US condemns Sudan over attacks

The United States has condemned the Sudanese Government, which it says has violated the ceasefire signed last year with rebels in the south.

A State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, said the US condemned what he described as "unconscionable attacks and abuses" against civilians in the Western Upper Nile region.

But he added that the Sudanese Government now seemed to be taking steps to adhere to the ceasefire accord.

The US spokesman was responding to a report by a US-led team of international monitors who detailed a number of attacks in southern Sudan in December and January, and the displacement of thousands of civilians.

From the Newsroom of the BBC World Service