The Greatest Humanitarian Crisis Facing The World Today
Internally displaced people at Caritas-ACT camp in Al Hamidia.
More than a million lives are endangered as the humanitarian crisis in Sudan worsens. Tens of thousands of people in the Darfur region of Western Sudan have been killed, and more than one million people have been forced from their homes by the violence that has engulfed Western Sudan for more than a year.

Despite tentative peace negotiations and agreed upon ceasefires, there appears little hope that the 198,000 refugees who've crossed the Sudan border into Chad—as well as the estimated 1.2 million internally displaced—will return to their homes in Darfur anytime soon.

The Darfur region is divided into three states—North, West and South—with a population of nearly six million people, one third of whom are expected to need emergency aid by the end of the year. Access to Darfur was largely prohibited until May of 2004. The delayed access, ongoing security issues, and impending rains are making it extremely difficult for the world's humanitarian agencies to provide aid in time to prevent catastrophic loss of life.

With this urgency in mind, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and U.N. Secretary General Koffi Annan traveled to the region to press the Government of Sudan to provide security and access for humanitarian agencies so they may work to save lives. I am also visiting Sudan as a sign of African spirit and to encourage greater access for global humanitarian aid and help humanity
Security conditions are volatile and inconsistent, endangering any ability for displaced persons to voluntarily return to their villages, as well as aid agencies to effectively respond. We've been told that militia are present near settlements and continue to attack villages and border areas. The result is few safeguards for populations already vulnerable, and unprotected access to basic means for survival."