UN says Eritreans fleeing into Sudan

The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR says the Sudanese authorities have reported that fifty-thousand Eritreans have crossed the border into Sudan, fleeing advancing Ethiopian forces.

A UN spokesman in Geneva said the agency was trying to find shelter for the refugees ; he said they included soldiers who were being disarmed by Sudanese troops .

The World Food Programme says up to half-a-million people are on the move inside Eritrea itself.

It has appealed for twelve million dollars to provide basic supplies for them, but says more money will be needed.

The refugee crisis follows a new outbreak of fighting in the two-year-old border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Ethiopia has said it bombed targets near the key port of Massawa late on Thursday; the Eritrean authorities say a woman was killed in an attack on a village, south of the port.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service