Medical workers say outbreaks of malaria and diarrhoea are increasing, but they are not able to get medicines to the worst affected areas. The African Union peacekeeping troops are helping to improve the situation in the areas where they are deployed, but there are not nearly enough of them. Local staff working at many of the camps have not had their salaries paid for months.Nicki Bennett, based in Nyala for Oxfam, said: "The security situation in Darfur remains extremely volatile - people still face the threat of horrific violence on a daily basis, and insecurity is also hampering humanitarian access ... Aid agencies have now stopped using main roads, and are relying on a few helicopters to get supplies to displaced people.

He said: "As we speak, we have had to suspend action in many areas. Tens of thousands of people will not get any assistance today because it is too dangerous and it could grow."Since the beginning of August, more than 45 aid convoys have been attacked on roads leading to the main camps by militias who have beaten up drivers and stolen food from the vehicles. The Sudanese government had promised to clamp down on militias operating in the region earlier this year, but both the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the janjaweed have stepped up attacks on civilians, aid workers and each other.On Wednesday, the UN's under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, Jan Egeland, warned that the situation in Darfur was becoming so violent that the UN and other aid agencies may have to pull out. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said people in the camp and local villagers had been attacked by 300 "armed Arab men on horses and camels". Over the past two months thousands of civilians have fled their villages across Darfur. At least 5,000 people have been driven to shelter in camps, saying their villages had been attacked by the pro-government militias known as the janjaweed Hundreds more are reported to have been killed. Darfur is in the grip of a fresh outbreak of violence, with hundreds of civilians being killed by warring militias and the United Nations mission considering pulling out of the region.

At least 29 people were reported killed yesterday in an "unprecedented" attack on the Aro Sharow refugee camp in the northwestern area of Sudan. I want to live in peace with two states side by side."But he too is campaigning entirely on local issues.This is despite Israeli pressure on Hamas since the blast that killed 20 people at the faction's military parade in Gaza last week, almost certainly caused by an accident with its own weaponry.. There are people in Hamas you can ask about that." Pressed, he says that he disagrees with the killing of all civilians.Defending his nine-year record as a Fatah-appointed mayor, the incumbent, Arafat Khalaf, says of the killing: "I am against it. A video of Mr Nuriel in captivity showed him mumbling in Arabic a request for the release of Palestinian prisoners. Yesterday, Sa'ad Chalabi, the Hamas supporter who is seeking the mayoralty of Beitunya, as leader of the local "Reform and Change" grouping, was out at the polling station doing some last-minute campaigning on a programme of better schools, improved sewage provision, and more strategic planning.Mr Chalabi, an electrical engineer who works as an IT expert at Al Quds university, says of Mr Nuriel's murder: "I know nothing about this. Dr Khaled al-Azawi at Balad hospital said that many of the injured suffered from serious burns and mutilated limbs..