The UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs has admitted that the new death toll for the Darfur conflict he gave the UN Security Council was not accurate. “I am not saying I am sure,” John Holmes told reporters after briefing the UN on the latest developments in Sudan’s troubled western region, reports said on April 23. ”I said it’s a reasonable hypothesis, a reasonable extrapolation from the previous figures from studies done elsewhere,” he added. “I am not trying to suggest this is a very scientifically-based figure. It is not a very scientifically-based figure, except on the basis of extrapolation.”
Holmes told the Security Council that the combined effects of the conflict had claimed an estimated 200,000 lives by 2006. “That figure must be much higher now, perhaps half as much again.”
The conflict in Darfur erupted in February 2003 when rebel groups attacked government targets accusing Khartoum of discrimination and neglect. The UN humanitarian chief said that six times more people are suffering in the mostly arid desert region than when the UN first intervened. He noted that continuing fighting has seriously affected 4.27 million people, including 2.45 million internally displaced and 260,000 who fled to neighbouring countries.
The new death toll had drawn immediate rebuke from Sudanese Ambassador to the UN Abdul Mahmoud Abdel-Halim who disputed the figure. “These remarks by Holmes are not helpful, are not correct, are not credible,” he said. “He should tell us who made that study, who commissioned it and how was it done.” Abdel-Halim put the number of people killed in the conflict at 10,000, one thousand higher than the government’s previous estimate. “This is the latest figure. Any additional number would be very minimal.” The Sudanese toll includes only those killed in combat, not those who died of diseases, malnutrition or starvation.