U.N. Says Aid System Stretched as Thousands Flee Darfur Unrest

Thousands of people who have fled to displaced camps after renewed violence in Sudan's Darfur region are putting further pressure on an already stretched aid system, the United Nations said Wednesday.

They are escaping unrest linked to what an analyst described as a type of mercenary force comprised of 6,000 men.

Most of those fleeing the fighting have ended up at the Kalma and Al-Salam camps outside the South Darfur state capital Nyala, Adnan Khan, acting chief of the U.N. in Sudan, said in a statement.

"As these camps also received many newly displaced people last year, the available services such as water and medical care are already thinly stretched," Khan said, adding that aid agencies are organizing extra water and food for the new arrivals.

He said they have reportedly fled fighting between rebels and the Sudanese Armed Forces and allied paramilitary groups in the Um Gunya area, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Nyala.

"Last year saw more people displaced in Darfur than in any single year since the height of the Darfur conflict in 2004," Khan said.

"Unfortunately, what we are seeing in Darfur is a trend, where conflict and violence impacts the lives of ordinary people with increasing frequency."

On Tuesday, the International Organisation for Migration said it had registered more than 19,000 new arrivals at Kalma and Al-Salam camps.

An estimated 20,000 more had fled to Saniya Deleiba village, also near Nyala, the U.N.'s World Food Programme said.

WFP trucks delivered food to the village on Tuesday.

Sources in the area told Agence France Presse that "all indications" are that so-called Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a Darfur militia which has been used to back government military operations, appear to be behind the Um Gunya violence.

The African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) said it had reports of villages burned, looting and civilian casualties.

The official SUNA news agency reported that the RSF "work to protect the citizens and their properties from the rebel forces".

RSF are "almost like a mercenary army", said Magdi El Gizouli, a fellow at the Rift Valley Institute.

He said the unit includes many ex-members of Darfur's rebel movements but has been run by former South Darfur government security adviser Mohammed Hamdan Dalgo.

According to Gizouli, Dalgo, also known as Himeidti, is a "captain" of Musa Hilal, who was a reputed chief of the Janjaweed militia formed in response to Darfur's rebel uprising 11 years ago.

"It's a private army. You can rent them," Gizouli said of the RSF.

"If the government pays them enough, they are ready to fight for the government."

The RSF returned to South Darfur, Himeidti's base, after supporting government operations against rebels in South Kordofan state.

From there, they first traveled to North Kordofan waiting to be paid, but there was a problem with the payment, they became embroiled in disputes with local residents and were ordered out of the state by governor Ahmed Haroun last month.

"This is the largest fighting force that exists in Darfur," Gizouli said. "They are heavily armed."

Non-Arab rebels rose up in Darfur in 2003, seeking an end to what they viewed as Arab elites' domination of Sudan's power and wealth.

In response, government-backed Janjaweed militiamen, recruited among the region's Arab tribes, shocked the world with atrocities against civilians.

Since then, the dynamics of conflict in Darfur have changed.

Analysts say Sudan's cash-starved government can no longer control its former Arab tribal allies.

As a result, the militias have turned on each other in a struggle for resources. They have also been blamed for kidnapping, carjacking and other crimes.

The UN says a total of almost two million people are displaced in Darfur.