Global Policy Forum

The United Nations on Saturday warned that the situation in Darfur, western Sudan, will get worse unless security is improved. A UN mission also urged the government to speed up its efforts to address control armed militias in the strife-torn nation. It also called for security and protection for internally displaced people and for access for humanitarian agencies.

"Displaced families are living in difficult and unacceptable conditions and they continue to fear for their lives," said UN World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director James Morris, who led the three-day mission. More than 1 million people had to flee from their homes since the crisis started in February 2003. Many fled to neighbouring Chad, the UN said.

Armed militias have burned villages, looted homes and businesses and systematically destructed the livelihood of people there. Basic social services such as health care and education have collapsed. The hostilities subsided after a ceasefire was signed on April 8 between the warring parties, but the humanitarian crisis continues, according to the UN. "We received numerous reports of sexual abuse and harassment that has limited people's access to water, food and firewood," Morris said in Khartoum. "We also witnessed first hand how volatile the security situation is, and the massive human suffering that has been inflicted."

The United Nations called for an increase in its operational capacity, including additional staff, but said such a move would require fast government approval of applications from humanitarian agencies to expand their work in Darfur. The Sudanese government and rebels from the Darfur region recently agreed on a loose political framework for further talks over the war-torn region.

The conflict over the area's limited resources is one of the worst humanitarian disasters worldwide, according to the UN. Experts say Darfurians feel their region has been neglected, and that they should be given their share of the wealth coming out of oil-rich southern Sudan.