Hundreds of thousands of people could die in Darfur in western Sudan this year unless medical relief organisations pre-position supplies and vaccinate people susceptible to cholera, the United Nations said on Thursday.
Conflict in Darfur has driven more than a million people from their homes into camps with poor sanitary conditions. Now that the rainy season has started, cholera could spread fast.
"Hundreds of thousands of people's lives are now hanging in the balance, and they need help now," said Lee Jong-wook, director-general of the UN World Health Organisation (WHO).
"If massive humanitarian relief is not immediately brought to the people of Darfur, the numbers of people dying each day will drastically increase," a WHO statement added.
"However, if the build-up of the relief effort can be sustained and properly supported, the number of deaths can be kept to the minimum for an emergency situation," it said.
WHO put out the statement after Lee and WHO regional director Hussein Gezairy visited south and west Darfur to examine health conditions among the displaced people.
After long conflict between Arab nomads and African villagers, a rebellion broke out last year in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, which borders Chad.
The fighting has triggered what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The Sudanese government is accused of backing Arab militias and US President George W. Bush has accused Khartoum of not doing enough to end the crisis.
The international community has been pressing the Sudanese government to lift restrictions on humanitarian access to the displaced. Khartoum says it is complying and the WHO statement did not repeat any complaints about limited access.
"There has been progress in the provision of relief, particularly health care, in the last few weeks. Good use is being made of the funds available, though logistic challenges still beset major relief operations," it said.
WHO's main worry is a possible cholera outbreak in a camp such as that at Kalma near the Southern Darfur state capital Nyala, which has 50,000 people and 300 new residents a day.
"WHO and health partners could work to prevent a cholera outbreak, by pre-positioning supplies and by vaccinating people who are susceptible. This costs money," the WHO statement quoted Gezairy as saying.
The United Nations estimates that humanitarian relief work in Darfur requires about $240 million but only half that has been pledged. WHO gave no breakdown for the health component of that and no estimate of how much cholera prevention would cost.
Another UN agency, the World Food Programme, said in a statement that Libya had agreed to open a corridor through its territory for relief supplies bound for Darfur and Chad, where some 200,000 Sudanese from Darfur have taken refuge.
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