DATU PIANG, Philippines: The UN food agency yesterday said the humanitarian situation in the southern Philippines remained grim, with tens of thousands of refugees needing emergency aid.

“While some help is getting through, clearly it is not enough,” World Food Program country representative Stephen Anderson told AFP.

Anderson was visiting a packed evacuation camp in the southern town of Datu Piang, scene of the latest skirmishes between troops and separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels.

“The situation is very grim,” Anderson said, adding that heavy rains pounding the area over a number of days had caused flooding “that is growing worse day by day.”

“Clearly, much more is needed in helping people in addressing camp management here. People are living in very overcrowded conditions. Just from the face of it, water and sanitation conditions are unacceptable,” he said.

He noted that in many areas thousands of people, living in rudimentary tents made of tarpaulin and other light materials, did not have adequate drinking water and toilets.

He said his agency had budgeted aid for about 600,000 people affected by the violence, and that they had delivered more than 12,000 sacks of rice to 16 evacuation camps in Mindanao.

But he noted that more assistance was needed as the number of evacuees was continuing to rise.

“They are afraid to go home,” Anderson said. “I thought the number of people would level off but it seems it’s increasing now. From our target of 400,000 people, we are now expecting more or less 600,000 people displaced.” “As I observed, the water and sanitation condition at the evacuation site is unacceptable and needs immediate action,” he added.

In Datu Piang yesterday, WFP distributed about 500 sacks of rice to 429 families, many of whom had not eaten proper meals in days.

Police say some 6,329 “heads of families” are staying in the camp. With a typical family consisting of more than eight members, the actual number living there could exceed 50,000.

The refugees have taken over the municipal plaza, erecting makeshift tents in every available space, including a patio that has been converted into an emergency medical center.

Anderson said he was “very surprised” to find out that more and more evacuees were streaming into the camps despite a drop in large-scale fighting between troops and MILF. “I had thought that the number of people would have leveled off,” he said.

Fighting began last month when MILF rebels angered by an aborted land deal with the government attacked many towns and villages in Muslim Mindanao, affecting more than half a million people.

More than 50 civilians have been killed so far, including five children who died in a military air raid on a marshland.