Civilian treatment in Sudan conflict \'reprehensible\'

Khartoum\'s government has been battling southern troops since June 5 The treatment of civilians in Sudan\'s embattled border state of South Kordofan, where government forces are accused of ethnic cleansing, is \"reprehensible,\" the United Nations said on Wednesday. \"The treatment of civilians in South Kordofan, including the reported human rights abuses and targeting of people along ethnic lines, is reprehensible,\" Valerie Amos, head of the UN office for humanitarian affairs, said in a statement.
Amos said insecurity and movement restrictions continued to limit the UN\'s ability to provide emergency aid to people who have fled the fighting, now estimated at more than 70,000, adding that threats to aid workers and peacekeepers needed to end \"immediately.\"
The Khartoum government\'s army and allied militia have battled with troops aligned to the south since June 5 in South Kordofan, north Sudan\'s only oil producing state which lies adjacent to its border with the soon to be independent south.
Sudanese religious leaders and activists say the army\'s campaign is part of a government policy of ethnic cleansing, targeting the indigenous Nuba peoples who fought with the former southern rebels during the 1983-2005 civil war.
Khartoum strongly rejects the claim, saying it is protecting civilians from the latest rebellion.
The airspace over South Kordofan has been closed for nearly two weeks and the US ambassador to the United Nations said on Monday that Sudanese forces have threatened to shoot down UN flights over the state.
The Sudanese Armed Forces, or northern army, acting on the orders of the state governor, has started ordering people who had fled the main UN compound in Kadugli for protection to move to the town\'s stadium, according to a UN security report issued on Tuesday.
An estimated 10,000 people had gathered at the UN base.
Approximately 75 percent of them, mainly women and children, have now been moved, said the report, which also mentioned allegations that the government forces were abducting displaced civilians.