world's worst humanitarian crisis

I've been starting this entry for weeks now. Each time I begin to think about what is happening in Darfur, my blood curdles, my insides convulse with anger, the tears well up, and the thoughts paralyse my brain. And so I can't think of what to say. How do you write about such inhumanity when you feel so helpless to do anything about it?

Millions have been forced out of their villages, and hundreds of thousands are dying. The Sudanese government are complicit in this genocide which is fast becoming a repeat of Rwanda. The Janjaweed militia have massacred men, women and children, and those left; the refugees in Darfur, are starving to death, encircled by these gunmen who kill any men and rape any women who dare to venture out to forage for food. MSF report that they see at least five girls every week who have been raped, some as young as 12. Given the cultural reluctance to report rape, the actual figure is thought to be much much higher.

1 million will die of starvation unless they get the billions of dollars of aid that they so desperately need. With the monsoons drawing closer, many more will be cut off from aid. In the capital, Khartoum, the foreign minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail, told the Guardian: "In Darfur there is no hunger, no malnutrition, no epidemic diseases."

1 in 4 children in southern Sudan do not reach their 5th birthday. Women have a 1 in 9 chance of dying in pregnancy or childbirth. Healthcare is provided almost solely by outsiders. In rebel-controlled areas there are a measly 1500 hospital beds to service a population of eight million.

The biggest cause of death of children in Darfur is pneumonia in which malnutrition is a contributing factor. Last month saw a Sudanese outbreak of the lethal Ebola virus, Malaria is common, as are diarrhoeal, sexually-transmitted, and respiratory infections. There is an, as yet, unidentified disease that is killing and paralysing scores of children. I could go on and on. The UN describes the situation in Darfur as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

I don't know what I can do, other than support the charities appealing for funds to assist people affected by the fighting in Sudan. Here they are: Care International, Medecins Sans Frontieres, Oxfam, Save the Children (UK), Unicef, UNHCR, World Food Programme.