U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay voiced alarm Tuesday over armed groups targeting civilians in Sudan's conflict-ridden Darfur region and urged an "immediate" end to the violence.

"There has been a disproportionate use of force by armed groups in areas in South Darfur that are not military targets," Pillay said in a statement, calling for "an immediate halt to attacks on unarmed civilians."

Restrictions by Sudan's government and the inadequate equipment of some peacekeepers in the Darfur region are hindering their ability to protect civilians and aid workers while violence increases, the U.N. chief says.

Ban Ki-moon made the comments in a review of the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) which the U.N. Security Council ordered last July, according to a copy received Sunday by Agence France Presse.

Sudanese authorities refused permission for an International Women's Day event in Khartoum, an activist said on Sunday, despite President Omar al-Bashir's vow that freedoms should be respected.

The March 8 event -- marked around the world -- had been held without incident for the past eight years at Khartoum's Nubian Club, women's activist Fahima Hashim told Agence France Presse.

A politically diverse group of Sudanese including communists, Islamists and Arab nationalists on Saturday announced a National Movement for Change seeking a more inclusive form of government for the vast nation.

The group aims to challenge the Arab-dominated regime of President Omar al-Bashir, which has for years been fighting ethnic insurgencies fueled by complaints of economic and political neglect by the Islamist central government in Khartoum.

The United States on Saturday condemned recent attacks by government-backed mercenary fighters in Darfur, and urged the Sudan government to prevent further acts of violence.

"We are deeply concerned by the recent escalation of violence by the Sudanese government-supported Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Darfur," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement, referring to a mercenary force of about 6,000 men fighting alongside the Sudanese Armed Forces.

About 300 fundamentalists in Sudan branded France a "criminal" and called for jihad during a Friday rally in support of Muslims in the Central African Republic, an Agence France Presse reporter saw.

"France is the chief criminal in Central Africa," said one sign carried by the protesters, many of them bearded, outside the main mosque in central Khartoum.

The World Food Program said Friday it was planning to airlift and airdrop urgently needed food aid to thousands of refugees and others affected by the conflict in South Sudan.

The UN agency said the conflict in the world's newest nation had severely complicated supplying refugee camps in the northeastern Maban County with food, warning that cereal stocks there were exhausted.

Sudan has no connection with a ship intercepted in the Red Sea allegedly carrying rockets from Iran to Gaza, Khartoum's foreign ministry said on Thursday.

"We have nothing to do with this," foreign ministry spokesman Abubakr Al-Siddiq told AFP, adding that the vessel was in international waters.

A ship Israel said was carrying advanced rockets bound for Gaza from Iran will be brought into port Saturday after being intercepted by Israeli naval forces, the military said.

"This ship, which was transporting dozens of M302-type rockets with a range of 150 to 200 kilometers (more than 100 miles) is currently north of Port Sudan and will arrive in Eilat Saturday evening," General Motti Almoz told military radio Thursday.

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.