Dr David Nabarro, head of crisis operations for the World Health Organization said on Friday if Darfur was as important to the international community they made it appear then they would have received more long-term support. He stated that in reality they were running on a threadbare, hand-to-mouth existence.
Nabarro said that he was personally concerned that they still don't have a significant enough popular perception around the world of the enormity of the suffering experienced by people in Darfur and Chad, where disease and suffering had reached extraordinary and inhuman scale.
So far, UN appeals for aid have fallen on deaf ears, Nabarro said, noting that the United Nations had only received half of the USD 300 million that it needs to do its work.
Nabarro said he had no idea how many people had been killed in the conflict, including militia and government attacks on villages or on fleeing refugees.
Nabarro said the estimate of 70,000 dead in an around the camps only covered the period since March, when aid agencies have had some access to the Darfur region. The figure is 20,000 higher than WHO's estimate last month.
Most of the deaths were caused by the poor conditions in temporary camps, Nabarro said. However about 15 percent, or 10,500, were due to injury and violence in and around the camps.
