AFRICANEWS

Sudan

Millions on the brink of starvation in Sudan

Once more, drought and factional fighting have precipitated another famine in southern Sudan. Relief agencies are warning that unless the international community responds immediately millions of people will perish.

Over a million people in southern Sudan may perish in the next few months from famine if the international community does not offer immediate food aid, according to a recent statement by the Diocese of Rumbek. The victims are Sudanese who have been displaced from their homes by factional fighting and drought now stalking central and southern Sudan. Most of the affected people are living in squalid camps in the south and unless aid is donated immediately, the Catholic Church and humanitarian agencies working in Sudan have warned that the world will soon witness another humanitarian catastrophe in that country.

The church issued the alert early this month after Catholic Bishop Caesar Mazzolari of Rumbek conducted an extensive tour of the affected areas in the war-torn Bahr el Ghazal region. In a press release issued on March 5, Bishop Mazzolari stated that a million people were now facing death, following the escalation of clashes in the area between the rebel Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) and pro-government Islamic militias known as Murahiliins. According to the cleric, the victims are now trapped in a 300 km area in Bahr, with the epicentre of the suffering located between Mayen Abun and Nyamlell. �Their situation is pathetic and it is clear that the international community is not aware. These people are on the brink of death,� said Bishop Mazzolari.

It is the second time in three years that Bahr is in the grip of famine. In 1998, about 200,000 displaced people died following a severe drought in the area. It was only after images of starving children and mothers had hit the TV screens that the world moved in to halt the spread of the tragedy. With Bahr now seeped in a severe drought, intensification of the factional fighting and a low-key response by the international community, the cleric has warned of repeat of the 1998 episode. �Their homes, food and property were burned in the military attacks, the Murahiliins raided their cattle, and they now live far from any source of water, in utter poverty and isolation,� said Mazzolari. Most of the 55,000 internally displaced persons he visited come from the frontline areas southwest of Malwalkon where the SPLA and the Murahiliins have been fighting since early February. These skirmishes have left many of the combatants dead and with the rainy season expected in April, the living have been gripped by fears of epidemics, since most of the corpses are being buried in shallow graves.

At Akwemko camp, 2,800 displaced people rely on food rations from Medicens Sans Frontiers, while their counterparts in the two camps in Maniel and Burrap are surviving on wild plants. The 25,000 people camping at Wanyjok, six kilometres from Malwalkon, receive rations from the World Food Programme in Malwalkon and Akwemko. Others have been reported to be surviving by cutting grass in the nearby swamps and selling it to get some money to buy clothes and essential items for themselves and their children. There is another lot of people who have been displaced after government forces evicted them from their homes, which border the oil-rich areas in Unity State. Though no figures have been given, Roger Winter, Executive Director of the US Committee for Refugees, claims that "ethnic cleansing linked to oil development in southern Sudan is causing massive civilian displacement." In fact, the World Food Programme (WFP) is now feeding people displaced from Bentiu, the capital of the oil rich Unity State.

But the church is not the only institution that has been alarmed by the magnitude of the suffering and the poor response. On February 23, a few days before Mazzolari made his plea, the UN Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal for Sudan issued a statement warning of a pending humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan. In the statement, the agency - which was formed three months ago- asked for US $60 million in food and other assistance to meet the emergency needs of 600,000 people said to be "at immediate risk." But despite the group's high profile composition, donations have not been forthcoming. By the start of March, the agency had only received one percent of the amount it had requested. Such response has alarmed the UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Kenzo Oshima, who has expressed deep concern over the unhurried response to an already bad situation. The WFP has warned that unless these funds are pledged immediately, the organisation will not be in a position to feed the hungry after March. UNICEF is also sounding a similar lament saying that it might soon cease its present levels of emergency intervention in the water, sanitation and health sectors.

These requests for humanitarian aid come as the US is being called upon to use its diplomatic channels to end the factional fighting that has turned Nuerland in the south into a hell. On March 1, the New York-based Human Rights Watch wrote to the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, asking the Bush administration to use its influence with the southern factions to end the clashes. �We are alarmed by recent military developments that threaten to spiral out of control," wrote Jemera Rone, Sudan researcher for the group. "We urge the Bush administration to intervene diplomatically with southern military factions and civilian leadership in an effort to halt the tribally-related violence. This is a good example of where early and skilful U.S. diplomatic intervention can make all the difference."

Notwithstanding the war between the SPLA and the Khartoum government, there have been fierce skirmishes in the last couple of months between rival Nuer clans especially on the issue of support for the SPLA and distribution of relief food in the community. Since the split of the SPLA in 1991, most Nuer clans now back the Sudan Peoples Democratic Front (SPDF) led by Riak Machar, a Nuer commander formerly with the SPLA. Any Nuer who support the SPLA have been seen as traitors when one considers that the rebel movement is one that is dominated by the Dinka, the region's largest tribe. On its side, the SPLA sees those Nuer factions opposed to it as creations of Khartoum and who must be dealt with and so to many Nuer nationalists any incursion into their territory by the SPLA has come to be seen as an act of provocation by the Dinka. This is why the February 22 attack, ransacking, and burning of Nyal town in western Upper Nile by a Nuer SPLA commander, Peter Gatdet, has been greeted with anger by the Nuer. This is especially after it was claimed that Gatdet's force was largely made of Dinka fighters. Revenge has also been given as the main reason behind the attack. Last year it was reported that anti-Gatdet Nuer forces in the SPDF attacked his territories during which they burned and looted homes and kidnapped women and young girls. Such clashes are to blame for the chaos that Nuerland has now become in recent weeks. The result has been a massive exodus of people from their homes creating the ideal climate for famine to strike.

However, revenge and territorial gains are not the only issues fanning the Dinka-Nuer animosity. It is being speculated that unbalanced distribution of relief aid between the SPDF and SPLA held areas in Nuerland is also to blame. Various humanitarian groups have confirmed that SPDF held areas are receiving more aid than those held by the SPLA, leading the latter to mount attacks so as to "get even."

It is still early before one can entertain fears of large-scale conflagration between the Dinka and Nuer, but if Nuer talk of taking "revenge" on the Dinka materialises it is likely that the magnitude of suffering will be much larger. Of particular concern are Dinka civilians who moved back to their homes after the 1999 Wunlit peace deal, which ended nine years of Nuer-Dinka hostilities. It also exposes to danger of retaliation those Nuer who have taken refuge in Dinka areas. No wonder Human Rights Watch is calling on Washington to intervene diplomatically. "The U.S. has tremendous clout with southerners. Now is the time to use it," says Rone, who also wants Khartoum restrained from arming the militias uprooting thousands in eastern Upper Nile. Otherwise if the relief agencies don't get the necessary funding, and the US refuses to intervene, then the world should brace for another horror from Sudan.

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