Food situation in Sudan’s Darfur still worrying: UN

KHARTOUM, Feb 16 (AFP) — The United Nations warned Wednesday that the food situation in Sudan’s troubled Darfur was still worrying despite efforts by humanitarian agencies to improve conditions in the western region.

Sudanese men unload sacks of sorghum during a delivery of aid from the World Food Program in Kalma Camp, near Nyala town, Darfur. (AFP).

“What is worrying is that the available quantity of food is inadequate,” said Radhia Achouri, spokesperson for UN envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk.

For 2005, the United Nations has budgeted 332 million dollars, of which 219 million dollars would support the activities of the World Food Programme, to prop up the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, she said.

Tens of thousands of people have died during the conflict between Sudanese government forces and ethnic minority rebels fighting for greater political and economic autonomy.

Some 1.6 million others have been displaced in what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Conditions are improving gradually and the United Nations has managed to deliver food to more than 1.84 million internally displaced persons in recent months, Achouri said.

More than 70 percent of the displaced have access to clean water and health services, although insecurity and continued violence still present problems, she added.