3.4 million people in Darfur depend on aid for survival

Oxfam report Feb 17, 2006 says the UN estimates nearly 3.4 million people in Darfur -- about half the region's total population -- are now dependent on international aid for their survival. Excerpt:

- About 13,500 aid workers are in the region struggling to meet the needs of this vast group.

- Estimates of the number of people who have lost their lives in the conflict range from 180,000 to 400,000.

- An African Union mission, sent to monitor a ceasefire that is now nearly two years old, is still significantly below its planned deployment of 7,757 troops and police officers. Even at full strength, the mission would not be large enough to adequately patrol an area the size of Texas.

For people stranded in the camps, often far from their villages, fields, and pastureland, life has become one long wait - for food rations, for limited amounts of water, for peace.

Oxfam is now providing critical water supplies and sanitation facilities for about 400,000 people in Darfur.

[via Coalition for Darfur with thanks]