I was in my closet for the past two days. i was scared to leave. i was still heart broken about what happened to my life. I'm not even sure if they were all dead. i haven't are any food for the past two days either. the little dark closet was my home now. the house was silent no sounds could be heard. the only sound that i can hear was my heart beating and the deep breaths i keep taking. Ive been crying non-stop for the couple of days. i didn't have anyone by my side. i was all alone and I'm only 14 years old. i never was away from my mother more than a few hours. now it's been two days since i last saw her. if i stayed in that closet any longer I would die from starvation. i tried my best to pull it together and leave the closet for the first time. i tried to stand up but i fell back down. I didn't have the energy to even stand up. it took me almost five minutes to get up. my legs were numb from all that sitting i was doing. i looked in my room and it was the way i left it and nothing was out of place. i opened my bedroom door and i looked through the hallway and no one was there so i kept walking until I reached the kitchen. I looked around searching for anything I could eat or drink. I couldn't find anything at all. Finally, a bucket with some water in it caught my eyes. The water looked brown. The water looked totally disgusting
but I had no other choice but to drink it if I wanted to survive. I drank it until my stomach was full. I headed over to living room and I remember everything all over again. I knelt down and started crying like a baby that just got out of his mother's womb. I couldn't believe they were gone. Now i was sure they killed them all because there was blood everywhere in the living room. Where my sister were sitting, everywhere was covered with blood. I cried for my mother, father, two sisters and a brother. Those soldiers took my family away from me. I cried for myself. What was i going to do know. Who was I going to play with or talk to when i have boy problems. Everyone was gone. I wish they found me and killed me along with me along with my family. I decided i was going to look for the people who killed my family, I wanted revenge. I ran outside, I ran and ran until i had to stop and catch my breath. Then, i started walking and all of a sudden i felt someone grabbing my arm. I turned and i was face to face with the soldier that raped my mother. I just went for his gun but the soldier was too fast and he just pulled the trigger. I felt a sharp pain go through my stomach. When i touched it, it was my own blood. I was shot. I lost control and balance and I fell to the floor. I was happy because i was going to reunite with my family. The soldier looked at me and spit at my face. I closed my eyes and that was the end of me.
The little baby in the picture looks like he never ate food a day in his life. I think he is in a hospital because of the red wrist band on his wrist.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Chapter 1
It was 2 O'clock in the morning when I, Halima woke up to the toe curling screams of my mother. I slowly tiptoed and went to the living room to see where the commotion was coming from. I heard men yelling at my mother and my siblings. Earlier that night I went to sleep early because I wasnt feeling well. I looked in the living room closely and I saw my father lying in a pool of his own blood and my mother was sitting across from him weeping in a little corner. The men who wore comouflage clothing were stomping my father with their boots. My mother crys became louder and louder and finally one of the soldiers got tired of it and whipped her across the face with is AK 47. I was so terrified. I sat in a little corner watching everything that was going down in the room. I felt hepless. I couldnt help them. "Take me please! let me children go" my mother cried. " I'll do anything you guys want" she continued. I was speechless, all I could do was cry and cry for my family. One of the soldiers had a smile on his face. He was smiling like he had come up with the best idea."Take off your clothes" he yelled in sudanesse. My mouth fell open. I couldnt believe my mother was going to get raped right infront of my eyes. You could see she was scared because she was trebbling. She was hesitating to do it. " Not infront of my children" she pleaded. " Please not infront of my kids" she started to cry all over again. The soldier that asked her to take off her clothes off came towards her. He grabbed her arm and made her stand up. He forcefully pushed her to the wall and started ripping her clothes off. My two sister and brother closed their eyes. They didnt want to witness the disturbing act they were doing to their mother. They all were screaming " Mommy Mommy Mommy." My brother tried to get up and help our mother by jumping on the soldiers back. But as soon as he got up another soldier hit him with a gun across his face. He fell on the floor uncousicious. My two sisters hugged and cried together as they heard the screams of their mother. I couldnt watch it anymore so I just went to my room and I hid in the closet so that if they decide to check the rooms they couldnt find me. I heard the cry's and screams of my family through the walls. I was shivering and scared for my mother. I prayed to God that kill her and from the looks of it i dont think my father is going to survive from all those concotions. Out of no where I heard shot guns. This time I pissed on myself because I thought the worst happened. My family were all gone.
