(Bloomberg) -- The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces seized territory from the army as new fronts opened in Sudan’s 15-month civil war, raising fears the militia group would advance toward a military stronghold in the coastal city of Port Sudan.

A recent surge of warfare across central and southern Sudan — including an area on the border with South Sudan in oil-rich West Kordofan  — led the Sudanese Armed Forces to declare a state of emergency in three states and dispatch reinforcements in recent days.

“Civilians are now facing multiple protection risks and have reported widespread looting of their homes, cars, and personal belongings, reportedly by RSF, amidst the escalating conflict,” the UN office coordinating humanitarian affairs said in a statement on Thursday. “Shops and local markets have also been looted, leaving civilians without access to essential resources and heightened insecurity.”

Fierce fighting in Sennar, 156 miles (251 kilometers) south of the capital, Khartoum, forced 136,000 people to flee toward Gedaref, adding to the more than 7 million people already displaced.

The Ethiopian government has formed a committee to repatriate Ethiopian refugees located in Sudanese refugee camps close to its border. Getachew Reda, the president of Ethiopia’s Tigray region, said on X he was concerned that “the war theater is coming dangerously close to refugee camps in eastern Sudan.”

The escalating conflict has raised fears the RSF, a powerful militia with its origins in the Darfur region, could contemplate trying to oust the army from Port Sudan, the country’s de-facto capital and the main hub for humanitarian groups operating in the country. The latest push still leaves them hundreds of miles away.

Kholood Khair, the founding director of the Confluence Advisory, a think tank, said the RSF would undoubtedly push toward Port Sudan. Tom Perriello, the US Special Envoy to Sudan, said he was “alarmed” by the latest RSF attacks in Sennar and called on the group to respect its “legal and moral obligations concerning civilian protection.”

Sudan has publicly badgered the United Arab Emirates at the UN in New York for its alleged support to the RSF militia in its war efforts, while Iran has supplied the army with weapons, including drones. The US and other western partners have called on countries fueling the war to stop. The UAE denies any involvement.

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that its ambassador in Russia had met with officials in Moscow to discuss the recent developments. Army officials have previously offered Russia a military base on the Sudanese coast in exchange for weapons, something senior Russian officials have played down.

The rattling of alarm bells from the US and UN come as the International Criminal Court is investigating both sides in the conflict for war crimes and crimes against humanity. 

Moreover, a fifth of Sudan’s population is now at risk of starvation, according to recent data from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a Rome-based monitoring group.

Fourteen areas of Sudan, spanning from the western region of Darfur to the capital, Khartoum, and Kassala state in the east, now show “a risk of famine,” the group said last month. Some 8.5 million people could end up facing acute malnutrition or death, while a further 755,000 are already facing catastrophe.

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