Between 30,000 and 50,000 dead in Darfur: UN

UNITED NATIONS, July 23 (AFP) — The death toll in Sudan’s western Darfur province is at least 30,000 and could be as high as 50,000, UN emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland said Friday.

“Among the one million people [are displaced]…it could be by now anywhere between 30,000 and 50,000 deaths already, and these are preventable,” the UN deputy secretary general for humanitarian affairs said.

“There is a false impression now that things are improving in Darfur because we, the humanitarian community, are able to deploy much stronger than before,” Mr Egeland said.

“The outlook at the moment is actually bleak, the deaths are increasing,” he said.

Rebel groups rose up against Khartoum in February 2003, claiming that the mainly black African region had been ignored by the Arab government.

The uprising prompted a bloody crackdown by Sudanese troops and the Janjaweed militias, which have carried out what aid and human rights groups have called a massive campaign of ethnic cleansing.

About 1.2 million people have been forced from their homes during the 17 months of conflict.

About 200,000 have taken refuge in neighbouring Chad, which borders on Darfur province.

A Sudanese media centre close to the government said Friday that 200 members of pro-government militias accused of ethnic cleansing in Darfur had been tried and that some had received death sentences.

The report coincided with a demand by US President George W Bush that Sudan halt the violence by the Janjaweed militias in Darfur and ensure that aid reaches the area.

“For Darfur it is not lack of access which is our main problem, it is lack of security,” Mr Egeland said.

“It’s still a security and protection crisis of unprecedented proportions.”

Mr Egeland said that helicopters are needed, but his program is short on cash.