LONDON, Sept 10 (AFP) - The violence gripping Sudan's western Darfur region has caused tens of thousands of more people to flee their homes, the British-based agency Oxfam said Friday.
Relief officials say the 19-month conflict has already displaced 1.4 million people, many of them fleeing to neighboring Chad but Oxfam said another 30,000 had reached one of its camps in the past two weeks.
However, a Sudanese government official maintained Khartoum's insistence that the security situation in the region had improved sufficiently for the displaced to be able to return to their homes without fear of attack.
Oxfam said a camp it runs with another agency in Greda, in South Darfur state, contained around 10,000 displaced people on August 26, but its population had swelled to more than 40,000 people by September 7.
"Literally tens of thousands of people have poured into the camp in recent days and the flow still hasn't stopped," it said.
"Oxfam is working flat out to try and provide for the thousands of newly displaced and vulnerable people, but what we need most is an end to the insecurity," Oxfam quoted aid worker Gemma Swart as saying from the camp.
There was no immediate reaction from the South Darfur state authorities but the governor of North Darfur state Osman Youssef Kibir rejected Oxfam's charge that insecurity was behind the new exodus.
"The reality has now defeated the allegations and the problem is now the camps of the displaced persons have become attractive," Kibir told the official Sudan News Agency.
Kibir said that in his own state many of the displaced were now returning to their homes because of improved security.
"With the redeployment of 5,094 policemen, as the biggest police force the state has ever had, the security situation is now at its best condition, while the humanitarian situation has improved," he said.
Oxfam said it was struggling to care for the fresh influx of displaced people, many of whom had walked for two days to reach the Greda camp.
The new arrivals were currently without even the basics such as plastic sheeting for shelter, it said.
The camp is 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Nyala, in South Darfur state, and the condition of the roads means it takes supply trucks five or six days to get there.
Oxfam was already building 300 latrines, but the new arrivals mean it must build a further 2,000. With water supplies short, people are forced to drink dirty water straight from the wadi, or seasonal river.
In six weeks the wadi will dry up, it warned.
Oxfam is looking at ways to provide more clean water and is also planning to distribute jerry cans, mosquito nets, soap and sleeping mats.