Humanitarian situation continues to worsen in Darfur

Armed groups have continued attacking civilians in the western Darfur region, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). In a press release issued in New York on Tuesday, OCHA noted that in addition to violence, civilians there were also having to contend with water shortages and outbreaks of communicable diseases. Internally displaced persons (IDPs) were being subjected to persistent attacks involving "indiscriminate killings, gang rapes, looting, forced migration and general intimidation", all taking place "on a daily basis throughout the region", it said. Officials at the Sudanese Embassy in Nairobi told IRIN on Wednesday that they had no information about the continuing attacks. On the contrary, they said, the situation in Darfur region was "actually improving". OCHA pointed out that such attacks were serving to force civilians and IDPs to gather in larger urban centres, thereby increasing the risk of outbreaks of disease and the pressure brought to bear on already scarce water sources. OCHA further pointed out that growing needs were "overwhelming" the current capacity of aid groups as they strengthened their staff and material resources and pre-positioned stocks, and violence was limiting their ability sufficiently to assess the needs of IDPs. While conceding that humanitarian access in the region had "improved slightly", humanitarian operations were "still constrained by the volatile security situation", the report said. It added that in Darfur, UN agencies such as the World Food Programme, the UN Children's Fund, World Health Organisation and OCHA were conducting needs assessments and delivering food, water, and health and shelter materials "as security conditions allow". In neighbouring Chad, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, other UN humanitarian agencies and NGO partners were assisting an estimated 110,000 refugees from Chad.