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On the Brink, Sudan Needs Aid, Says U.N. Expert

Countries need to step up assistance to Darfur, Sudan, or risk the situation getting much worse, says the United Nations' lead official on Humanitarian Crises. Jan Egeland says that in 2005, donors were generous and the situation seemed to be improving. But this year has brought more violence and more displacement.

The U.N. Security Council, Egeland says, isn't putting enough pressure on Sudan to accept a U.N. force. Egeland says hundreds of thousands of people are on the run, fleeing violence and ethnic cleansing. The new statistics are prompting experts in Washington to try to figure out whether the State Department has been underestimating death tolls in Darfur.

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Michele Kelemen has been with NPR for two decades, starting as NPR's Moscow bureau chief and now covering the State Department and Washington's diplomatic corps. Her reports can be heard on all NPR News programs, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered.