The UN says more than 100 former peacekeepers from Ethiopia have sought international protection and have applied for asylum in Sudan.

They had been part of the recently closed UN mission in Darfur.

This comes after other Ethiopian peacekeepers originally from the conflict hit Tigray region – refused to return to Ethiopia out of fear of persecution.

There is increasing concern over allegations of atrocities committed during the six month conflict in Tigray.

The UN says instead of returning home when their mission ended in the Darfur region, around 120 Ethiopian peacekeepers applied for asylum in Sudan.

This development is likely to be linked to the ethnic tensions that have deepened in Ethiopia as a result of the conflict in the northern Tigray region.

In February in South Sudan another group of Ethiopian peacekeepers who were originally from Tigray refused to go home saying they feared persecution.

There have been many reports of human rights abuses during the six-month conflict.

The head of Ethiopia’s Orthodox Church – himself an ethnic Tigrayan – said the atrocities amount to a genocide