The United Nations has ordered all non-essential staff out of Sudan's West Darfur region because of increasing violence aimed at aid workers and continuing clashes between government forces and rebels.

Spokesperson Radhia Achouri said only core staff will remain at the UN's local headquarters in West Darfur.

Almost 11,000 aid workers are in the troubled region of Sudan, trying to deliver relief supplies to hundreds of thousands of displaced and hungry people.




The aid groups are particularly worried about the safety of truck drivers, who are on the front line of the distribution network.

Four drivers delivering aid shipments on behalf of the World Food Programme have been killed in recent months.

"I am stressed because I know there's a risk, but I like to help the people," driver Aria Muhamad said through a translator during an interview with CBC News at a World Food Programme warehouse.

"But I have faced many incidents on the road. Armed men have stopped the truck and taken all my money."

The thefts and assaults come in a region where various bands of rebels and government militias are in control, all of them hungry as well as in need of vehicles and fuel.

Adam Aisha represents a trucking company under contract to make deliveries for the UN agency. He says some of his drivers have been shot at and another was kidnapped and held for ransom.

The truckers are paid regular wages, with only a small supplement to compensate for the risk they take. So far, Aisha hasn't had too much trouble finding staff, but adds that the situation is "very, very difficult."

A humanitarian crisis has been gripping Darfur for more than two years, since Arab militiamen suspected of being supported by the Sudanese government began killing and raping black Africans in villages throughout the region.

About 180,000 people are estimated to have died because of violence, starvation and disease. Another 2 million are living in refugee camps.

Even before the crisis began, the UN estimates that 18 per cent of the population of Darfur was suffering from malnutrition.