Sudan denies 70,000 death toll

SUDAN has denied a report that 70,000 people have died since March in refugee camps in western Darfur province, with a government minister insisting that the death toll couldn’t be more than 7,000.

On Friday, the World Health Organisation estimated that at least 70,000 people had died in the camps, most because of poor conditions. The number does not include those killed in fighting, including militia and government attacks on villages or on fleeing refugees.

But Mohammed Yusuf Ibrahim, state minister at the ministry of humanitarian affairs, disputed the estimate.

“This report is totally wrong and not correct at all,” he said, adding that the real number was less than 10% of that estimated by the UN health agency.

“The reports we have here speak of the situation for the last 32 weeks and nowhere could we see what they were talking about.” He would not elaborate on the government reports or give more specific numbers.

Meanwhile, Libya confirmed that leaders of Sudan, Egypt, Chad and Nigeria would join President Moammar Gadhafi in Tripoli on Sunday to discuss Darfur. The summit will deal with security, ending the fighting and getting aid to displaced people, Libya’s Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Shalqam said.

Dr David Nabarro, WHO’s head of crisis operations, said on Friday that refugees will continue to die unless countries provide more money to help them.

“We are running on a threadbare, hand-to-mouth existence, and if the plight of these people in Darfur is as important to the international community as it seems to be, then we would have expected more long-term support,” he said.

He said the United Nations has only received half of the €240 million that it needs to do its work.