KHARTOUM, 1 September 2004 — Conditions are worsening for refugees in Darfur, UN agencies said yesterday, as the Sudanese government and rebels struggled to make headway in talks aiming to ease the conflict in the Darfur region. The UN agencies said the Darfuri refugees were facing violent attacks and spreading disease, while heavy rains were wreaking havoc with aid convoys.

The reports came a day after the expiry of a deadline set by the UN Security Council for Sudan to prove it can protect the refugees in Darfur or face possible sanctions. “The humanitarian situation in Darfur continues to worsen, with ongoing violations and the rainy season at its peak which is hampering and disrupting the flow of international aid very often,” Simon Pluess, spokesman for the UN World Food Program, told reporters in Geneva. The World Health Organization also reported yesterday a near doubling in hepatitis cases in Darfur in the past month due to insufficient clean water and poor sanitary conditions.

The United Nations estimates up to 50,000 have died since the conflict began in February 2003. More than a million have fled their homes for fear of attack by Arab militia, known as Janjaweed, who rebels say are supported by the government. Khartoum admits arming some militias to fight the uprising, but denies any links with the Janjaweed, saying they are outlaws. The Sudanese government and rebel groups have been holding peace talks for more than a week now seeking to find ways to ease the plight of refugees in Darfur, in western Sudan.

The talks, in the Nigerian capital Abuja, have been bogged down by accusations of ceasefire violations on both sides. Delegates to the talks yesterday said the two sides were still at the stage of trying to hammer out a basic starting point for discussions, by narrowing their differences on quite how bad the situation was in Darfur.

Underlining the problems in Darfur, Sudanese officials said yesterday that rebels had kidnapped 22 volunteers who had joined a program to vaccinate people affected by the fighting.

The head of Sudan’s vaccination program and emergency operations office, Hassan Idriss, said rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement abducted the volunteers on Sunday. JEM officials were not immediately available to comment.

The UN Security Council is due to receive a report on Darfur from UN special envoy Jan Pronk, who is scheduled to address the 15-member body tomorrow. Pressure from human rights groups saw commercial companies Talisman of Canada and Austria’s OMV sell their stakes. Foreign concessions now are limited to Indian state Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), Malaysian state Petronas and China National Petroleum Corp and small Swedish concern Lundin Petroleum.

Meanwhile, the Sudanese government and the main rebel group in the south of the vast country have extended an ongoing cease-fire for three months, amid deadlock in talks aimed at ending 21 years of conflict, the chief mediator said in Nairobi yesterday.

“They signed an agreement extending the cessation of hostilities on Monday for the next three months, starting Sept. 1,” the chief mediator, retired Kenyan Army Gen. Lazaro Sumbeiywo, told AFP by telephone.

Sudan’s ambassador to Kenya, Ali Numeiri, and Sudan People’s Liberation Army commander Taban Deng signed the cease-fire agreement, which was first reached in October 2002, and has since been repeatedly renewed.