Fighting has broken out again in the Sudanese region of Darfur after several months of relative calm.

The government army has carried out air strikes on rebel positions in the mountainous Jebel Marra region in northern Dafur. Sources say about 20 civilians were killed in the strikes; it is not clear if any rebels were killed. The UN peacekeeping force UNAMID will send a team to the region to investigate the incident.
 

At the end of last month, UNAMID head Martin Luther Agwai said the war in Darfur was over. The UN says the six-year conflict in the region has claimed the lives of at least 300,000 people. About 2.5 million people have fled the violence.
 

Dozens of people have been killed in southern Sudan in fighting between SPLA soldiers, the government army and rival tribes. Earlier reports suggested that the violence was sparked when members of the Lou Nuer tribe attacked a Dinka Hol village on a cattle-raiding party but a SPLA spokesperson said it was a militia attack on security forces.
 

Inter-tribal violence in southern Sudan has been on the rise in recent months. Most of the fighting is over territory, natural resources and cattle or is a retaliation raid for a previous attack. However, analysts say forces from northern Sudan are exploiting tribal divisions and stoking violence in the run-up to a referendum on independence for Southern Sudan, due to be held in 2011.