CAIRO, Dec 22 (Reuters) - At least 18,000 Eritrean and Somali refugees have arrived in Sudan since the start of the year, and the government is struggling to provide them with aid, a Sudanese government official was quoted as saying on Monday.

The official, quoted by the Egyptian state news agency MENA, said the United Nations had not done enough to help Sudan cope with the influx. "What aid has arrived is modest compared to the number of refugees," the Commissioner for Refugees in Sudan, Mohammed Ahmed al-Aghbash, told MENA, putting the number of Somali refugees at around 5,000.

Somalia is mired in anarchy and Eritrea is still recovering from decades of war.

A human rights group criticised Egypt this week for giving Eritrean authorities access to refugees who may fear persecution by their government, while denying the UN refugee agency access to those same refugees.

The Sudanese government has called on the United Nations to provide urgent aid for the refugees. (Writing by Alastair Sharp, editing by Tim Pearce)

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