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October 1, 2004, Friday 400 DARFUR REFUGEES DYING EVERY DAY Gethin Chamberlain Diplomatic Correspondent THE first detailed medical study of survivors of the Sudanese genocide suggests the death toll has been seriously underestimated and concludes the massive attacks in the Darfur region amount to a demographic catastrophe. Doctors who surveyed 215,000 refugees in camps in West Darfur discovered a death rate up to ten times that which would be expected in sub- Saharan Africa, indicating an emergency situation. Although the researchers stress that the scope of the study means it is not possible to produce an accurate estimate of the death toll, if the figures for the area they studied were to be replicated across Darfur, they would suggest that up to 400 of the 1.2 million refugees still in Sudan are dying every day. At the height of the violence which forced those people to flee, that figure would have been up to 900 a day. The team also discovered the death rate for survivors of the killings who reached the relative security of refugee camps did not decline significantly, but stayed high above the benchmark for an emergency. In one camp, children below the age of five accounted for half of all deaths. And despite Sudan's assertion that it retains control in the region, the researchers found that in one camp, one in five deaths were attributed to violence perpetrated by Janjaweed militia camped in the vicinity. Sudan has faced international condemnation for its handling of the situation in Darfur, which the United Nations has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. More than 1.4 million people have been driven from their homes, 200,000 of them across the border into Chad, as a result of attacks by the Khartoum -backed Arab Janjaweed militia and government forces. The UN Security Council has twice warned Sudan it must tackle the crisis or face action. Estimates of the number of people killed during the violence, which began in earnest in February 2003, have varied wildly. One estimate suggested 10,000 people a month were dying, while another put the total death toll at about 50,000. However, the new study of four sites in West Darfur, the first of its kind, carried out by the Paris-based Dr Evelyn Depoortere between April and June, suggests the figure might be much higher than thought. In the report published in the medical journal The Lancet today, Dr Depoortere and her colleagues conclude: "We believe that, in the four sites we surveyed, high mortality and family separations amount to a demographic catastrophe." The report says that most of those surveyed fled as a result of attacks on their villages. "While in the village or in flight, mortality was extremely high, overwhelmingly because of violence. Although men were at far higher risk of being killed, women and children were also targeted. Separations and disappearances were also common, mostly affecting men," it says. The team found that before people fled to the camps, the death rates were between six and 9.5 people per day out of each 10,000, with violence accounting for up to 90 per cent of the deaths. In a grim picture of life in the camps, the report found 5.6 people out of every 10,000 are dying each day in El Geneina, many as a result of Janjaweed violence. In Murnei, 21.4 per cent of deaths were linked to Janjaweed attacks. "Among internally displaced people settled in camps, violence continued to cause a substantial proportion of deaths," the report says. "Although we did not systematically record information on the circumstances of these killings, data from MSF Medecins Sans Frontieres health centres suggest a high incidence of shootings, beatings and rapes." The report also says that even when violent causes were excluded, mortality remained unacceptably high after arrival in the camps. Alarming peaks occurred in El Geneina, where little humanitarian aid, apart from irregular food distributions, was dispensed before June. The team found a 50 per cent weekly attack rate of diarrhoea among children there. Non-violent deaths in El Geneina were significantly higher than in other sites, with children under the age of five accounting for nearly half (50 out of 104) of the deaths. "Generally, existence was precarious in these hard-to-access, poorly serviced camps; people there were under constant threat from malnutrition and epidemics, and were deprived of most coping mechanisms." It adds: "Aid itself is insufficient and late, often due to a deadly combination of international neglect and warring parties who do not grant humanitarian access to the affected populations when they need it most." The study also warns: "One of the most serious and long-lasting consequences of such attacks may be widespread mental trauma among survivors and witnesses." Meanwhile Omar Hassan al-Bashir, Sudan's president, yesterday accused the United States of helping to train and arm rebels who rose up against the Sudanese government in Darfur last year.
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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