KHARTOUM, Sudan - As violence in Darfur escalates, a debate is growing over
how many people have died in what officials call the world's worst humanitarian
crisis. A UN agency's survey cites at least 200,000 deaths, but other studies
say the death toll could be closer to 400,000 or more.
Young refugees from Sudan's Darfur
ethnic conflict who have fled to Chad are seen in Djabal Refugee Camp in
eastern town of Goz Beida, Chad on Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2006. [AP]
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Sudan's government, however,
contends the deaths are only a tiny fraction of that.
The dispute occurs in part because, ever since fighting began in early 2003,
humanitarian workers have had only limited and perilous access to Darfur, a
sprawling, arid region of western Sudan nearly the size of Texas.
Both violence and government restrictions have kept aid groups and
researchers away. Right now, for example, violence makes nearly 40 per cent of
the population inaccessible to aid workers, said Ramesh Rajasingham, the head of
the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan.
"To this day, we don't really have our eyes on the ground. We work with
projections," Rajasingham said in a recent interview.
