Relief workers in a region of southern Sudan Bahr al-Ghazal where scores of people were dying of starvation every day in July have reported that conditions have dramatically improved since then.

An official of the UN World Food Programme, Mohammed Saleheen, told Reuters newsageny today that the region had received the relief aid it had asked for at the height of the crisis, and many lives were saved.

Mr Saleheen said the region was now out of the intensive care unit but still in hospital.

The Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army had agreed a three-month ceasefire in the region in July to allow relief aid to get through.

This was extended by another three months in October.

Mr Saleheen said that a convoy of seven barges left the northern port of Kosti last week, and was expected to arrive at the town of Juba in early January.