KHARTOUM, Feb 7, (APP/AFP) – Tens of thousands
of civilians fleeing weeks of clashes between troops and rebels in Darfur’s Jebel Marra area face “dire” humanitarian circumstances, the United Nations said on Sunday.
Fighting in the Jebel Marra has flared between forces loyal to
President Omar al-Bashir, wanted on war crimes charges relating to the Darfur conflict, and the Sudan Liberation Army led by Abdelwahid Nur (SLA-AW), which has been battling him since 2003.
Conditions for the recently displaced are “pretty dire. They are
basically in need of everything,” Marta Ruedas, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, told AFP.
The surge in violence “has seen, as a result, the worst civilian
displacement that we have seen in the UN in the past decade” in the Jebel Marra area, where there were also heavy clashes in previous years, she said.
Fighting in Jebel Marra, which straddles North, South and Central
Darfur states, flared on January 15, with ground troops clashing and government forces using warplanes and artillery.