Darfurian Food Recipes
Aseeda (porridge)
The Aseeda (porridge) is one of the most popular dishes in Sudan and Darfur, and there is almost no Sudanese (Darfurian) home that does not have this basic dish, especially on special occasions and holidays. Aseeda is a kind of porridge and a full meal, nutritious in itself. It is made of water, salt and flour. The flour can be corn flour or wheat flour or other types of flour, such as sorghum flour.
All of these amounts are placed on the fire to form coherent mature and edible dough.
Aseeda itself is not enough ; What to eat with this porridge:
The Aseeda can be eaten with many Sudanese (Darfurian) traditional cooking's basically made from crushed okra grains, including (Frizzling and Nuaimiya and Wicca), and cooking's of fresh okra blended. Or ROB cooking which is mainly made from yogurt and flour.
The Aseeda (porridge ) is frequently used in the following events in Sudan and Darfur:
1- Month of Ramadan.
2- Events and religious holidays.
3- Meals in wedding celebrations which extend to 1 week.
4- Banquets and on Friday
How to make the Aseeda (porridge) : RECIPE
porridge dish: 3 kg
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Preparation time: 10 minutes
The Aseeda (Porridge) is originally made from millet flour dough (corn), it originated from the western part of Sudan (Darfur) and is eaten in any of three meals during the day.
Ingredients :
2 kg of millet flour
2 liters of water
Method :
1- Water is heated in the fire until closer to the boiling point.
2- In the meantime, half a kilo of flour in the form of light dough is prepared.
3- Then add the dough to the heated water and leave for about 10 minutes,
4- Add the remaining flour bit by bit until the mixture becomes a bit strong.
5- Leave to gently heat for 10 more minutes.
6- Pour it into a bowl and leave to cool down , and thus the porridge is ready to be applied...
The Aseeda (porridge) is one of the most popular dishes in Sudan and Darfur, and there is almost no Sudanese (Darfurian) home that does not have this basic dish, especially on special occasions and holidays. Aseeda is a kind of porridge and a full meal, nutritious in itself. It is made of water, salt and flour. The flour can be corn flour or wheat flour or other types of flour, such as sorghum flour.
All of these amounts are placed on the fire to form coherent mature and edible dough.
Aseeda itself is not enough ; What to eat with this porridge:
The Aseeda can be eaten with many Sudanese (Darfurian) traditional cooking's basically made from crushed okra grains, including (Frizzling and Nuaimiya and Wicca), and cooking's of fresh okra blended. Or ROB cooking which is mainly made from yogurt and flour.
The Aseeda (porridge ) is frequently used in the following events in Sudan and Darfur:
1- Month of Ramadan.
2- Events and religious holidays.
3- Meals in wedding celebrations which extend to 1 week.
4- Banquets and on Friday
How to make the Aseeda (porridge) : RECIPE
porridge dish: 3 kg
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Preparation time: 10 minutes
The Aseeda (Porridge) is originally made from millet flour dough (corn), it originated from the western part of Sudan (Darfur) and is eaten in any of three meals during the day.
Ingredients :
2 kg of millet flour
2 liters of water
Method :
1- Water is heated in the fire until closer to the boiling point.
2- In the meantime, half a kilo of flour in the form of light dough is prepared.
3- Then add the dough to the heated water and leave for about 10 minutes,
4- Add the remaining flour bit by bit until the mixture becomes a bit strong.
5- Leave to gently heat for 10 more minutes.
6- Pour it into a bowl and leave to cool down , and thus the porridge is ready to be applied...
The 2 Soloutions!
