Malnutrition reaches alarming level in Darfur, Sudan
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《英国医生杂志》
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has found "alarming nutritional needs" in war torn Darfur, western Sudan.
"MSF is extremely concerned about the food security of the population of Darfur and fears that continued violence and insecurity, coupled with an insufficient international response, means that the situation can only deteriorate," warned the organisation.
During a two day vaccination drive among 4900 children in the town of Garsila, western Darfur, MSF staff identified 111 severely malnourished children and 387 moderately malnourished children.
In February, MSF reported "catastrophic mortality rates" and "newly displaced people living in extremely precarious conditions." In early March it reported a "marked increase in the degree of malnutrition in just the past two months," insisting that a massive aid effort be undertaken urgently. The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has also reported that half of Darfur's six million population are affected by the conflict (21 February, p 424).
Roger Winter, a senior official of the US Agency for International Development, believes the problems in Darfur are pushing the Sudanese peace process to the edge of a precipice. "Arguably, this is the worst humanitarian emergency in Africa and perhaps in the world at this moment," he said.
The fighting in Darfur, close to Sudan's border with Chad, pits local rebels against government forces and Arab militias known as janjaweed. Mr Winter said Sudan's Islamic government had been attacking from the air while the janjaweed looted villages and raped and murdered African civilians. He has accused the Sudanese government of "ethnic cleansing." "You have an African population that is being driven from their homes in a very systematic, widespread, and calculated knowledgeable way. If you fly over the locations, you can see the villages burning underneath you," he said.
Despite denials by Khartoum that fighting continues in Darfur, aid officials along the border between Chad and Sudan say that tens of thousands of refugees remain on the move.
"The violence is not over; it's continuing," Ruud Lubbers, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said during a recent visit to a refugee camp in Chad. "This is not peace; this is atrocities." He said that ongoing peace negotiations between Khartoum and southern rebels should be expanded to include Darfur.
The United Nations said that newly displaced people in Darfur reported that aid given to them by relief agencies had been seized by the janjaweed. Residents of one village had asked UN staff not to distribute aid to them lest they become a target for attack.
In an unusually outspoken statement the International Committee of the Red Cross said that aid workers had been prevented from reaching victims of the fighting in Darfur.
Jacques de Maio, head of the Red Cross in the Horn of Africa, said that "meaningful humanitarian operations" in Darfur had been made impossible since November. "We believe there is a very serious crisis," he said. "We are not in position to say exactly what's happened precisely because we are not able to go there," he told a Nairobi press conference.(Nairobi Peter Moszynski)
"MSF is extremely concerned about the food security of the population of Darfur and fears that continued violence and insecurity, coupled with an insufficient international response, means that the situation can only deteriorate," warned the organisation.
During a two day vaccination drive among 4900 children in the town of Garsila, western Darfur, MSF staff identified 111 severely malnourished children and 387 moderately malnourished children.
In February, MSF reported "catastrophic mortality rates" and "newly displaced people living in extremely precarious conditions." In early March it reported a "marked increase in the degree of malnutrition in just the past two months," insisting that a massive aid effort be undertaken urgently. The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has also reported that half of Darfur's six million population are affected by the conflict (21 February, p 424).
Roger Winter, a senior official of the US Agency for International Development, believes the problems in Darfur are pushing the Sudanese peace process to the edge of a precipice. "Arguably, this is the worst humanitarian emergency in Africa and perhaps in the world at this moment," he said.
The fighting in Darfur, close to Sudan's border with Chad, pits local rebels against government forces and Arab militias known as janjaweed. Mr Winter said Sudan's Islamic government had been attacking from the air while the janjaweed looted villages and raped and murdered African civilians. He has accused the Sudanese government of "ethnic cleansing." "You have an African population that is being driven from their homes in a very systematic, widespread, and calculated knowledgeable way. If you fly over the locations, you can see the villages burning underneath you," he said.
Despite denials by Khartoum that fighting continues in Darfur, aid officials along the border between Chad and Sudan say that tens of thousands of refugees remain on the move.
"The violence is not over; it's continuing," Ruud Lubbers, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said during a recent visit to a refugee camp in Chad. "This is not peace; this is atrocities." He said that ongoing peace negotiations between Khartoum and southern rebels should be expanded to include Darfur.
The United Nations said that newly displaced people in Darfur reported that aid given to them by relief agencies had been seized by the janjaweed. Residents of one village had asked UN staff not to distribute aid to them lest they become a target for attack.
In an unusually outspoken statement the International Committee of the Red Cross said that aid workers had been prevented from reaching victims of the fighting in Darfur.
Jacques de Maio, head of the Red Cross in the Horn of Africa, said that "meaningful humanitarian operations" in Darfur had been made impossible since November. "We believe there is a very serious crisis," he said. "We are not in position to say exactly what's happened precisely because we are not able to go there," he told a Nairobi press conference.(Nairobi Peter Moszynski)