Humanitarian operations in Darfur are threatened by an upsurge of violence against relief personnel, the United Nations has warned.

One of the camps for displaced citizens, in Zalingei, where aid staff were beaten to death

Credit: PEP BONET/PANOS

“During the second half of July we lost more aid workers than over the previous two years,” said Mike McDonagh, humanitarian affairs officer at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Khartoum.

The main reasons for violence against humanitarian workers are tension and rumours among the local population. “We are now in the third—and for …