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UN and US warn that huge toll in Darfur crisis is now inevitable

A humanitarian crisis of enormous proportions is now inevitable in western Sudan’s Darfur region and up to one million people could die if aid cannot be delivered there swiftly, international officials warned. “We estimate right now if we get relief in, we’ll lose a third of a million people, and if we don’t the death rates could be dramatically higher, approaching a million people,” US Agency for International Development (USAID) chief Andrew Natsios predicted after a high-level UN aid meeting. More than one million African civilians have been forced to flee their homes because of an onslaught by government-backed Arab militia and Sudanese troops in Darfur over the past year, and atrocities are continuing, the United Nations said. The United States, European Union, France and the UN warned Khartoum that it must put a stop to atrocities by militia in the strife-torn region, and iron out “severe restrictions” which are still hampering aid deliveries. Full Story