Region | Sudan
Darfur deaths estimated at 300,000
The Darfur conflict has killed close to 300,000 people in five years, United Nations officials said on Tuesday.
- Agencies
- Published: 11:36 April 23, 2008
United Nations: The Darfur conflict has killed close to 300,000 people in five years, United Nations officials said on Tuesday.
In grim reports to the Security Council, the UN aid chief and peacekeeping representative said the situation in the Sudanese region is deteriorating significantly.
Thousands have been uprooted from their homes, and food aid has been cut in half, with full deployment of a new peacekeeping force delayed until 2009, while a possible political settlement has not yet surfaced.
The undersecretary-general of humanitarian affairs, John Holmes said receding aid is pushing the goal to end the conflict further away.
He added that further progress in deploying the joint peacekeeping force, known as UNAMID, would help protect civilians and possibly humanitarian convoys.
The number of people affected by the crisis is also rising steadily.
Holmes told the council: "Of Darfur's estimated 6 million people, some 4.27 million have now been seriously affected by the conflict," including deaths and injuries, uprooting from homes, illness and hunger.
The estimate of 300,000 dead "is not a very scientifically based figure" because no new mortality studies in Darfur have been conducted, Holmes said, adding, however, that "it's a reasonable extrapolation."
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