A visit to Pagarau, Yirol County, on October 17 established that the displaced, mostly members of the Nuer community, continue trooping into Bahr el Ghazal to seek refugee among their Dinka counterparts.

Abraham Makur Jany, who arrived in Pagarau on October 16 after seven days' walk, told of many difficulties on the way.

He talked of heavy flooding in the Bentiu area, which had made the estimated 170 km journey extremely difficult and increased chances of epidemic outbreak among those on flight.

"It is impossible to move with children as there are sections where flood waters reach the necks of adults of average height," he said through an interpreter, Deborah Yaar.

Jany said the government troops continued to chase the uer out of their ancestral land with total disregard for human life or dignity. "Usually, they begin by shelling a target area by heavy artillery," he said.

The Khartoum government and the foreign oil companies strongly deny any human rights abuses related to the oil operations.

"As people begin escaping southwards, the government troops and government supported militias advance, killing and looting property with wild abandon," he explained.

He further explained that the advancing soldiers usually abduct small children who do not comprehend what is going on around them. Such children are normally taken to the north for cultural re-orientation or for sale into slavery.

The Khartoum government and the foreign oil companies strongly deny any human rights abuses related to the oil operations.

Canadian Talisman, one of the major companies at the centre of the Sudan oil business, talks of population influx into the area of their operations on their website.

This, they claim, has been prompted by the facilities that the oil company has provided in the area of operation.

Rebecca Atuet, the chairlady of the Sudan People's Liberation Army's Yirol women's wing, said their counterparts fleeing the war had told them of untold suffering of women and children in the hands of government troops.

"Many have lost their husbands, while equally large numbers have fallen victims of rape, sometimes by gangs of several men," she said.

She said that the Nuer women had warned them that the Jalaba (pejorative term for Arab) would soon come to Dinkaland as well to commit similar atrocities.

Atuet's deputy, Monicah Nyachut, said they had wholeheartedly welcomed the Nuer people to Dinkaland and appealed to the international community to come to the aid of the displaced.

While accurate statistics are not available, it is estimated that up to 250, 000 people from Bentiu are now displaced in various parts of Bahr el Ghazal. Specific locations where they are include Pagarau, Adior and Rumbek.

The main corporations involved in Sudan include the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company, a consortium which includes Canada's Talisman Energy (25%), the state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (NPC) (40%); Malaysia's Petronas (30%) and Sudapet (5%). These companies are currently operating in the Heglig and Unity oilfields

Operating in the neighbouring Block 5a are Sweden's Lundin Oil, OMV of Austria, Petronas and Sudapet.

The Gulf Petroleum Corporation of Qatar, CNPC and Petronas operate in the more easterly Adar oilfield, while France's TotalFinaElf owns an as-yet-unexploited 120,000 sq km concession in the south of the country.