NAIROBI, 8 June 2004 — “The worst is still to come” for the people of Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region, where millions have been displaced by 15 months of rebellion, the UN World Food Program (WFP) warned yesterday. “The situation in Darfur is becoming more critical every day; the worst is still to come,” WFP Country Director for Sudan Ramiro Lopes da Silva said in a statement sent to AFP in Nairobi.

“We cannot afford to stand by and watch as hundreds of thousands of people stare death in the face. We have already given a warning that this crisis is becoming a catastrophe. Unless the international community responds swiftly and generously, the response to the Darfur crisis will not be enough to prevent a major humanitarian disaster,” Lopes da Silva warned.

“The food situation in Darfur will remain highly precarious for at least the next 18 months. Food prices in local markets are already rocketing just as people’s ability to buy is rapidly diminishing,” it added.

The WFP estimates that two million people had been affected by the crisis in Darfur, including the 1.2 million Sudanese who have fled from their homes in the region.

At least 10,000 people are estimated to have been killed in Darfur since early 2003, following attacks by Sudanese troops and militias on black African civilians.

In neighboring Chad, along a 600-kilometre border, where more than 100,000 people have fled to, “there is a pressing need to settle the influx of traumatized people — most of whom are women and children — in camps, however, water sources are scarce and infrastructure is poor,” the statement said.

Britain’s international development secretary Hilary Benn said yesterday Darfur region will be hit by a “major humanitarian emergency” unless the international community does more to help.

Speaking to BBC radio from the east African nation, where he has been urging Sudanese authorities to grant aid workers more access to refugees, Benn said greater action was urgently needed in Darfur.

“From my discussions with the UN and relief agencies last night, it is absolutely clear to me that this is a major humanitarian emergency,” he said.

Meanwhile, EU aid commissioner Poul Nielson welcomed the release of 16 relief workers taken captive by rebels in Darfur, while angrily condemning the insurgents.

The European Union official expressed “relief” at the release Sunday of the aid workers after three days of captivity by the Sudan Liberation Movement Army (SLM).

Sudanese President Omar Bashir yesterday pledged to end the 15-month conflict that has ravaged Darfur.

“We are committed and determined to resolving the current conflict in Darfur in western Sudan,” Bashir told a summit of nine African presidents and government officials attending a two-day Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) summit in Kampala.

“We are grateful for the assistance we have received from the African Union (AU) and the sisterly republic of Chad,” Bashir added, referring to the AU’s deployment of cease-fire monitors and Chad’s mediation efforts and hosting of refugees.