What is going on with Darfur

via the Washington Times:

Darfur casualty estimate rises to 300,000

By Betsy Pisik
April 23, 2008

NEW YORK — The senior U.N. humanitarian official yesterday raised by half the estimated casualties in Darfur, saying that as many as 300,000 had been killed by warfare, disease and hunger.

John Holmes, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told the Security Council that the situation had worsened in the past four years, as the numbers of casualties and the displaced rose and as assaults on aid workers increased.

The new figure of 300,000 dead is not based on new surveys, Mr. Holmes said, but on "a reasonable extrapolation."

In 2006, the United Nations estimated 200,000 casualties. That figure had not been increased for two years, despite the cyclical fighting of Sudanese government and rebel forces against an ever-splintering assortment of well-armed rebel groups.