UN pulls staff from Sudan flashpoint

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

KHARTOUM (AFP) — The UN said on Thursday it had airlifted more than 250 civilian staff from Sudan's flashpoint town of Abyei, where thousands of Sudanese are believed to have fled clashes in the contested oil region.

Fighting broke out in the town on Wednesday between the army and southern ex-rebels, who fought a 21-year civil war with Khartoum ended by a peace agreement in 2005, following an isolated incident north of Abyei.

The town is in the centre of a district on the border between north and south Sudan and its oil wealth is bitterly contested by the two sides.

Impasse over the area is one of the stumbling blocks delaying implementation of the peace deal and exacerbating tensions between north and south.

"We evacuated all our staff over the last...