Half a million Darfurians cut off from aid

Almost 500,000 Darfurians have been cut off from emergency food aid due to insecurity in the region, which has rendered them inaccessible to humanitarian workers, according to the United Nations. "This is a major concern for us," the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) spokesman Kenro Oshidari told reporters in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on Wednesday. "It is happening during the period of the hunger season, before the harvest. This is the season typically when malnutrition rates rise and disease increases because of the rains."