Genocide- Mahatma Gandhi once said "You must be the change you wish to see in the world". If we ever want to see anykind of positive change we are going to have to come together a humanbeings. We have to be able throw any type of racisim out of the window. This is the time that ordinary citizens and world leaders are going to have to join hands in order to save a whole genertion of Dafurian people. We are also going to need UNCIF and UNITED NATION to put in extra work, we are also going to need the united states government to talk to the Darfurian government and see if they can come up with type of comprimise, since the cause of the genocide is mostly the governments fault.
Malnutrition- Because of the war going on within the country , a lot of people are homeless and all that does is add to the malnutrition rates. In my opinion we are going to have to build a lot more of refuuge camps. The reason for that is because the more these people stay without any shelter the hungrier they will be. And the fact that they are on foot doesn't help because all that will do is burn more energy. Energy they need to save. The best way to get these people the food they need is more donations. People are going to have to be extra geerous. Whether you donate to a known relief orgnazation like WFP (world food program) who help thousands of displaced families with food. Or you can donate to a charity of your choice as long as it helps people get food and the help they need. The bottom line is that in order to help Darfur and the whole world become a safer and better place we are going to have to work together. And remember UNITED WE STAND..DIVEDED WE FALL!
Malnutrition- Because of the war going on within the country , a lot of people are homeless and all that does is add to the malnutrition rates. In my opinion we are going to have to build a lot more of refuuge camps. The reason for that is because the more these people stay without any shelter the hungrier they will be. And the fact that they are on foot doesn't help because all that will do is burn more energy. Energy they need to save. The best way to get these people the food they need is more donations. People are going to have to be extra geerous. Whether you donate to a known relief orgnazation like WFP (world food program) who help thousands of displaced families with food. Or you can donate to a charity of your choice as long as it helps people get food and the help they need. The bottom line is that in order to help Darfur and the whole world become a safer and better place we are going to have to work together. And remember UNITED WE STAND..DIVEDED WE FALL!
The 2 Major Problems In Darfur!
1. Genocide-
The Cause: About the size of Texas, the Darfur region of Sudan is home to racially mixed tribes of settled peasants, who identify as African, and nomadic herders, who identify as Arab. The majority of people in both groups are Muslim.
In the ongoing genocide, African farmers and others in Darfur are being systematically displaced and murdered at the hands of the Janjaweed, a government-supported militia recruited from local Arab tribes. The genocide in Darfur has claimed 400,000 lives and displaced over 2,500,000 people. More than one hundred people continue to die each day; five thousand die every month.
Government neglect has left people throughout Sudan poor and voiceless and has caused conflict throughout the country. In February 2003, frustrated by poverty and neglect, two Darfurian rebel groups launched an uprising against the Khartoum government.
The government responded with a scorched-earth campaign, enlisting the help of a militia of Arab nomadic tribes in the region against the innocent civilians of Darfur.
Since February 2003, the Sudanese government in Khartoum and the government-sponsored Janjaweed militia have used rape, displacement, organized starvation, threats against aid workers and mass murder. Violence, disease, and displacement continue to kill thousands of innocent Darfurians every month.
In the ongoing genocide, African farmers and others in Darfur are being systematically displaced and murdered at the hands of the Janjaweed, a government-supported militia recruited from local Arab tribes. The genocide in Darfur has claimed 400,000 lives and displaced over 2,500,000 people. More than one hundred people continue to die each day; five thousand die every month.
Government neglect has left people throughout Sudan poor and voiceless and has caused conflict throughout the country. In February 2003, frustrated by poverty and neglect, two Darfurian rebel groups launched an uprising against the Khartoum government.
The government responded with a scorched-earth campaign, enlisting the help of a militia of Arab nomadic tribes in the region against the innocent civilians of Darfur.
Since February 2003, the Sudanese government in Khartoum and the government-sponsored Janjaweed militia have used rape, displacement, organized starvation, threats against aid workers and mass murder. Violence, disease, and displacement continue to kill thousands of innocent Darfurians every month.
2. Malnutrition- Child malnutrition rates have increased sharply in Darfur, even though it is home to the world’s largest aid operation, according to a new report.
