An airstrike took place near a populated area of Sudan's North Darfur state, without causing casualties, the African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission UAMID said on Tuesday.

The bombs narrowly missed Samra village in North Darfur but there were no injuries or damage, said Susan Manuel of UNAMID.

A patrol of Rwandan peacekeepers went to investigate on Monday after spotting an Antonov aircraft — of the type used by the Sudanese armed forces — which apparently dropped the ordnance, Manuel told AFP.

"There were bomb craters 250 metres (yards) from the village. It was apparently quite fresh," she said. "Obviously there had been an airstrike."

Villagers who fled the area, just east of Sortony town, had already returned home by the time the peacekeepers arrived, she added.

The air raid occurred on the edge of the Jebel Marra mountains and roughly 25 kilometres (15 miles) from where fighting has been reported.

UNAMID said it was in the process of sending patrols to try to confirm who was involved in the fighting in the rugged region.

The Abdelwahid faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) operates in the area. The group's spokesman could not be reached and neither could the Sudanese army spokesman.

SLA and other rebels drawn from Darfur's non-Arab tribes rose up against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government in 2003.

In response, the regime unleashed state-backed Janjaweed militia in a conflict that shocked the world and led to allegations of genocide.

The United Nations estimates that at least 300,000 people have died as a result of the conflict in the vast Darfur region of western Sudan, while almost two million people remain displaced.

The Sudanese government puts the death toll at 10,000.

Last year, the government signed a peace deal in Doha with an alliance of Darfur rebel splinter factions, but SLA Abdelwahid and other key rebels refused to sign.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and Defence Minister Abdelrahim Mohammed Hussein are wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes committed in Darfur.