SUDAN: Sudan is trying to meet UN demands to end the conflict in Darfur that has killed up to 50,000 people but needs to do more, the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, said yesterday.
Underscoring how desperate the situation still is, a UN agency began airdropping food in the west of the stricken region and the international Red Cross airlifted in hundreds of tonnes of equipment and medicines for those driven from their homes.
Mr Straw, visiting the Abu Shouk refugee camp in northern Darfur, said the camps appeared to be safer but voiced concern about surrounding areas and villages, which one of his officials described as "bandit country".
"The government of Sudan have made progress, especially in humanitarian access and camp safety and security within the camps, but people are obviously still very anxious and nervous about whether they will be safe when they go back to their villages," Mr Straw told reporters.
He acknowledged his 90-minute tour of the camp in North Darfur state did not give him a balanced view.
"This is one of the best camps in Sudan and I am not seeing a cross-section," he said.
The UN says the Darfur conflict has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis with over a million people driven from their homes.
The UN Security Council has given Sudan until August 30th to show progress in protecting civilians and disarming militia or face unspecified sanctions.
The UN World Food Programme began food airdrops around the West Darfur state capital, Geneina, yesterday to displaced people in the inaccessible area. The agency said the airdrops would continue for at least a month. The International Committee of the Red Cross began an airlift yesterday of hundreds of tonnes of equipment and medicines for Darfur's displaced.
Mr Straw said he would report to the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan. "The government of Sudan . . . has sought to comply with what has been imposed upon them. It is for Kofi Annan to judge the extent to which they have complied," he said. "I will also be talking to African leaders as well as other Security Council members," he added.