The UN has warned of a possible upsurge in violence between government and rebel forces in South Kordofan.

Since the outbreak of fighting in Blue Nile and South Kordofan, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the UN (UNOCHA) said 140,000 refugees have fled towards South Sudan and Ethiopia.

Government sources questioned those figures, and stated that more than 85 percent of refugees in Ethiopia’s Asosa camp voluntarily returned to their homes.

Other sources said the government has forced people to return to the villages they were displaced from.

There are large discrepancies and tension in relation to the numbers of displaced people.

The UN also announced about 30,000 people fled fighting in South Kordofan over the past several months.

UNOCHA stressed that tension is still very much present near the town of Abbasiya.

It said 'humanitarian organisations report on a weekly basis the displacement of citizens after continuous mobiliisation of reinforcements of the Sudanese armed forces in the region and clashes could erupt any time between the army and rebels.'