Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 6, 1991 TAG: 9103061189
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NAIROBI, KENYA LENGTH: Medium
In northern sections of Sudan, where the government has banned all major overland and air relief, aid workers fear that up to 1 million people could die by the end of the year.
A drought of varying severity has affected almost all of Sudan, threatening up to 11 million people, according to relief officials. Most victims are in the north, but relief officials say up to 2 million people in the south also are affected.
The East African nation, long ravaged by a civil war in the south, has a total population of about 25 million.
The government halted flights to the south on Feb. 15, according to the relief officials. That same day, James Jonah, a senior U.N. official, arrived in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, on a three-day mission related to the relief program.
He had said he gained the government's full cooperation, the relief officials said Tuesday. However, there has been no evidence of such cooperation.
The government refuses to acknowledge the famine or declare an emergency.
A declaration of famine would necessitate an appeal for help. Sudan's leader, Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan el-Bashir, appears ready to accept starvation among his people, rather than ask outsiders to bail out his government.
Many of those fleeing the hardest-hit northern regions of Darfur, Kordofan and Red Sea Hills in search of food are dying en route, relief officials have said.
One official told The Associated Press in January that because of the government's intransigence and delay in relief efforts, tens of thousands of people will die.
Although the situation is less dire in the south, it is still serious. Eight years of civil war and intermittent drought have left the region's food supply chronically perilous.
The United Nations and aid groups working under the umbrella of its Operation Lifeline Sudan are trying to deliver 150,000 tons of food and supplies into the region to avert widespread suffering this year. The area is about the size of France.
Most of Sudan's south is controlled by the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army. To operate in the region, the United Nations must have both rebel and government approval.
Operation Lifeline Sudan, which started in 1989, is widely credited with avoiding a repeat of the previous year. An estimated 250,000 people died of starvation at that time.
Most of the supplies are hauled into the southern region by truck convoys from Kenya and Uganda. These convoys have not been halted.
However, the United Nations uses planes to ferry in medical supplies and aid workers monitoring the relief operation. It is these flights to the south that the government has stopped.
by CNB