Humanitarian situation “deteriorating steadily”

A large-scale humanitarian disaster loomed as the lives of drought-affected populations of central, western and southern Sudan entered a more difficult phase, according to the latest summary report from UNOCHA, for the month of April. In addition to some 600,000 people being in dire need of food and supplies, infant mortality was increasing, malnutrition rates were rising - especially among children, and new segments of society were experiencing vulnerability, it said. Diseases were spreading as a result of contamination of water sources by livestock, which themselves were dying as a result of lack of pasture and water, and there was the prospect of many people in drought areas eating their stocks of seeds for the next planting unless food rations were received soon, it added.

Emergency food stocks had run out, water supplies were drying up and the risk of epidemics was rising, OCHA reported. Relief agencies also faced the cost and logistical implications of airlifting supplies after rains, expected in June, made roads impassable. Kordofan, Darfur and Red Sea State are among the areas most keenly affected. Underfunding of humanitarian appeals for Sudan - the UN’s Consolidated Appeal was less than 30 percent funded at the end of April - meant that “if the international community failed to respond quickly to appeals for immediate assistance, vulnerable populations will die of starvation and disease”, the report added. [for more details of the OCHA report, go to: http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/WCE?OpenForm]