About 20,000 people have been displaced by fresh fighting in Sudan's Darfur region, the UN's World Food Programme said on Monday.

"There's an estimated 20,000 new arrivals, most of whom are women and children," Amor Almagro, the WFP's public information officer, told AFP.

She said they have arrived in the village of Saniya Deleiba, about 35 kilometres (21.6 miles) from the South Darfur state capital Nyala.