Fighting in Darfur Kills at Least 100

Forces 100,000 to flee

Khartoum - A surge in violence in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region has killed more than 100 people and forced 100 000 to flee, the United Nations said on Wednesday, sharply increasing its estimates after weeks of clashes.

Fighters caught up in a dispute over control of a gold mine had set fire to more than three dozen villages in the north of the region, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Ali AlZatari, said in a statement.

More than 100 people had died and around 70 000 people had been displaced by the fighting between rival Arab tribes that broke out more than a week ago in the Jebel Amer area, he added.