200,000 have fled Sudan since start of conflict

GENEVA - Some 200,000 people have fled from Sudan to neighbouring countries since violence erupted last month, a spokesperson for the UN refugee agency said on Friday, adding that tens of thousands have arrived in Chad in recent days.

At the same briefing, a spokesperson from the UN children's agency said that a factory in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, producing food for malnourished children has been burnt down. 

Meanwhile, a senior UN official expressed optimism on Friday that mediators would reach a ceasefire in the next few days, saying that he had assurances from one of the sides that they would continue negotiating in Saudi Arabia.

"I think the most important element of this understanding that was signed yesterday night is that both sides commit to continue their talks," Volker Perthes, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sudan, told journalists in Geneva, adding that he had spoken to one of them this morning.