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Survey confirms Darfur death rates higher than normal

The first scientific survey to assess the deadly nature of the conflict in the Sudan's Darfur area has found that death rates there were three to 10 times higher than those normally found in sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting the gravity of the crisis.

Experts say the survey -- a rare study of people fleeing violence -- could be used to hold those behind the killings accountable for their actions.

Between April and June of this year, Dr. Evelyn Depoortee of the Epicenter in Paris, together with researchers from the French arm of the relief organization Doctors Without Borders, surveyed 215,400 people taking refuge in four locations in West Darfur to compare death rates in the region before and after the people were driven from their homes.

Their findings were being published yesterday on the Web site of The Lancet medical journal.

"Humanitarian aid workers have long suspected, and occasionally shown, that the events precipitating displacement and the period of relocation itself are especially dangerous, but clear epidemiological evidence of this increased risk is rare," according to an independent critique of the survey by Bradley Woodruff and Reinhard Kaiser of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The bloodletting in Darfur began in February last year, when two non-Arab African rebel groups launched attacks primarily on government and military targets to press demand for a greater share of power and resources for the region.

The government is accused of trying to put down the rebellion by backing armed Arab herdsmen known as Janjaweed who long have competed with villagers over Darfur's scarce resources. The escalating violence has been described by the US as genocide. The UN has said Darfur is the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The survey, the most scientifically accurate study of the death toll from the conflict, included 43 percent of the estimated 500,000 displaced within West Darfur.
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