UNHCR head to fly to Sudan

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, will fly to Sudan tomorrow to begin a two-week tour of African countries.

Sudan has been heavily affected by the resumption of war between Eritrea and Ethiopia -- more than seventy-thousand Eritrean refugees have fled into eastern Sudan over the past month.

The governor of Sudan's eastern state of Kassala, Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid, has said that the departments of his administration are putting all their efforts into serving the refugees -- and he appealed for international aid.

Meanwhile, the UNHCR in Khartoum has said there has been no response so far from the international community to its appeal -- made a week ago -- for four-point-two-million dollars to help maintain the refugees.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service