Over 70,000 people displaced due to recent conflict in Darfur

The number of civilians displaced as a result of the recent conflict in the Jebel Marra area in central Darfur of Sudan has increased from 38,000 to 73,000 people, a UN spokesman said here Wednesday.

"Civilians have been fleeing Jebel Marra since hostilities escalated mid-January, and have been arriving in three main locations in North Darfur State," Stephane Dujarric said, citing the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The recent increase is largely due to a massive influx of some 30,000 civilians in Sortony, where civilians have been gathering next to a base operated by the joint African Union-UN peacekeeping mission, Dujarric said at a news briefing here.

Some 18,000 individuals in total have also arrived in Tawilla since mid-January, at an established camp for displaced persons, he said.

"Thousands are also reported to have fled into Central Darfur but the UN has not yet been able to verify reported displacement or ascertain and respond to humanitarian needs, despite several requests to the authorities to access the relevant areas," he said.

"The African Union-United Nations mission is putting in place contingency measures to protect the civilian population, including the establishment of protective areas to secure the displaced civilians and reinforcing the number of troops and police officers, as well as increasing the number of patrols," he added.

In Jebel Marra, the Marra mountains, which rise to more than 3,000 meters and are one of Darfur's most fertile areas, are controlled by rebels of Abdulwahid Nur's faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA-AW).

Many of those fleeing -- most of them women and children -- have taken refuge at a base at Sortoni run by peacekeepers of the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).

According to the United Nations, some 300,000 people have been killed in the fighting in Darfur since 2003 and 2.5 million others displaced. Endit