By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Darfur faces a food crisis this yearas a result of a "perfect storm" of growing violence,overcrowding in refugee camps and a bad harvest, the UnitedNations said on Sunday.
The conflict in Darfur has prompted the world's largesthumanitarian operation, which helps two-thirds of the region's6 million population.
But this year, a confluence of problems in the westernSudanese region could cause a spike in malnutrition rates andhealth problems, United Nations officials said.
"Four years into a massive humanitarian operation ... thisis the year I think where we are going to see a reduction in(health) indicators as a result of this perfect storm," MikeMcDonough, head of the U.N. humanitarian coordination office,said.
Attacks on World Food Programme food convoys have forced acut in rations to millions in Darfur by almost half since May,and government promises of escorts for aid trucks have notmaterialised.
"If we don't improve we simply cannot raise this ration inthe future," WFP head Kenro Oshidari said at a joint U.N.agencies news conference. "The reality is that the trucks needto move every single day."
Ted Chaiban, head of the U.N. children's agency UNICEF,said without trucks moving and full rations, this year'straditional hunger gap as rains cut off roads and farms wouldbe more severe than previous years.
He said a worse harvest this year had already led to pricesof basic commodities doubling in Darfur's markets.
"We are in the middle of what is going to be a challenginghunger gap," he said.
"We are holding the line but we are concerned ... that ifthe food ration is not resumed in full, things willdeteriorate."
With malnutrition rates already high, he said August andSeptember, traditionally bad months for hunger, could see amassive hike in the numbers of malnourished Darfuris.
On reduced rations, Darfuris will be more vulnerable todisease.
There are few accurate malnutrition rates for Darfurbecause the government has until now refused to allow surveysto be released, saying they would be exaggerated by Westernmedia and activists.
Chaiban said the government had finally agreed to release11 withheld malnutrition surveys.
Previous unpublished surveys have indicated malnutritionrates above emergency levels in "pockets" of Darfur, U.N.officials have said.
Mortality surveys have been blocked by Khartoum for threeyears. Sudan says the U.N. estimates of between 200,000 and300,000 killed in Darfur are exaggerated and says just 10,000have died.
(Editing by Giles Elgood)