Just as important, the increase has occurred despite the efforts of more than 13,000 relief workers in Darfur, who work for 13 United Nations agencies and some 80 private aid groups, and draw from an annual aid budget of about a billion dollars. Aid officials said they were concerned that even with all these resources, the condition of the people in Darfur seemed to be getting worse.
“This is a big deal,” said Jean Rigal, the head of a branch of Doctors Without Borders in Sudan. “The system is not working as expected.”
Dr. Rigal said he was not exactly sure why child malnutrition rates were rising. But he cited more insecurity, restricted access for relief workers and a fresh round of displacements because of tribal fighting.
“There are many hypotheses,” he said.
The report seems to confirm what aid officials in Darfur have been saying for much of the past year: that the increasingly chaotic security situation, both inside the enormous camps of displaced people and in the desiccated rural areas that are very difficult to reach even in the best of times, has gotten to the point that it is hampering the delivery of much needed emergency food.
“The United Nations has been sounding the alarm about the deterioration of the nutritional situation in Darfur for months,” said Stephanie Bunker, a spokeswoman for the United Nations’ humanitarian operations.
She said that attacks on aid workers were up 150 percent and that “civilians continue to be displaced as a result of attacks from all sides, with almost 290,000 displaced in Darfur this year alone. Many camps for the displaced can no longer absorb new arrivals, and tensions are rising.”
Sudanese officials said that the United Nations was exaggerating the problems, and that life in Darfur had actually gotten better recently.
Still, United Nations officials say the number of zones they could not reach has steadily increased this year, because of the attacks on aid workers and food convoys. Much of this violence seems to be a result of the fragmentation of the conflict, with rebel groups splintering into warring factions and formerly allied militias turning on one another.
To counter this, the United Nations and the African Union are trying to send in an expanded, joint peacekeeping force. But that deployment has been delayed by bureaucratic battles with the Sudanese government and the reluctance of developed countries to supply high-tech equipment, like helicopters.
As a result, people in Darfur are beginning to lose hope, and that may be another factor taking a toll on their health, several aid officials said.
“There is a psychological effect here,” said one aid official in Sudan who did not want to be identified because he feared reprisals from the Sudanese government. “These people have been in these camps for years now, and the energy that was around a few years ago and the hopes that this situation might be over soon and people could go home — all that’s gone now.”
He said that depression could affect how mothers care for their children, and that the overall malaise in the camps would make poor health conditions worse.
Darfur has been a humanitarian crisis since 2003, when rebels frustrated by a long history of marginalization attacked government forces. The government responded by arming tribal militias to wipe out the rebels and the civilians supporting them. Villages were burned, and countless women were raped; more than 200,000 people have died, according to conservative estimates.
From the beginning, the United Nations has used child malnutrition rates to assess the direness of the situation in Darfur. In 2004, when the conflict was raging, with waves of marauding horsemen sweeping the countryside, the acute malnutrition rate among the conflict-affected children was 21.8 percent. Then, in 2005, as hundreds of millions of dollars of resources were poured into the region, that rate dropped to 11.9 percent. It rose slightly to 12.9 percent last year. The United Nations considers 15 percent to be the emergency threshold.
The new United Nations report is based on information collected in August and September from thousands of Darfurians affected by the conflict, including those living in squalid camps (the United Nations estimates roughly 2.2 million people have been displaced by fighting). The report cited “consistently poor infant and young child feeding practices” and a “deterioration in the overall food security situation.”
The report also showed that the percentage of Darfurians growing their own crops had decreased this year. The people surveyed said that insecurity and a lack of access to their farms were the main reasons, though Sudanese officials have hypothesized that some Darfurians may have simply grown dependent on food aid and chosen to stop farming.
Malnutrition was highest among young children, between 6 months and 29 months old, and in North Darfur State, which is sparsely populated and very dry.
The report highlighted improvements in access to clean water and more people using latrines. And the rate of severe acute malnutrition — the worst cases — remained the same as last year at 1.9 percent. Child malnutrition is measured by using a ratio of weight versus height, and the severity is determined by how much the ratio deviates from the standards for healthy children.
