Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, has said there is no humanitarian crisis in Darfur and that less than 9,000 people had been killed there during the four years of conflict. He disputed the findings of latest reports on the situation in the region, rejected talk of genocide and said violence stemmed from tribal tensions and drought. A UN report published on Monday described the humanitarian situation in Darfur as the worst in two years. The UN estimates at least 200,000 people have died from the combined effect of war and famine since the fighting erupted in February 2003. Some sources say the toll is much higher.
Beshir said via a video media conference on Monday: "The figure of 200,000 dead is false and the number of dead is not even 9,000. All the figures have been falsified and the child mortality rate in Darfur does not exceed that in Khartoum."
Al-Bashir accused western countries of inflating statistics to justify a military intervention. "Any talk of a deterioration of the situation in Darfur is false," he said, claiming that only five out of 23 major towns in the region were currently facing security problems.
The US accuses al-Bashir's regime of genocide in Darfur and has pushed for UN peacekeepers to be dispatched there. The Sudanese president has consistently rejected efforts to replace the African Union observers currently deployed in Darfur, accusing the West of seeking to invade his country and plunder its resources.