About 300,000 people have fled their homes due to a surge in fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region this year and are now living in terrible conditions and short of food, the United Nations aid chief said on 22 May. The figure is higher than the combined number of displaced people for the past three years. Violence is down from a peak in 2004-2005 but fighting between the army, rebels and rival tribes has increased significantly since January. “Here in the hot sun in summer they’ve got almost nothing. They still have to walk for water,” UN humanitarian aid chief Valerie Amos said during a visit to an area outside El Fasher in North Darfur where 18,000 refugees live in tents. Amos said relief agencies were doing their best to get supplies to people but were hampered by a lack of funds from donors.
“We are trying to bring you food as soon as possible,” Amos told three mothers, who said they had arrived two weeks ago after fleeing from fighting in Labado, in eastern Darfur.