By Mathieu Bonkoungou OUAGADOUGOU, June 1 (Reuters) - Close to 1,000 Tuareg civilians have fled south from Mali into Burkina Faso to escape intensified fighting between the Malian army and Tuareg rebels, Red Cross officials in the Bukinabe capital said on Sunday. It is the latest refugee problem to afflict a turbulent region where conflicts in Sudan's Darfur, neighbouring Chad and Central African Republic have already forced several hundred thousand people to flee their homes, many across borders. Clashes in Mali's northern Saharan region have increased in recent weeks as the army tries to quell a rebellion by nomadic Tuareg fighters who have attacked military camps and columns. A similar year-old Tuareg-led revolt has hit neighbouring Niger. Romain Guigma of the Burkina Faso Red Cross said Malian Tuareg families fleeing the fighting, including many women, children and elderly people, had trekked down to the border, leaving their prized camel and livestock herds behind. He estimated there were already more than 300 sheltering in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou and over 600 more in the northern frontier province of Soum. "In the coming days, we'll be carrying out a census in the other provinces that border with Mali," Guigma said. Around 200 of the Malian Tuaregs were being given refuge at a stadium in the Burkinabe capital. "I left Kidal when things got too bad and I've had to leave behind a herd of around 100 goats and 4 camels," one of the refugees, Boubacar Ag Mohamed, 54, who was accompanied by his wife and four children, told Reuters. He said it had taken them 12 days to reach Ouagadougou. Many of the refugees said they feared being caught up in clashes between the Malian army and the Tuareg rebels, who staged earlier revolts in the 1960s and 1990s seeking more autonomy from the black African-dominated government in Bamako more than 1,000 km (600 miles) away from their region. "We're victims. We're not rebels, but when the fighting breaks out, all of the Tuaregs are viewed as the same. We demand that the Mali authorities find a solution to this problem," said another refugee, Mohamed Ben Nayni. SMUGGLING ROUTES Peace agreements after the 1990s rebellion aimed to grant Tuareg communities a greater degree of autonomy while at the same time integrating former fighters into the national army and promoting Tuareg politicians. But since the start of last year, Tuaregs in Mali and Niger have taken up arms again, motivated by shared resentment against unsolved grievances and what they see as unwarranted interference in their traditional territories by government armies and foreign companies. Mali's government and the rebels, whom the army says are trying to control northern cross-border smuggling routes for arms and drugs, had agreed a Libyan-brokered ceasefire in April. But the Tuareg insurgents have carried out a number of attacks since the April 3 truce. In one of the bloodiest clashes to date, Mali's government said last month that Tuareg rebels attacked an army camp at Abeibara in the northeast Kidal region during the night of May 20-21 and that 17 rebels and 15 soldiers were killed. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/) (Writing by Pascal Fletcher)
A soldier distributes steamed bread to children and other survivors near a refugee camp at earthquake-hit Beichuan, in Sichuan province June 1, 2008. REUTERS/Stringer (CHINA). CHINA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL ...
