Darfur death toll could reach 300,000, U.S. aid official says
By JONATHAN FOWLER, Associated Press Writer
GENEVA, Oct 4, 2004 (AP) — The mounting death toll in Sudan’s conflict-ravaged Darfur region could rise six-fold by the end of the year, hitting 300,000, a senior U.S. aid official said Monday.
Such a rise would be fueled by worsening food shortages among refugees who are crammed into temporary camps, said William J. Garvelink, deputy assistant administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
“The crisis in Darfur has not yet peaked,” he told reporters. “We have not yet seen the worst.”
Earlier this year, USAID predicted that between 80,000 and 300,000 people could die if the situation failed to improve in Darfur. “We’re now coming to the high side of that range,” Garvelink said.
The conflict already has killed at least 50,000 people and displaced 1.4 million villagers from their homes. More than 200,000 have crossed to neighboring Chad, where tension has risen because resources to care for the refugees are scarce.
The United Nations and aid groups have dubbed Darfur the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Most blame Sudanese authorities for at least stoking the conflict.
Sudan’s Arab-dominated government is accused of mobilizing an Arab militia known as the Janjaweed for attacks on Darfur’s non-Arab villagers in retaliation for uprisings launched by two non-Arab Darfur rebel movements in 2003. Arab herdsmen have long competed for resources with Darfur’s non-Arab population.
The government has denied the claims, although it acknowledges there is a “tribal conflict” in the western region.
The U.N. Security Council is investigating allegations leveled by the United States and others that the government and the Janjaweed are guilty of genocide. Sudan also faces the threat of U.N. sanctions.
After months of relying on scarce food handouts _ when aid agencies have been able to reach refugee settlements _ more than a million people in Darfur now face severe malnutrition, Garvelink told reporters.
The harvest will provide temporary respite, but will only be a “blip” because many farmers have been unable to cultivate their fields, he said. When refugees stray out of their camps to forage for food, the men often face death and the women risk rape at the hands of the militias.
“We’re going to see a tipping point in December, January or February,” said Garvelink, who was in Geneva for a meeting of the U.N. refugee agency.