Oxfam flight due to land in Sudan

An Oxfam aid flight carrying £90,000 of vital supplies to ease the humanitarian crisis in Sudan is due to land in the country's southern Darfur region today.

The plane left Kent International Airport at Manston yesterday with 30 tonnes of UK supplies including water and sanitation equipment.

But as the aid arrived in the country, a United Nations official warned the death toll in the Darfur conflict could be up to 50,000 - far higher than previously thought.

The UN has already called the situation the world's worst humanitarian crisis after more than a million people have fled their homes since conflicts started last year.

Today UN relief chief Jan Egeland said the outlook was "bleak" and "the deaths are increasing".

Mr Egeland added: "Among the one million people displaced, it could be by now anywhere between 30,000 and 50,000 deaths already. And these are preventable."

Meanwhile the Conservatives said sanctions should be imposed on Sudan within days to force its government to act over the humanitarian crisis.