Malnutrition rates are a highly sensitive subject in Sudan, and Sudanese government officials have objected to some of these findings, taking issue with the survey methodology and the overall characterization of the problem.
“It’s true, there is a gap of food in Darfur, and the conflict is not settled yet,” said Rabie A. Atti, a government spokesman. “But from our information, the situation is better now than before.”
- http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/27/world/africa/27darfur.html
The report showed that 16.1 percent of children affected by the conflict in Darfur, a vast, turbulent region in western Sudan, are acutely malnourished, compared with 12.9 percent last year. For the first time since 2004, the malnutrition rate, a gauge of the population’s overall distress, has crossed what United Nations officials consider to be the emergency threshold.
Just as important, the increase has occurred despite the efforts of more than 13,000 relief workers in Darfur, who work for 13 United Nations agencies and some 80 private aid groups, and draw from an annual aid budget of about a billion dollars. Aid officials said they were concerned that even with all these resources, the condition of the people in Darfur seemed to be getting worse.
“This is a big deal,” said Jean Rigal, the head of a branch of Doctors Without Borders in Sudan. “The system is not working as expected.”
Dr. Rigal said he was not exactly sure why child malnutrition rates were rising. But he cited more insecurity, restricted access for relief workers and a fresh round of displacements because of tribal fighting.
“There are many hypotheses,” he said.
The report seems to confirm what aid officials in Darfur have been saying for much of the past year: that the increasingly chaotic security situation, both inside the enormous camps of displaced people and in the desiccated rural areas that are very difficult to reach even in the best of times, has gotten to the point that it is hampering the delivery of much needed emergency food.
“The United Nations has been sounding the alarm about the deterioration of the nutritional situation in Darfur for months,” said Stephanie Bunker, a spokeswoman for the United Nations’ humanitarian operations.
She said that attacks on aid workers were up 150 percent and that “civilians continue to be displaced as a result of attacks from all sides, with almost 290,000 displaced in Darfur this year alone. Many camps for the displaced can no longer absorb new arrivals, and tensions are rising.”
Sudanese officials said that the United Nations was exaggerating the problems, and that life in Darfur had actually gotten better recently.
Still, United Nations officials say the number of zones they could not reach has steadily increased this year, because of the attacks on aid workers and food convoys. Much of this violence seems to be a result of the fragmentation of the conflict, with rebel groups splintering into warring factions and formerly allied militias turning on one another.
To counter this, the United Nations and the African Union are trying to send in an expanded, joint peacekeeping force. But that deployment has been delayed by bureaucratic battles with the Sudanese government and the reluctance of developed countries to supply high-tech equipment, like helicopters.
As a result, people in Darfur are beginning to lose hope, and that may be another factor taking a toll on their health, several aid officials said.
“There is a psychological effect here,” said one aid official in Sudan who did not want to be identified because he feared reprisals from the Sudanese government. “These people have been in these camps for years now, and the energy that was around a few years ago and the hopes that this situation might be over soon and people could go home — all that’s gone now.”
He said that depression could affect how mothers care for their children, and that the overall malaise in the camps would make poor health conditions worse.
Darfur has been a humanitarian crisis since 2003, when rebels frustrated by a long history of marginalization attacked government forces. The government responded by arming tribal militias to wipe out the rebels and the civilians supporting them. Villages were burned, and countless women were raped; more than 200,000 people have died, according to conservative estimates.
From the beginning, the United Nations has used child malnutrition rates to assess the direness of the situation in Darfur. In 2004, when the conflict was raging, with waves of marauding horsemen sweeping the countryside, the acute malnutrition rate among the conflict-affected children was 21.8 percent. Then, in 2005, as hundreds of millions of dollars of resources were poured into the region, that rate dropped to 11.9 percent. It rose slightly to 12.9 percent last year. The United Nations considers 15 percent to be the emergency threshold.
