Ed, More on the evil doings of the NIF Junta in the South...
News Article by NEWSLINK on September 23, 1999 at 07:33:53:
Sudan: Famine Alert in the South
KHARTOUM, (Sep. 21) NEWSLINK/GIN - With the harvest almost in, it is
now possible to assess the crop yields in much of Bahr El Ghazal for 1999 and
calculate the extent of the food shortages there for the beginning of the new
millennium -- but this is not happening.
Due to insecurity as a result of the war, or perhaps to the unwillingness of relief
and humanitarian workers to carry it out, there has not been a comprehensive
survey of the food situation across Southern Sudan.
Such surveys are normally carried out to provide an early warning of impending
famine so that disaster can be averted, but that is not the case in the South.
In Southern Sudan, no contingency plan for averting famine has ever been
implemented. Relief and humanitarian agencies tend to respond to emergencies
rather than help prevent them in the first place.
Critics say these agencies do not act until the pictures of skeletal children are
broadcast on Western television screens. Unfortunately, when a famine has
reached that stage, it is already too late to avoid the worst of it.
Two famine flash points have been identified so far in the Southern Sudan. These
are Western Upper Nile and Eastern Central Bahr El Ghazal. The two areas are
adjacent to each other and suffer the same fall-out from war, weather and the
ruling National Islamic Front (NIF) regime.
The situation in the rest of Bahr El Ghazal and Equatoria will require further
monitoring and assessment later in the year.
Western Equatoria, where the war is over for all practical purposes, has been
under the total control and administration of Sudan People's Liberation Army
(SPLA) for many years and there is no risk of a food shortage there.
In fact, the problem of Western Equatoria is how to convert its bountiful
production capacity into a surplus that can be consumed elsewhere in the south.
There is a real need for an infrastructure to be developed to increase food
production and distribution. Local farmers cannot do this on their own and need
outside assistance and finance.
There is also a need to develop a food purchasing market in Western Equatoria,
which is something that the aid agencies do not wish to get involved in.
For example, the United Nations sponsored Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS)
sees such a project as a development scheme and not part of its emergency aid.
Thus, the most productive part of the South, where there is no longer war, is not
being utilized to alleviate the threat of famine in other parts.
The food situation in Western Upper Nile is now dire. The NIF regime, in its
desire to exploit the Southern oil resources, sparked off an intra-tribal conflict
among the Nuer by simultaneously arming both the forces of Rick Machar and
Paulino Matip.
The result has been wanton killing and destruction. Tens of thousands of
Western Nuer people have been displaced and unable to farm their land.
Bringing even more hardship on the Nuer population of Bentiu in western Upper
Nile, the NIF regime recently prohibited any U.N. relief flights to the area. This
is despite the regime's supposed adherence to the humanitarian cease-fire in the
area.
The World Food Program (WFP), which is part of the OLS scheme in the south
to deliver relief, has said that an impending famine is looming in the western
Upper Nile region unless the flight ban is lifted.
In the Thiet area of eastern central Bahr El Ghazal, the rains were very scarce
when crops were planted earlier this year. As a result, cultivation has been
virtually non-existent and wide-scale famine is being predicted.
This area is adjacent to the western Upper Nile, and is also trying to
accommodate tens of thousands of Western Nuer who have fled the fighting in
their own area. Additional relief supplies are desperately needed to feed this
population influx.
The food situation in northern Bahr El Ghazal and eastern Upper Nile also needs
to be monitored closely in upcoming weeks because they are the areas where
the fighting in the south is at its fiercest.
Some fear that even if the harvest is good this year, there is every likelihood that
the regime will attempt to destroy food in order to engineer a famine.
A manmade famine may already be on its way to becoming fact in eastern
Upper Nile, where two Neur groups, both supported by the NIF regime, are
fighting near the town of Akobo. Such conflicts usually result in the destruction of
food stocks and consequently lead to famine.
In recent weeks, the NIF regime has attempted to arm the Muralei tribe of Pibor
in eastern Upper Nile and help it infiltrate the Bor Dinka country to raid cattle.
The Dinka community of Bor has only just begun to recover from the trauma of
the 1991 attacks. |
