United Nations Radio

The UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, John Holmes, says the humanitarian situation in Darfur remains as grim as it was a year ago.

He told the Security Council that the Sudanese region is still characterized by insecurity, lawlessness and impunity, with widespread human rights abuses. While a study by the World Health Organization in 2006 suggested that 200,000 Darfurians had lost their lives from the combined effects of the conflict, he said that number must be up to 300,000 by now.

"These numbers are not deaths from violence. They are all the deaths, all the extra deaths, which come from the existence of a conflict - disease, malnutrition, the reduced lifespan that that brings to people."

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Sudan's Ambassador to the UN, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, called Mr. Holmes' report unobjective and unprofessional. He said those who have died from the conflict are much fewer.

"In our own calculations the number does not exceed ten thousand. Of course, here we are not including those who died because of malnutrition and starvation, because in Darfur there is no epidemics, no starvations, so that is why any additional number would be just very minimal."

The Sudanese Ambassador noted that today's debate confirmed that priority must be given to the peace process in Darfur, because no amount of peacekeeping could be a substitute for it.

Reporting for UN Radio, I'm Bissera Kostova.

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