Food situation slightly improves in Darfur: UN agencies

United Nations agencies reported on Thursday a slight improvement of food insecurity in Sudan's war- torn western region of Darfur despite the deteriorating security situation there.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Program (WFP) made the assessment in a joint statement.

The statement noted that overall malnutrition levels have mostly stabilized in 2006 in Darfur thanks to a stronger international response to the suffering in the region.

Preliminary results of the joint assessment by the UN agencies found that 70 percent of war-affected Darfurians were food insecure, slightly down from 74 percent last year, said the statement.

It added that although the remaining 30 percent of the war- affected people required some form of assistance this year, they had more diverse diets, spent less than 50 percent of their income on food and relied less on food aid.

But the UN agencies cautioned that "the continued flow of aid is under threat because of escalating violence, which is restricting access to war and drought-affected people, exacerbating the already fragile situation."

The assessment also showed that the percentage of people with adequate access to food among those living in displacement camps had actually dropped from 36 percent in 2005 to just 14 percent in 2006.

In North Darfur, food security has improved despite humanitarian access problems in recent months, the statement said, adding that in South and West Darfur, food security declined because the majority of the local residents could not cultivate their lands.

Source: Xinhua