During a visit to London on Tuesday 19th October 2004, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan made an appeal to donors for emergency funds to help cover a shortfall of approximately 200 million dollars needed for the UN humanitarian program in west Darfur, Sudan.

Talking about the war-torn region of Africa, which has received high media coverage over the past few months, Annan said it was “important that we get the necessary resources to carry on our humanitarian program.”

Tragedy has blighted Sudan over the past 10 months, where a civil war has killed an estimated 70,000 people and further violence has seen an additional 1.5 million.

Annan, who was attending a press conference with British Prime Minister, Tony Blair continued, “We are about a little over 200 million dollars short and I would appeal to all governments with capacity to help, and help urgently.”

Again following another meeting with British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, Annan made another plea: “We need to provide assistance in the quantities that are required. Not just give them food and shelter, but also the non-food items; health, sanitation and other aspects."

“On the security side, every effort is being made to send in the African (Union) monitors and protective force and I think their presence will also make quite a lot of difference. In the meantime we are sending in additional humanitarian workers and I think the eyes and ears of the international community, that many people would also help dissuade the attacks," said Annan.

Annan continued, "So, I think on the security side we need to do everything and give the African Union the support to go in there. And we should press the parties, the government and the rebels, to go back to the table and discuss seriously, in the spirit of compromise, to find a political solution.”

The United Nations has made it known that they consider the situation in Sudan to be the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The past few months have seen international efforts in the region increased in an attempt to end the bloody civil war.

The situation has continued to escalate, however, and the Arab government in Khartoum has been accused of abetting a majority of the massacres in accordance with its Janjaweed militia. Some human rights groups and representatives from the American government have even gone as far as to label the condition of Darfur as genocide.