UN requests more international assistance for Darfur

NAIROBI, Feb 28, 2005 (Xinhua) — The United Nations has requested more international assistance for the residents in the war-torn western Sudanese region of Darfur to avert imminent starvation, local media reported Monday.

UN emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland said that millions of people in Darfur are at risk of starvation unless the international community acts immediately on the situation there, The People Daily, a Kenyan newspaper reported.

“Some are predicting four million, some are predicting that more people are in desperate need of life-saving assistance,” Egeland was quoted as saying.

Noting that the UN had received just half of the 650 million US dollar pledged for the region, he called for a massive international mobilization of aid.

However, Egeland warned that relief aid alone was insufficient. The continued violence in Darfur was seriously hampering aid efforts in the region. He called for a four to five fold increase in the African Union monitoring force in Darfur.