KUWAIT CITY, June 18 (IslamOnline.net) - Kuwait has sent its second aid convoy to Darfur, as more humanitarian relief supplies are still badly needed to end a humanitarian crisis gripping the strife-torn western Sudanese region.

Fifteen tones of tents, 40 tones of corn products and 20 tones of wheat were aired to Al-Fashir city, for distribution among the local inhabitants of the northwestern historical caravan center in Darfur.

The Kuwaiti plane also carried 520,000 Sudanese pounds-worth of medical stuff and oil components for other residents of Darfur, where international aid workers have long complained from failure to reach many victims despite repeated requests for access made to the Sudanese government.

The aid convoy by the Kuwaiti Direct Aid Committee (For African Muslims) is the second in less than three months. In March, the relief group sent 60 tones of supplies to the conflict-scarred region.

In the meantime, the Joint Kuwaiti Committee for Relief - which groups Kuwaiti relief organizations - sent its deputy chairman to Darfur to assess the latest developments in the turbulent region.

The deputy, Badr Al-Shamroukh, told IOL he was horrified by what he had seen of gruesome scenes and tough living conditions in Darfur.

"More than 13 people live in a one meter-high ramshackle hut. It is the same as the spider web," Al-Shamroukh told IslamOnline.net upon return.

The Kuwaiti relief official also visited camps of refugees, and met with officials in the region.

An estimated 670,000 people have fled their homes in Darfur, and about 110,000 people from the region have sought refuge in neighboring Chad since the middle of last year.

"There is a precarious situation in Darfur, and a humanitarian crisis looms larger with the beginning of the rainfall season which is anticipated to obstruct access to the needy.

"The rainfall will destroy these huts, and will leave their occupiers in the open with no shelter to resort to for protection."

Al-Shamroukh said children in Darfur are the most to bear the brunt, as they are soft targets for infectious diseases carried by the large number of insects.

The relief official believed that Darfur still needs 30,000 tents and huge amounts of medicine and pesticides, in addition to means to dig wells in the area for water resources. He urged more help from the Kuwaiti government.

"People in Darfur are on the rocks. Words still fail me."

Two rebel groups in Darfur - the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) - took up arms last year, accusing the central government in Khartoum of ignoring the region.

A ceasefire was signed between the government and the rebels on April 8, to allow humanitarian aid to reach those affected.

But the rebels still accuse the government of consistently breaking the truce by bombing villages and backing armed militia in the area, a charge repudiated by Khartoum.

Human rights groups and U.N. aid workers have accused government-backed militia of killing, raping and looting local inhabitants from four local ethnic groups and systematically forcing them out of their villages in Darfur.

Similar accounts of attacks have also been given by some of the refugees, who told U.N. aid workers in recent weeks that Sudanese border patrols were stopping more people from fleeing.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan warned in April that the international community must be ready to take decisive action against Sudan, including possible military force, if Khartoum denies aid workers access to Darfur.