Independent appeal: How you can help the victims of the violence in Darfur

More than a million people have fled their homes because of fighting in Darfur, a region the size of France in western Sudan, Africa's largest nation. UN officials have called it the world's worst humanitarian situation.

More than a million people have fled their homes because of fighting in Darfur, a region the size of France in western Sudan, Africa's largest nation. UN officials have called it the world's worst humanitarian situation.

Concern has mounted one of the largest operations in the charity's 36-year history to provide shelter, food and sanitation to more than 370,000 people.Its team of 24 aid workers in Darfur has already distributed plastic sheets, mats, mosquito nets, jerry cans, soap, buckets, washing basins and cooking pots to 40,000 people in and around El Geneina. Its nutrition programmes will meet the needs of 217,000 people in El Geneina and Kulbus. It aims to provide water and sanitation for more than 98,000 people in El Geneina, Kulbus and Mornay.

Concern's worldwide chief executive, Tom Arnold, who recently returned from Darfur, said: "Many people are existing without even the most basic essentials, arriving in the camps with no possessions beyond the clothes on their backs; a row of sticks acting as their only cover from the heavy rains. It is a race against time if many thousands of lives are to be saved."

www.concern.net