KHARTOUM/JUBA- of the tens of thousands of the disputed Abyei region of Sudan of persons have fled as accused of militias in the North to help seize the region over the weekend moved more to the South, the Organization of the United Nations said Wednesday.
Groups armed, regarded as the militias in the North, also opened fire on four helicopters of the UN in Abyei Tuesday, said a spokesman for the United Nations.
North Sudan sent the tanks in Abyei, a central region, producing of oil claimed by the North and South of the Sudan, on Saturday, triggering an international outcry.
The move comes at a sensitive time for Sudan, less than seven weeks before the South of the country should declare the independence of the North, in a 2005 peace agreement which ended decades of civil war.
Abyei is a key battlefield in the last war of secession of Sudan and a symbolic emblem for both parties. The area is used year-round by the Dinka Ngok people linked to the South and part of the year by northern nomadic Arab Misseriya.
Analysts fear more fighting over the area North-South could trigger a return to widespread conflict, a development which could have a devastating impact on the surrounding area.
Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon has urged the North and the South to return to the negotiating table and to resist "other acts of aggression".
"We must impress all the parties that the military confrontation in Abyei is not an option," he said heads of State at a meeting of African Union in Addis Ababa.
Thousands of Abyei residents if enfuits out of the city of Agok, just over the border in southern Sudan, said aid groups.
Organizations of the United Nations and assistance said up to 40,000 has now been forced to leave their homes and move deeper in the South of Sudan.
"It is a huge number of people now on the road to Agok in Turalei, on muddy roads." Many children must be treated for dehydration, "said Gustavo Fernandez,. Manager of program, with the help of group Medecins Sans Frontieres
Agok, most of the refugees were living under the trees, while that 2 800 found refuge in a local school, said Alliance Anglican assistance group.
The group for the coordination of the Anglican Church, "civilians are down in the street and in the bushes, without food, no shelter, no water and no medical assistance," said in a report.
Militias Misseriya began to push further south after the persons have left the main settlement in the area of Abyei town, said the spokesman for the UN Hua Jiang.
"It was noted that they move to the South", she said.
Spokesperson of the army of the southern Philip Aguer has accused the North of the use of the Misseriya to perform a before the separation of the southern land grabbing.
"Misseriya are transported by the Sudanese armed forces (the army of the North) to Abyei." "They want to claim the Earth", he told Reuters.
NORTH DEFIANT
Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon urged the North and the South to return to the negotiating table and is resistant to the "more acts of aggression."
"We must impress all the parties that the military confrontation in Abyei is not an option," he said heads of State at a meeting of African Union in Addis Ababa.
Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir defies the U.S., United Nations and other calls to to withdraw, saying that abyei belonged to the North. "We will withdraw not of it", he said in Khartoum on Tuesday.
Demonstration of the North could force shaking a fragile political balance which took place in the largest countries in Africa since the agreement of 2005 end of the civil war which caused the death of millions.
It could also delay the restoration of normal diplomatic relations between northern Sudan and the outside world.
The United States Monday excluded dropping in a list of terrorism and restoration of Ambassador from Washington in Khartoum if it continues to occupy Abyei.
A total of 14 rounds were fired when United Nations helicopters took off from a United Nations compound, in the town of Abyei Tuesday but they landed safely, United Nations spokesman said Jiang.
Jiang said Misseriya Khartoum supported militias were probably responsible for the attack.
Fighting and looting - some bases which offer targeted United Nations agencies - had died down, she added.
Northern forces had deployed military aircraft at an air base in North in El Obeid to two fingers in Abyei, said the Sentinel Satellite Project (SSP), a monitoring group.
"The presence of these aircraft capable of attacks near Abyei is consistent with the reports of Sudanese armed forces (Northern) bombing attacks in Abyei in five days," said ssp.
No reliable casualty figure emerged and yet as aid agencies struggle to reach Abyei. Ambassador of Great Britain in Khartoum, Nicholas Kay, wrote on his blog that two of the Embassy staff had lost family members in the disputed region.
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