Escalating violence in Sudan’s western Darfur region has hindered food deliveries to several parts of the region, where displaced people are in urgent need of help, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday.
Nearly 200 000 needy people have been cut off from UN assistance during the past weeks, said the agency, adding the mountainous Jebel Marra area in central Darfur and the northern part of North Darfur have been particularly affected.
The UN said tension in the region has risen as rebel groups, in particular the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), have increased their operations in an apparent attempt to claim more territory.
The Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Manuel Aranda da Silva, said an estimated 150 000 people have been driven from their homes due to the escalating violence during the past month.
The WFP also reported several attacks on buses and aid convoys around Darfur. Travellers have been abducted and even killed, and vehicles looted by the attackers.
The African Union currently has a few hundred troops in Darfur, but observers say they are too few to monitor an area the size of France.
Meanwhile, the UN envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, said the Sudanese government continues to break international humanitarian law by forcing people to leave camps for displaced people in Darfur.
An estimated 30 000 people were moved from camps by Sudanese security forces last week. A number of women were raped and threatened with more violence if they did not move on, according to a report by the BBC.
Peace talks between the government and the two main rebel groups, which entered its second round in Nigeria two weeks ago, have recorded little progress.
The delegations are currently deadlocked over a proposal by AU mediators to make Darfur a no-fly zone — a long-running rebel demand. However, the government said it is unacceptable for it not to be allowed to patrol its own territory by air.
The Sudanese government has been accused of launching air raids on villages in Darfur in preparation for ground attacks by the Janjaweed militia, who have wreaked havoc among civilians in Darfur since the war started early in 2003.
The UN estimates 70 000 people have died from violence, starvation and disease as a result of the conflict in Darfur, while more than 1,5-million people have been forced to flee their homes.
Earlier this week, a UN team arrived in Sudan to try to determine whether acts of genocide have occurred in Darfur.
The team, established by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, is due to be in the country for two weeks.
The UN Security Council is planning to meet in Sudan’s neighbouring country Kenya on November 18 to try to push forward the peace process for Darfur as well as seek a solution for the long-running war in the southern part of the country. — Sapa-DPA