Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, giving a rare battlefield toll, says 163 members of the controversial Rapid Support Forces have been killed in Darfur and South Kordofan.

Bashir "referred to the martyrdom of 163 of the troops and the wounding of others in the operations during five months," according to comments carried late Sunday by the official SUNA news agency.

Two Sudanese political activists allegedly tortured during two months in detention were released on Friday along with a third activist, the mother of one told Agence France Presse.

"Thanks be to God," said Sabah Osman Mohammed, whose son Tajalsir Jaafar, 28, was among those freed.

Aid workers in Sudan have found dire conditions after entering a town in war-torn Darfur that had been off-limits to most of them for three years, the United Nations said Thursday.

It said government restrictions had prevented humanitarian workers from accessing the mountainous Jebel Marra region in central Darfur where a rebellion began 11 years ago.

Life-saving aid could move from Sudan to its former enemy South Sudan under a deal to feed some of the millions battling hunger in the war-torn South, a diplomat said Wednesday.

The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding Tuesday for the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) to deliver food to northern South Sudan, said Kau Nak, the South's charge d'affaires in Khartoum.

Thousands of South Sudanese waved flags at military parades to mark three years of independence Wednesday, despite little to celebrate in a war-torn young nation ravaged by ethnic atrocities and threatened with famine.

The streets of the capital were lined with banners proclaiming "One People, One Nation", as the government of President Salva Kiir put on a show of force with a military parade and speeches intended to celebrate the breakaway from the repressive government in Khartoum.

A Sudanese political dialogue aimed at resolving multiple crises in the impoverished, war-ravaged nation is dead, an opposition leader who initially joined the process said on Tuesday.

"Our politburo has declared that the national dialogue has reached a dead end and we should look for a more credible alternative," Ghazi Salahuddin Atabani, head of the Reform Now party, told Agence France Presse.

A staffer from the International Organization for Migration has been abducted in Sudan's Darfur, the IOM said on Monday.

It is the latest incident of its kind in the region where crime and other violence has surged.

A Sudanese newspaper run by an uncle of President Omar al-Bashir has been suspended again after printing just one edition following an earlier ban, the publisher said Monday.

The blocking of Al-Saiha comes after it published on Sunday commentary critical of Bashir's national dialogue.

A Sudanese daily newspaper that was allowed to resume publishing in March after a ban of nearly two years has been seized, its chief editor said on Sunday.

National security agents confiscated the entire print run, about 23,000 copies, of al-Tayar's Saturday edition, its editor Osman Mirghani told Agence France Presse.

Combat between two Arab tribes in Sudan's Darfur region has killed 18 people, a resident said Sunday, adding to a growing toll as various groups battle for resources and revenge.

The latest incident occurred outside Ed Daein, the capital of East Darfur, said the resident who is a member of the local Rezeigat tribe.