Darfur villages face unprecedented food crisis-ICRC

GENEVA, Oct 19 (Reuters) – Villages throughout Sudan’s Darfur region face an “unprecedented food crisis”, worse than the threat of famine in recent decades, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday.

The warning was based on a study of food supplies in 20 selected villages across the huge region where villagers — those who have not taken refuge in camps — reported they had more trouble coping than in earlier severe droughts, it said.

“Most rural communities in north, west and south Darfur are facing un unprecedented food crisis, worse even than the famines they faced in the 80s and 90s,” the ICRC said.

Rebels launched a revolt in western Sudan in early 2003 after years of skirmishes between African farmers and Arab nomads over land.

They accuse the government of arming Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, to crush them and their civilian sympathisers, a charge Khartoum denies.

According to the United Nations, about 70,000 people have died from hunger and disease in Darfur since March when international agencies began a massive aid effort.

The U.N.’s World Food Programme (WFP) — the main food relief agency operating in Darfur — says that access to and food security in the camps are generally improving despite logistical challenges.

WFP reached 1.3 million displaced Darfuris in September. The ICRC says it is aiding some 300,000 villagers and displaced.

The ICRC said that it was maintaining food aid to rural areas “well into next year” to avoid further mass movement to camps for internally displaced people.

Attacks on villages by bomber planes, government soldiers or militias have helped drive more than 1.5 million people from their homes in Darfur.