A total of 70,000 people are estimated to have died as a result of a conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region, with hundreds still dying every day, a top U.N. official said today.
Mr David Nabarro, who heads the World Health Organisation's (WHO) health crisis action group, gave the new overall figure, saying malnutrition and disease meant the monthly fatality rate was about 10,000.
The previous overall death toll had stood at 50,000.
People were dying despite the aid effort and the world continued to underestimate the crisis in Darfur, Mr Nabarro said.
"There are 70,000 that have died as a result of the conditions in which they are living. The humanitarian environment is still unsatisfactory in Darfur," Mr Nabarro told a news conference.
The monthly mortality rate has been little changed from the summer and the WHO calculated the new death toll on that basis, he said.
Although the United Nations calls it the world's worst humanitarian crisis, the international community has still not grasped the size of the challenge of getting aid to people over an area the size of France, he said.
The official, who is coordinating WHO's Darfur response, said despite all the publicity surrounding the crisis, UN agencies had only received around half the $300 million in aid they had sought.