Up to 90 000 people could be displaced by fighting in Sudan’s bitterly contested oil region of Abyei where the United Nations is racing against time to provide aid relief and prevent a return to civil war. Two rounds of heavy fighting between government soldiers and the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Army have largely obliterated Abyei’s once bustling main town.
Donor nations pledged a preliminary ,8-billion in assistance to Sudan on Wednesday, aiming to help bolster a 2005 north-south peace deal in the African country still torn by violence in its western Darfur region. Sudan had said it needed ,1-billion up to 2011, on top of -billion in humanitarian aid.