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Friday 1 February 2013

Sudan: Thousands Flee Gold Conflict in Darfur

About 65,000 people are said to have fled to the town of El Sireaf, causing closure of all public offices and schools in the area to accommodate the displaced people.

By Staff Writer

NYALA--About 100,000 people have fled inter-communal clashes over a gold mine in Sudan’s restive region of Darfur the United Nations say.

Heavy fighting between two Arab communities over gold deposits in the Jebel Amer area in North Darfur has left 100,000 people displaced or severely affected, the UN reported on Thursday.  The UN says it had revised the figures from an earlier reported 70,000 displaced following recent increase.

About 65,000 people are said to have fled to the town of El Sireaf, causing closure of all public offices and schools in the area to accommodate the displaced people.

 Some 30,000 other people were displaced in separate fighting between the army and a rebel group in the central Jebel Marra area, the UN reported two weeks ago.

“Many of these people are living in the open in appalling conditions,” the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report on Thursday.

The UN said it had delivered more than 600 tons of food aid and other basic provisions but has been unable assess the scale of conflict since the authorities could not allow a UN delegation to tour the affected areas.

Violence in Darfur has come down from its peak of the 2003 civil war, though protracted clashes between government troops and rebels groups, bandits, inter-tribal and splintering groups’ clashes have continue to rage on.

The Darfur conflict began in 2003 when region’s two largest rebel movements took up arms accusing the Khartoum government of discrimination and neglect in favour of Arabs against non-Arabs in the region.

Death toll from the Darfur conflict was estimated at 300,000, with further 2.7 million displaced, but the government denies the figures which it places at 10,000, saying the crisis had been exaggerated for political reasons.

 A warrant of arrest has been issued by the Hague based International Criminal Court against President Hassan Omar Al-Bashir alongside three others for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur. They all deny the charges and have refused to recognise the court.

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