By Hussein Hassan Ibrahim KHARTOUM, May 21 (KUNA) -- Hundreds of families are fleeing the contested region of Abyei and the United Nations is evacuating staff amid fears that a full-scale war between the south and the north may be imminent.
Witnesses in the region reached by telephone told KUNA that waves of civilians were seen fleeing the region and international peacekeepers hiding in fortifications, amid eruption of armed hostilities and violence between northern and southern forces.
Deng Arop, the governor of Abyei, said in a statement warplanes bombed seven regions and ground fighting broke out between the pro-Khartoum forces and policemen in the town of Todaj in Abyei.
The fighting over the past 24 hours prompted hundreds of civilians in the region towns and villages to abandon their houses and get away, he said.
Charles Abyei, the chairman of the legislative assembly in the region, said a number of people were killed in the latest fighting, and expected a major incursion from the north, indicating at troop build-up on the northern side of the border.
Paul Deng, the official spokesman of the southern Dinka Ngok tribe, said the fighting left 32 people and 35 others wounded, and confirmed that the UN was evacuating its staff from the contested region.
A spokesman of the southern army has accused the Khartoum government forces of attacking the region with aircraft and artillery.
Tension has been high in the oil-rich region since January when a public referendum on destiny of the south was held in Sudan.
The destiny of Abyei should have been determined with a simultaneous referendum, however it was indefinitely delayed due to disputes over voting rights. (end) hhi.rk KUNA 211232 May 11NNNN