help need it for Canadian Reader's Digest

What is the current situation in Darfur?

Any assistance you may be able to give me in thus regard will be most appreciated. It is very difficult to document a story in Darfur while being resident in Montreal, Canada.


“Together, these reports suggest that in the run-up to the rainy season (May/June through September) overall humanitarian capacity has begun to decline, transport of food is badly compromised, the pre-positioning of food (especially in West Darfur) is far behind schedule, disease is starting to bite more deeply within a badly weakened population, and water-supply issues have become critical. This occurs even as the conflict-affected population continues to rise, and certainly now exceeds 3 million if we include the refugee population in Chad (which has also begun to show signs of growing severe malnutrition, according to the UN High Commission for Refugees). Food inflation in the region ensures that ever-greater numbers of people cannot obtain food at market prices and thus become dependent on humanitarian food assistance.
Populations arriving from rural areas are typically entering camps for the displaced with more advanced malnutrition, indicating that people are waiting until food reserves are entirely depleted before seeking assistance. A recent UN report (March 27, 2005) notes "a rapid deterioration of local coping mechanisms among the local population," an extremely ominous sign among these highly resilient people. The many hundreds of thousands of civilians still caught in rural areas to which there is no humanitarian access clearly represent a population in very deep distress, and among whom catastrophic mortality rates must be assumed (i.e., at least 3 deaths/day/10,000 of affected population).

Military violence on the part of Khartoum's regular and Janjaweed militia forces continues to be reported in a wide range of locations, and violent civilian deaths continue to be a significant part of overall mortality. A very substantial military build-up by Khartoum in West Darfur continues to be confirmed by multiple sources, including Darfuris with contacts on the ground. There are also multiple reports of an offensive underway in the area east of Jebel Marra, where a number of Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) garrisons are located. Fighting on the ground continues to be reported daily, as does Khartoum's ongoing arming and supplying of the Janjaweed. There is not a shred of evidence that the UN Security Council referral of violations of international law to the International Criminal Court (ICC) has had any effect on the behavior of members of the Khartoum regime, its military, or the Janjaweed. “

Source:
http://www.sudaneseonline.com/article.php3?id_article=8942ce:

For more important information you see below which I believe has direct answers to many of your questions.
http://hrw.org/reports/2004/sudan0504/



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