Thousands flee fighting in Sudan border state: UN
UNITED NATIONS: Thousands of people are fleeing conflict in Sudan’s Blue Nile state and theUnited Nations has opened a new refugee camp in western Ethiopia to cope with the influx, officials said.
More than 27,500 people have fled Blue Nile to Ethiopia and South Sudan over the past month, amid clashes between the Sudanese troops and rebel forces, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said in a statement on Friday that 533 of the refugees had already moved into the new camp at Tongo, just across the border from the Blue Nile regions of Kurmuk, Bamza and Almahal.
The camp can take up to 3,000 people and about 400 people a day are being moved from the border to the camp. Tongo was opened after the other main camp in the area, at Sherkole, reached its full capacity of 8,700 people on Tuesday.
The rebel Sudan Peoples Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N), which is loyal to the South Sudan government, has a stronghold at Kurmuk which Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir vowed recently would be taken.
Fighting erupted in Blue Nile state, on the border with South Sudan, at the beginning of September.
The Sudanese army is fighting the SPLA-N in Blue Nile and neighbouring South Kordofan. Tensions are high between the Sudan and South Sudan in the disputed Abyei region, which was taken over by Khartoum troops in May, forcing an estimated 110,000 people to flee their homes.
South Sudan broke away from Sudan in July, seven months after a self-determination referendum. The two governments have yet to settle a common border, how to share their oil resources and pre-separation debt — all issues which are stoking tensions, according to diplomats.
08 October 2011 | 12:59:34 PM | Source: AFP
South Sudan broke away from Sudan in July and the governments are yet to decide on a common border. (SBS)
Thousands of people are fleeing conflict in Sudan’s Blue Nile state and the United Nations has opened a new refugee camp in western Ethiopia to cope with the influx, officials said.
More than 27,500 people have fled Blue Nile to Ethiopia and South Sudan over the past month, amid clashes between the Sudanese
troops and rebel forces, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said in a statement on Friday that 533 of the refugees had already moved into the new camp at
Tongo, just across the border from the Blue Nile regions of Kurmuk, Bamza and Almahal.
The camp can take up to 3000 people and about 400 people a day are being moved from the border to the camp.
Tongo was opened after the other main camp in the area, at Sherkole, reached its full capacity of 8700 people on Tuesday.
The rebel Sudan Peoples Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N), which is loyal to the South Sudan government, has a stronghold at Kurmuk
which Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir vowed recently would be taken.
Fighting erupted in Blue Nile state, on the border with South Sudan, at the beginning of September.
The Sudanese army is fighting the SPLA-N in Blue Nile and neighbouring South Kordofan.
Tensions are high between the Sudan and South Sudan in the disputed Abyei region, which was taken over by Khartoum troops in May, forcing an estimated 110,000 people to flee their homes.
South Sudan broke away from Sudan in July, seven months after a self-determination referendum.
The two governments have yet to settle on a common border, how to share their oil resources and pre-separation debt – all issues which are stoking tensions, according to diplomats.
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1594823/Thousands-flee-fighting-in-Sudan
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