In recent weeks, the central Kordofan region -- a strategic hinge between Sudan's Darfur provinces and the Khartoum-Riverine heartland to the east -- has become the latest battleground between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, locked in a brutal conflict since April 2023.

An estimated 36,825 people have fled five localities in North Kordofan between October 26 and 31, the UN's migration agency said in a statement late Sunday.

Residents on Monday reported a heavy surge in both RSF and army presence across towns and villages in North Kordofan.

Both the army and RSF forces are vying for El-Obeid, the North Kordofan state capital and a key logistics and command hub that links Darfur to Khartoum, and also hosts an airport.

"Today, all our forces have converged on the Bara front here," an RSF member said in a video shared by the RSF late on Sunday, referring to a city north of El-Obeid. The RSF claimed control of Bara last week.

Suleiman Babiker, who lives in Um Smeima, west of El-Obeid, told AFP that following the paramilitary capture of El-Fasher, "the number of RSF vehicles increased".

"We stopped going to our farms, afraid of clashes," he told AFP.

Another local resident, requesting anonymity for security reasons, also said "there has been a big increase in army vehicles and weapons west and south of El-Obeid" over the past two weeks.

Martha Pobee, assistant UN secretary-general for Africa, raised the alarm last week about "large-scale atrocities" and "ethnically motivated reprisals" by the RSF in Bara.

She warned of patterns echoing those in Darfur, where RSF fighters have been accused of mass killings, sexual violence and abductions against non-Arab communities after El-Fasher's fall.

The conflict has already killed tens of thousands, displaced nearly 12 million and created the world's largest displacement and hunger crises.