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Sudan’s Darfur conflict displaced 41k in 2 months: UN

Villagers walk in Tabit in Sudan’s North Darfur state on November 20, 2014. (AFP photo)

The deadly conflict in Sudan’s western region of Darfur has resulted in the displacement of more than 41,000 people over the past two months, the United Nations says.

“To date, aid organizations have assessed and verified the needs of 41,304 people displaced as a result of this conflict" in Sudan's North Darfur state and the Jebel Marra areas between the last week of December last year and mid-February, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its weekly bulletin published on Thursday.

OCHA noted that a total of 470,000 people were displaced in Darfur in 2014, while almost a third of them later returned to their homes.

Meanwhile, Ivo Freijsen, the head of OCHA's Sudan office warned that the real number of the displaced could be higher than the figures provided as there are some regions to which the UN body has no access.

The statistics were released on the same day that the United Nations–African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) held talks with Khartoum over the departure of its peacekeepers from the conflict-hit area.

They agreed to form a working group that "will begin its task in early March with the view to preparing the exit strategy of UNAMID,” according to a statement released by the mission.

Darfur has been the scene of violence since 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government in Khartoum. There has been also tribal fighting in the region.

The United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur was launched in 2007 in a bid to protect civilians and restore stability to the restive region.

The UN estimates that the violence in Darfur has so far killed some 300,000 people and internally displaced over two million.

SSM/KA/SS


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