Deaths in Darfur underestimated

UNITED NATIONS, Thursday (Reuters) A senior U.N. envoy said that far more people had died in Sudan's Darfur region than the 70,000 previously estimated and chastised African nations for not sending enough peacekeepers.

Jan Egeland, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator, who just visited Sudan, told a news conference it was impossible to estimate the number of deaths from killings or disease because "it is where we are not that there are attacks."

Egeland said the old figure of 70,000 dead from last March to the late summer was unhelpful. "Is it three times that? Is it five times that? I don't know but it is several times the number of the 70,000 that have died altogether," he said.

Darfur in Sudan's west has been in conflict for more than two years with rebel groups fighting the government for power and resources. In response Khartoum armed militia, some of whom have brutally killed and raped African villagers.

"If you move beyond the camps, the killing continues," Egeland said. "Women are systematically abused and raped.

"I told the government at the highest levels that there was a situation totally out of control and is not being stopped," he said.