Refugees in Sudan

The international community's response to the crisis in Darfur has been "scandalously ineffective", the Commons international development committee has said.

In a hard-hitting report published on Wednesday, the MPs also warned that the death toll in the crisis hit region of Sudan is set to reach around 300,000.

Their figure is far above the 70,000 estimated by the World Health Organisation to have been killed so far.

The MPs said the WHO figure was a "gross underestimate" that failed to count deaths in villages away from refugee camps and accessible areas within the borders of Darfur.

In the conflict Sudan's government has been accused of backing Arab militias in a campaign of violence targeting the region's black African population.

An estimated two million people have fled their homes, and the number needing humanitarian assistance is expected to continue rising during this year to reach four million.

While the US has said the violence amounts to genocide, the United Nations has pulled back from making the same claim.

Treading a line between the two positions, the committee said the crimes committed in Darfur are "no less serious and heinous than genocide".

'Warnings ignored'

While the Sudanese government is heavily criticised, the international community and UN security council are also attacked.

Early warnings of the crisis were ignored and humanitarian agencies were slow to respond to the situation, said the MPs.

"The world's failure to protect the people of Darfur from the atrocities committed against them by their own government is a scandal," said committee chairman Tony Baldry.

"Crises such as Darfur require the world to respond collectively and effectively. Passing the buck will not do.

"After the genocide in Rwanda, the world said 'never again'. President Bush said that genocide would not be allowed to happen 'on his watch'. These words should mean something.

"The international community must now fulfil its responsibility to protect the people of Darfur.

"Attacked by the government which is meant to protect them, the people of Darfur, whom we have collectively and demonstrably failed, deserve no less.

"We demand that there is action now."

Lessons to learn

A spokesman for the Department for International Development said there were "many lessons" to be learned from how the crisis has been dealt with.

"The report recognises the lead role that the UK has played from the outset of the crisis," he added.

"We have contributed a total of over £66 million to the humanitarian relief effort.

"We were instrumental in negotiating the comprehensive North-South peace agreement which brought an end to the longest-running civil war in Africa in which two million lives were lost.

"We have also been giving practical support to the African Union ceasefire monitoring force which is doing an increasingly effective job in Darfur."