The UN humanitarian chief criticized the Sudanese government for blocking aid workers, food and equipment from reaching the western region of Darfur, where 2 million people desperately need aid.
Jan Egeland called Darfur the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today and told the UN Security Council that relief agencies are desperately trying to get food, water, sanitation equipment, tents and other supplies to the region before the upcoming rainy season.
"We've been working for many, many weeks in a race against the clock, and we see that the government, which should do its utmost to help us, is still not helping," Egeland, the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said on Monday. "Some ministers are helping us, but some of their subordinates are sabotaging us."
Sudan recently relaxed some restrictions on access for humanitarian organizations in response to complaints by the UN and many governments. Egeland said UN international staff were now able to travel to Darfur without difficulty -- but their partners from international relief organizations were still facing visa problems.
In addition, he said, red tape has held up ships with food and equipment for Darfur from unloading for weeks and the government has confiscated radios from vehicles sent to Sudan to be used in the relief program.
"We cannot send people with vehicles into Darfur because of the security situation without radios. We just had 16 colleagues detained," Egeland said. "They see it [the radios] as a security risk for the government. We see it as a security necessity for us."
Asked why the government would consider radios a security liability, he said "they could be stolen by rebels."
Egeland said the international community was very late in responding to the conflict in the Darfur region where thousands have been killed in fighting between Arab militias and the black African population since February last year. Both groups are predominantly Muslim.
"Nowhere else in the world are so many lives at stake as in Darfur at the moment," he said.
"People are dying because we were denied access for so long and people will be dying because we are still not able to get through all the things we should get through because time is so urgent," he said.
"We're making progress in terms of food. Our estimation is that we will be able to feed 800,000 people by the end of this month, 1.2 million people by the end of August, and some 2 million people if we still have access like now by October," Egeland said.
"We're also able to provide temporary shelter to some 600,000, we think by the end of this month. But we're way behind in terms of water, sanitation, immunizations, and nutritional centers for children, and that may take many thousands of lives during the rainy season," he said.
Egeland said the UN was looking for help to fly water, sanitation equipment and other material to Darfur so the people there don't drink polluted water during the rainy season.
The conflict has drawn charges of ethnic cleansing of mainly African tribes by government-backed Arab militias. The Sudanese government has denied backing the militias.
Egeland reiterated on Monday that he still believes there was "ethnic cleansing" but he said, "I think it's not genocide yet -- and we can prevent it from becoming one."
Last week, the Security Council adopted a resolution demanding an end to the fighting in Darfur.
But Egeland said there are still reports of attacks by Arab militias.
"We're seeing grown men every day attacking defenseless women and children with their military automatic rifles," he said.
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