The new United Nations report is based on information collected in August and September from thousands of Darfurians affected by the conflict, including those living in squalid camps (the United Nations estimates roughly 2.2 million people have been displaced by fighting). The report cited “consistently poor infant and young child feeding practices” and a “deterioration in the overall food security situation.”
The report also showed that the percentage of Darfurians growing their own crops had decreased this year. The people surveyed said that insecurity and a lack of access to their farms were the main reasons, though Sudanese officials have hypothesized that some Darfurians may have simply grown dependent on food aid and chosen to stop farming.
Malnutrition was highest among young children, between 6 months and 29 months old, and in North Darfur State, which is sparsely populated and very dry.
The report highlighted improvements in access to clean water and more people using latrines. And the rate of severe acute malnutrition — the worst cases — remained the same as last year at 1.9 percent. Child malnutrition is measured by using a ratio of weight versus height, and the severity is determined by how much the ratio deviates from the standards for healthy children.
Malnutrition rates are a highly sensitive subject in Sudan, and Sudanese government officials have objected to some of these findings, taking issue with the survey methodology and the overall characterization of the problem.
“It’s true, there is a gap of food in Darfur, and the conflict is not settled yet,” said Rabie A. Atti, a government spokesman. “But from our information, the situation is better now than before.”
- http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/27/world/africa/27darfur.html
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Statistics About Dafur
- Access to clean water in 2007 stood at 76 per cent (Darfur Food Security and Nutrition Assessment 2007), while 3 million conflict-affected people had access to basic health services (UNICEF reports).
- Under-five mortality rates have fallen over the last four years from 1.03 in 2004 to 0.67 in 2007 (Darfur Food Security and Nutrition Assessments 2004-2007).
- Primary school enrolment has increased from 516,000 in 2006 to more than 976,000 in 2008 (UNICEF and Ministry of Education data).
- Immunization campaigns continue to reach all targeted children, although often 'mop-up' efforts have to be made in areas inaccessible in initial attempts.
- The United Nations says more than 2.7 million people have fled their homes and now live in camps near DarfuThe United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died from the combined effects of war, hunger and diseaser's main towns
180,000 die from hunger in Darfur
More than 180,000 people have died from hunger and disease during the last 18 months of the Darfur conflict, the United Nations said yesterday, as negotiations continued at its New York headquarters to break the deadlock on a new security council resolution to impose sanctions on the Sudanese government.
Brian Grogan, a spokesman for Jan Egeland, the UN emergency relief coordinator, said an average 10,000 Sudanese civilians were dying a month, much higher than earlier estimates. They were victims mainly of starvation or of disease in refugee camps after being driven from their villages by Sudanese soldiers and government-backed Janjaweed militiamen. The estimates exclude those killed in the fighting.
Khartoum accused the UN of producing the figures as a ploy to get the security council to take action against Sudan, and demanded evidence to back up the numbers.
The Sudanese foreign minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail, said: "Jan Egeland was here - I met him [and] he never mentioned this number."
Mr Egeland said last week that an estimate of 70,000 was too low but did not indicate what he regarded as a more realistic figure.
Nearly a year after the UN described Darfur as the world's worst humanitarian crisis, there is no sign the scorched-earth campaign against black African villages is over.
Hundreds of new refugees are flooding into overcrowded camps such as the giant settlement at Kalma in south Darfur, which housed fewer than 10,000 people this time last year but now houses 100,000.
Sally Austin, assistant country director for the aid agency Care, said: "When I was there last, three weeks ago, we were seeing between 200 and 250 people arriving per day in two sectors [of the camp] where we work.
"The new refugees are queueing just to be able to get plastic sheeting to build temporary shelters. They are having to queue to get on food distribution lists - not just queueing for food.
"We are also seeing people building more permanent structures out of mud, which I think is a sign that people realise they are going to be there another nine months."
Nearly 2 million black Africans have been driven from their homes in Darfur since the war began, and a further 200,000 have crossed into Chad.
Two years of war have transformed Darfur into a landscape of refugee camps, swaths of ghostly, deserted villages and roving armed bands.
