Nairobi/Khartoum - At least 24 people died and over 50 were injured after Sudanese security forces opened fire inside a refugee camp in Sudan's restive Darfur province, a United Nations official said Tuesday, confirming earlier reports from Sudanese rebels.

The Sudan Liberation Army Monday said that at least 27 people died in the Kalma camp - near the capital of South Darfur, Nyala - when Sudanese troops opened fire indiscriminately.

However, South Darfur state's security committee, in a statement released through state news agency SUNA, said that nobody was killed in the incident. It said that police were fired upon as they tried to seize a rebel weapons' cache inside the camp.

The joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission UNAMID sent a patrol to verify the claims and said that it had evacuated a significant number of wounded on Monday evening.

"UNAMID, along with an aid agency, evacuated 49 wounded internally displaced persons (IDPs), mainly women and children, to Nyala hospital," Noureddine Mezni, spokesman for UNAMID, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"Local leaders told UNAMID that 24 people are lying dead in the camp waiting to be buried," he continued, adding that this death toll was yet to be officially confirmed by UNAMID.

Mezni added that many young men, who he said were involved in the fighting, had refused to be evacuated for fear of being arrested. They were being treated in the camp, he said.

Kalma, where between 80,000 and 100,000 people displaced by fighting live, has long been a flashpoint. The Sudanese government claims that rebel supporters are hiding among the refugees, and has previously entered the camp to seize weapons.

The conflict in Darfur began in 2003 when black tribesmen took up arms against what they call decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-dominated Sudanese government in Khartoum.

Mezni said that the UNAMID patrol reported security forces were still surrounding the camp on Tuesday.

South Darfur authorities say the forces will remain in place until the weapons' stockpile has been confiscated.

Mezni said that UNAMID was monitoring the situation and also engaging the security authorities in an attempt to head off further violence.

"They (Sudanese authorities) wanted us to organize a meeting with the IDPs, UNAMID and the government to resolve the crisis in Kalma," he said.

The UN says up to 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced by five years of conflict.

Khartoum has been accused of using the Janjaweed militia to commit atrocities against Darfur's black population and suppress the rebels.

The Kalma flashpoint comes at a delicate time, with tensions in Darfur already raised by possible genocide charges against Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir.

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in July asked for an arrest warrant against al-Bashir on war crimes charges relating to Darfur.

The rebels support the charges, while Khartoum - which does not recognize the ICC - has dismissed them. (dpa)