There army did not comment.

Local pro-democracy activists said the RSF had set up checkpoints throughout the city and were looting homes and cars, with no army or police present.

The background to the fighting in Sudan

The RSF and the army had shared power with civilians after the 2019 overthrow of former strongman Omar al-Bashir before staging a coup together in 2021 then coming to blows over an internationally backed political transition plan.

The UN Security Council ended its political mission in Sudan earlier this month. 

Since fighting broke out on April 15 between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, Wad Madani became a haven for thousands of displaced people during the conflict.

The war between the army and the RSF has forced more than seven million people to flee their homes, left the capital in ruins, caused a humanitarian crisis and triggered waves of ethnically driven killings in Darfur.

In Khartoum, the RSF has been accused of looting homes, raping women, and arbitrary killings and detentions.

mds/ab (AFP, Reuters)