HUNDREDS of thousands of Sudanese refugees could die within weeks unless international aid for sanitation and disease prevention materialises at once, the World Health Organization warned last week. So far only half of the $7.6 million needed over the next three months to prevent catastrophe has been pledged.
What makes action imperative is the imminent arrival of the rainy season in Darfur in the west of Sudan, where 1.2 million refugees have fled persecution by Arab militias. 鈥淭he rainy season has increased our concerns because of the risk of spreading many communicable diseases,鈥� says Guido Sabatinelli, the WHO鈥檚 representative to Sudan.
Deaths in the young are already rising, mainly because of malnutrition. In some camps, daily death rates have hit 10 per 10,000 people, five times the rate considered to an emergency.
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