KHARTOUM (AFP) ? Civilians were among the victims of ongoing air strikes in Sudan's border state of South Kordofan, where the army is battling militia aligned to the soon to be independent south, the UN reported on Sunday.
Sporadic air strikes and shelling have been taken place since Wednesday in the eastern and southern parts of South Kordofan's Nuba Mountains, home to Sudan's indigenous non-Arab Nuba, the UN humanitarian office (OCHA) said in its latest report.
"According to partners on the ground, one woman was killed and four others, including two children, were wounded in an aerial attack on Kauda on June 22," OCHA said.
It added that several rockets landed near the UN peacekeeping mission (UNMIS) team site on Friday.
Heavy fighting in north Sudan's ethnically divided border state, which first erupted three weeks ago, has threatened to torpedo a 2005 peace deal that is set to deliver independence for the south on July 9.
The United States and the United Nations have repeatedly called for a ceasefire in the troubled border region and the safe passage of humanitarian assistance for the more than 70,000 people displaced by the conflict.
The security situation in South Kordofan state capital Kadugli, which saw some of the heaviest fighting when the conflict broke out, has significantly improved, according to various sources, with the town's population returning slowly.
Last week, the authorities ordered the thousands of people who had sought shelter around the UNMIS compound outside Kadugli to return to the town.
But OCHA said on Sunday that the overall humanitarian picture remained far from clear.
"Due to the ongoing restrictions on movements of humanitarian staff, it is difficult to verify reports or properly assess the overall impact of the ongoing military operations on civilians," OCHA said.
Church leaders and activists say the army's campaign forms part of a government policy of ethnic cleansing, targeting the Nuba peoples who fought with former southern rebels the SPLA during their 1983-2005 war with Khartoum.
The government strongly denies the claims, saying it is protecting the civilian population.
OCHA said the authorities were still holding four of the six local UN staff of southern origin detained by the army on Wednesday as they were being relocated to the south.
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