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Dept for International Development

Answer

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what his latest assessment is of the number of people who have died in each month in 2004 from malnutrition and disease in Darfur. [196203] Hilary Benn: It is very difficult to provide accurate monthly figures of mortality in Darfur in 2004, given that there was very little access to large proportions of the Darfur in the early part of this year. The latest projections provided by the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicate that between 35,000 and 70,000 deaths occurred between March and September. In presenting these figures, WHO stated that further work was needed to estimate what proportion of these deaths were due to different causes, though it perceived that most were due to diarrhoeal diseases exacerbated by malnutrition. The large variation in these figures is due to the fact that they are based on the findings of the WHO's retrospective mortality survey, which only covered North and West Darfur. Assessment in South Darfur was hampered by insecurity. The WHO found that between 15 June and 15 August, the crude mortality rate was 1.5 deaths per 10,000 per day in North Darfur and was 2.9 deaths per 10,000 people per day in South Darfur. Based on the numbers of internally displaced persons at the time, WHO estimated that between 6,000 and 10,000 people were dying per month. It should be noted that these figures refer to mortality rates amongst the displaced. Further deaths may have occurred due to malnutrition, disease and for other reasons that have not been captured in the survey. DFID has urged the WHO to complete its survey in South Darfur and to undertake regular monitoring of morbidity and mortality levels throughout Darfur.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

196203; 426 c481W

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Death Diseases Sudan Darfur Malnutrition

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk