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.