UN rights deputy sees risk of new war in Sudan

[June 29, 2011]  GENEVA (AP) -- A senior U.N. human rights official says there is a risk that full-blown war will break out again between north and south Sudan if clashes in the border areas spread.

U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kyung-wha Kang says the town of Abyei in north Sudan was "a scene of total destruction" when she visited last week.

Kang says she was refused access to the northern town of Kadugli where her office has received reports of civilians being mistreated.

She also told reporters in Geneva on Wednesday that some 1,400 people have been killed in South Sudan this year due to ethnic and economic disputes.

South Sudan is due to formally gain independence July 9 as part of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war in which some 2 million people died.

[Associated Press]

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