SUDAN: Conditions for 1.2 million Sudanese displaced in Darfur continue to worsen amid violent attacks, spreading disease, and heavy rains which wreak havoc with aid convoys, United Nations agencies said yesterday.
The reports came a day after the expiry of a deadline set by the UN Security Council for Sudan to prove it can protect the people of the western region or face possible sanctions.
Up to 50,000 people have died since conflict intensified in the region in February 2003.
More than one million Darfuris have fled their homes for fear of attack by Arab Janjaweed militia, whom rebels and human rights groups say have been mobilised by Khartoum to carry out a bloody campaign of ethnic cleansing.
"The humanitarian situation in Darfur continues to worsen, with ongoing violations and the rainy season at its peak, which is hampering and disrupting the flow of international aid very often," Mr Simon Plüss, spokesman for the UN World Food Programme (WFP), told a news briefing.
The WFP, which last week expanded air drops of food in west Darfur, also expressed concern about the fate of three Sudanese staff and five Sudanese Red Crescent workers missing since disappearing on Saturday south of el Fasher in North Darfur.
The World Health Organisation yesterday reported a near doubling in hepatitis cases in Darfur in the past month due to insufficient clean water and poor sanitary conditions.
The toll now stands at 2,432 cases and 41 deaths since late May.
Another 959 cases and 30 deaths among the 200,000 Darfuris who have fled to eastern Chad have also been linked to hepatitis, a viral liver infection, the UN agency added.
Aid agencies were working around the clock to improve water and sanitation for the displaced on both sides of the border, only half of whom had access to safe drinking water.
Maternal mortality rates in Darfur are "extremely high", with 600 deaths per 100,000 women, according to the agency.
An air drop begun on August 1st has brought two months' worth of food to 72,000 people in west Darfur, according to WFP. The second phase, now under way, aims to feed 140,000 more people at Geneina and nearby camps, and at 10 sites inaccessible by road.
Six all-terrain trucks were stuck in sand along the road between el Obaid and el Fasher for 10 hours one day last week, while flooding caused a rail line between el Obaid and Nyala to buckle, derailing a train carrying food supplies, Mr Plüss said. - (Reuters)