integra
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More than 120 Bangladeshi troops will lead reinforcements sent to the strife-torn Sudanese state of South Kordofan, where Khartoum government troops are battling forces loyal to southern Sudan, UN officials said Thursday.
The United Nations is sending the peacekeeper reinforcements to the state's capital Kadugli to turn its main base there into a safe haven for refugees, he added.
Heavy fighting in the state on the border between north and south Sudan has raged since June 5. Khartoum forces are battling militia aligned to the south's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).
"It's important that the compound of UNMIS can become a sort of safe area where civilians are effectively protected," France's UN ambassador Araud told reporters after a Security Council meeting.
A UN peacekeeping spokesman said the company of Bangladesh troops had been sent to Kadugli and that the area around the UN compound had become a safe haven to protect civilians.
UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy told the Security Council that up to 6,000 people were camped out around the base. The United Nations estimates that 60,000 have been displaced by the fighting in South Kordofan alone, including about 70 percent of the population of Kadugli.
The Security Council is to get a briefing on Monday from former South African president Thabo Mbeki and UN envoy Haile Menkerios on attempts to seal a peace deal between the north and south governments.
Araud said that if there was no agreement by Monday the Security Council would have to "express itself in very strong terms to call for an end to the violence."
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The United Nations is sending the peacekeeper reinforcements to the state's capital Kadugli to turn its main base there into a safe haven for refugees, he added.
Heavy fighting in the state on the border between north and south Sudan has raged since June 5. Khartoum forces are battling militia aligned to the south's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).
"It's important that the compound of UNMIS can become a sort of safe area where civilians are effectively protected," France's UN ambassador Araud told reporters after a Security Council meeting.
A UN peacekeeping spokesman said the company of Bangladesh troops had been sent to Kadugli and that the area around the UN compound had become a safe haven to protect civilians.
UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy told the Security Council that up to 6,000 people were camped out around the base. The United Nations estimates that 60,000 have been displaced by the fighting in South Kordofan alone, including about 70 percent of the population of Kadugli.
The Security Council is to get a briefing on Monday from former South African president Thabo Mbeki and UN envoy Haile Menkerios on attempts to seal a peace deal between the north and south governments.
Araud said that if there was no agreement by Monday the Security Council would have to "express itself in very strong terms to call for an end to the violence."
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