Five villages in northern Darfur with a total of 70,000 inhabitants have been found almost empty by a UN-African Union fact-finding mission following recent clashes, the UN said Monday, dpa reported.
Two of the five villages were abandoned after clashes between Sudanese government troops and African rebels earlier this month, the UN said. The five villages lie within 15 to 30 kilometres of Shangil Tobaya.
The UN mission investigating the situation in northern Darfur, which was headed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), planned a fresh trip to the area for a further investigation. The UN said the villagers may have fled to other areas, but it was not immediately ascertainable.
The UN-AU mission in Darfur, composed of nearly 20,000 military and civilian personnel, is monitoring a ceasefire among warring forces.
The fighting between Sudanese government troops and African rebel groups since 2003 has killed more than 300,000 people and driven some 2.7 million Darfurians out of their homes.
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