Conditions improve in Sudan’s W. Darfur camps- UN
By Nima Elbagir
GENEINA, Sudan, Aug 28 (Reuters) – The humanitarian conditions in camps for displaced people in Sudan’s West Darfur state have improved, the U.N. envoy in Sudan said on Saturday, days before reporting to the Security Council.
Jan Pronk will report to the U.N. Security Council in New York on Monday on whether Khartoum has done enough to improve the humanitarian and security situation in Darfur to avoid further Security Council action.
Before leaving for New York, Pronk will meet two U.N. teams investigating conditions in the other two states that make up the region the size of France, where two main rebel groups began a revolt against Khartoum in early 2003.
“The humanitarian situation … nutrition, food and health among the IDPs (Internally Displaced People) has stabilised in the camps. The food situation is better, there is no increase in the mortality rate,” he told reporters in West Darfur state capital Geneina.
The rebels accuse the government of helping Arab militias known as Janjaweed to loot and burn African villages in a campaign of ethnic cleansing in the western region.
Khartoum denies the charge, calling the Janjaweed outlaws.
The fighting has driven more than a million from their homes into camps where they depend on international aid.
Pronk also said there was more fear among the people of the region than he had previously envisaged. He said he would discuss the point, along with several others, with the other U.N. missions.
The U.N. estimates up to 50,000 people have died as a result of the conflict, either from violence or deprivation, and says the conflict has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail, who was speaking at the same news conference, said he hoped the Security Council would acknowledge Khartoum’s efforts.
“My hope is that the Security Council will acknowledge what we are doing which will lead to further cooperation and coordination with the Security Council,” he said.