The US, which describes the war as genocide, is pushing for measures that will target individuals accused of major crimes, mainly in the Sudanese military, government and Janjaweed but also in rebel groups.
The UN security council failed to reach agreement on a new resolution last week. The US blamed Russia and China for blocking a proposal to introduce limited sanctions. Others on the security council blamed the US because of its objection to referring the perpetrators to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
The British government is hoping the security council can reach agreement by the end of this week. Discussions were taking place at the UN headquarters in New York yesterday.
The US, which opposes the ICC, has suggested that the perpetrators face a special tribunal in Africa.
The British government remains hopeful that a compromise can be reached. Rick Grenell, spokesman for the US mission to the UN, this week described as preposterous a report in the Guardian last week that the US might allow reference to the ICC to go through.
A British source said yesterday such a compromise remained a possibility, though hopes were beginning to diminish. The US would need a cast-iron guarantee that its immunity from the ICC would not be affected, the source said.
China, which imports oil from Sudan and has up to 5,000 expatriates working there, opposes an oil embargo but is almost ready for a travel ban and assets freeze on the main perpetrators
Nairobi, Vasagar In. "180,000 Die from Hunger in Darfur | World News | The Guardian." Latest News, Comment and Reviews from the Guardian | Guardian.co.uk. Web. 14 Dec.
Khartoum accused the UN of producing the figures as a ploy to get the security council to take action against Sudan, and demanded evidence to back up the numbers.
The Sudanese foreign minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail, said: "Jan Egeland was here - I met him [and] he never mentioned this number."
Mr Egeland said last week that an estimate of 70,000 was too low but did not indicate what he regarded as a more realistic figure.
Nearly a year after the UN described Darfur as the world's worst humanitarian crisis, there is no sign the scorched-earth campaign against black African villages is over.
Hundreds of new refugees are flooding into overcrowded camps such as the giant settlement at Kalma in south Darfur, which housed fewer than 10,000 people this time last year but now houses 100,000.
Sally Austin, assistant country director for the aid agency Care, said: "When I was there last, three weeks ago, we were seeing between 200 and 250 people arriving per day in two sectors [of the camp] where we work.
"The new refugees are queueing just to be able to get plastic sheeting to build temporary shelters. They are having to queue to get on food distribution lists - not just queueing for food.
"We are also seeing people building more permanent structures out of mud, which I think is a sign that people realise they are going to be there another nine months."
Nearly 2 million black Africans have been driven from their homes in Darfur since the war began, and a further 200,000 have crossed into Chad.
Two years of war have transformed Darfur into a landscape of refugee camps, swaths of ghostly, deserted villages and roving armed bands.
The US, which describes the war as genocide, is pushing for measures that will target individuals accused of major crimes, mainly in the Sudanese military, government and Janjaweed but also in rebel groups.
The UN security council failed to reach agreement on a new resolution last week. The US blamed Russia and China for blocking a proposal to introduce limited sanctions. Others on the security council blamed the US because of its objection to referring the perpetrators to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
The British government is hoping the security council can reach agreement by the end of this week. Discussions were taking place at the UN headquarters in New York yesterday.
The US, which opposes the ICC, has suggested that the perpetrators face a special tribunal in Africa.
The British government remains hopeful that a compromise can be reached. Rick Grenell, spokesman for the US mission to the UN, this week described as preposterous a report in the Guardian last week that the US might allow reference to the ICC to go through.
A British source said yesterday such a compromise remained a possibility, though hopes were beginning to diminish. The US would need a cast-iron guarantee that its immunity from the ICC would not be affected, the source said.
China, which imports oil from Sudan and has up to 5,000 expatriates working there, opposes an oil embargo but is almost ready for a travel ban and assets freeze on the main perpetrators
Nairobi, Vasagar In. "180,000 Die from Hunger in Darfur | World News | The Guardian." Latest News, Comment and Reviews from the Guardian | Guardian.co.uk. Web. 14 Dec.
Monday, December 13, 2010
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