SUDAN: The world is acting too slowly and half-heartedly to halt the death toll in Darfur, a top aid worker said yesterday.
"The urgency of response is not adequate. The scale of response is not adequate. Day in, day out these people are at huge risk," said Mr Rowan Gillies, head of medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières.
"There is the potential for significant numbers of deaths due to malnutrition or epidemics in the refugee camps where conditions have hardly improved at all despite increased international attention."
As efforts to help gathered pace and a rare aid flight reached the conflict area, the European Union urged the United Nations to consider sanctions on Sudan - although Security Council splits have so far hampered similar US efforts.
Also sensing urgency, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will discuss Sudan peace efforts with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, current head of the African Union, and other African leaders in Ghana on Thursday.
Rights groups say Sudan's government backs Arab militias known as Janjaweed, whom Darfur's rebels accuse of looting and burning African villages in a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
Many countries demand that Khartoum disarm the horseback militia, and have disregarded official denials of involvement.
The United Nations estimates some 30,000 people have been killed and over a million driven from their homes since fighting erupted last year - just as efforts to end another decades-old conflict in southern Sudan bore fruit.
It calls Darfur the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with some two million in need of help.
Mr Gillies said that on a month-long trip he treated sick and dying children in camps for people driven from their homes.
British-based Oxfam flew water-purifying and sanitation equipment for a camp of 60,000 people in southern Darfur, only the charity's third plane to reach the remote area.
Tens of thousands of Darfur refugees have also fled Africa's largest country into Chad.
Sudan's Foreign Minister, Mr Mustafa Osman Ismail, said some 100 Janjaweed members had been arrested, and he insisted progress had been made over safety and aid.
"We are doing what is right," he said, and accused US politicians of speaking of genocide to woo votes.
"Deputies of both parties are targeting the vote of black Americans. The African Union has concluded there is no question of genocide. I have more confidence in its judgment."
The pan-African body said it was still trying to revive stalled peace talks between the government and rebels, and to send ceasefire observers to Darfur, despite delays.