UN warned of South Sudan violence

The UN must boost its peacekeepers' mandate in Sudan to protect civilians amid fears political violence could erupt afresh, says an aid agency.

Refugees International warns fighting could flare in the next two years due to polls and a referendum on separating southern Sudan from the north.

Relations are already strained between Khartoum and the southern capital Juba.

Sudan this week marks the fourth anniversary of the peace agreement which ended 21 years of civil war.

The north-south conflict cost an estimated 1.5 million lives and ended in the setting up of an autonomous secular government in the south.

Insecurity

Tensions remain high between the old enemies, with thousands displaced last May after clashes broke out in the oil-rich border town of Abyei.

Thousands fled their homes in 2008 after clashes in Abyei

As part of the 2005 deal, nationwide elections are due to take place this year, although Refugees International does not believe those polls will take place until 2010 because of logistical difficulties and insecurity.

The US aid agency's Sudan researcher, Erin Weir, said that the demarcation of the border between the north and the south and power-sharing arrangements over the control of resources that have not been agreed upon yet "risks aggravating" the situation.

"And the issue of the referendum itself, again separation for the north, resurgence of violence between the north and the south, particular communities who find themselves on one side or the other of a border they didn't expect to be on," she said.

"When the Unmis [UN Mission in Sudan] mandate was first drafted it was conceived of as largely a monitoring mission and I think now very clearly that protection must be a higher priority for this mission."

No-one from Unmis was immediately available for comment.

Unmis is a separate task force from the joint UN-African Union (Unamid) mission deployed in the western region of Darfur.