In 2006, the World Health Oranization released a study, estimating that the number of deaths in the then 3-year conflict was 200,000. Now John Holmes, the UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, estimates the number of deaths has risen to 300,000.

Queried by reporters, Holmes said the estimate of 300,000 dead ”is not a very scientifically based figure” because there have been no new mortality studies in Darfur, but ”it’s a reasonable extrapolation.”

”What I’m saying is if that figure of 200,000 was anything like right in 2006, then that figure must be much higher now,” he said.

The Sudanese government, however, decried his statements, estimating that the number of deaths is 10,000.

Sudanese Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamed countered that ”in our own calculations, the total number does not exceed 10,000.”

He said his government counts only people killed in fighting, saying there are no dead from malnutrition and starvation ”because in Darfur there is no epidemics, no starvations.”

There have already been some peacekeeper deployments to Darfur but violence still rages:

April 7, 2008 (PARIS) — Khartoum backed Janjaweed militia have killed 14 civilians today in attacks and looting in three towns in North Darfur, a rebel military spokesperson said today.

… “The Janjaweed killed 4 persons in El-Fasher and wounded other 15, in Tawila they killed 4 and wounded 7 civilians and in Kabkabiya they killed 6 civilians and wounded other 16.” Nimer said.

He further added that the assailants burnt the market of Kabkabiya, also known as Janjaweed capital in Darfur.

The rebel spokesperson said that the militia looted the markets and killed the population in total impunity

Meanwhile discussions on more troop deployments continue:

April 8, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese Foreign Minister Deng Alor discussed on Tuesday with the head of Darfur joint mission Rodolphe Adada, the status of deployment of United Nations- African Union peacekeeping troops in the war-torn region of Darfur.

Adada attributed the current delay in the deployment to logistical difficulties relating to construction of the necessary infrastructures before the deployment of the troops.

… According to Resolution 1769 adopted by the UN Security Council in July last year, the 26,000-strong UN-AU hybrid peacekeeping forces should have been deployed in Darfur by Dec. 2007.

But until now, only some 10,000 troops have arrived in the western Sudanese region, including some 7,000 African troops who had been sent there in 2004 in accordance with an AU plan to enforce a ceasefire in the region.