U.S. to Ship Sudan Emergency Food Aid : Civil War, Floods and Locusts Leave Thousands Facing Starvation

The U.S. Agency for International Development and the government of Sudan announced an emergency food airlift Thursday to southern Sudan, where thousands of people face starvation because of natural disasters and a five-year-old civil war.

About 90 tons of food will be flown to the southern town of Abyei, where existing food stocks are so low that people are dying daily from starvation, the agency said.

In addition, about 1,500 tons of food will be trucked to the towns of Babanusa and Muglab to bring the food closer to camps housing people displaced by war and famine.

An AID spokesman said that other foreign aid donors plan to join in the emergency program. He added that the exact cost of the operation has not yet been determined. So far, the United States has contributed $26 million in emergency food aid throughout Sudan. The emergency program will be in addition to that aid.

Sudan, the largest nation in Africa, enjoys warm diplomatic relations with the United States. However, U.S. officials have been frustrated by the government’s seeming inability to provide food to its civilian population, especially in the southern part of the country, where the rebel Sudanese People’s Liberation Army has its strongholds.

Although Sudan has been hard hit by flooding and an infestation of locusts, much of the famine is man-made. The insurgents regularly attack relief shipments that they claim the government uses to mask the supplying of military equipment to its southern garrisons. At the same time, civilians in the south complain that any food that gets through is diverted to feed government troops.

No Assurances on Airlift

State Department spokesman Charles Redman said the U.S. government has no assurance that the emergency airlift will be allowed to reach the starving south.

He said the rebel army “is a serious obstacle to getting relief to war victims in the south. . . . The SPLA continues to attack civilian aircraft carrying relief supplies and has threatened to attack relief operations in Babanusa and southern Kordofan (province), the area currently in greatest need.

“The SPLA is also continuing to raise obstacles to the implementation of the International Committee of the Red Cross program to provide relief to victims on both sides of the lines in the war zone,” Redman added. “We deeply hope that the long-overdue agreement on the (Red Cross) relief plan can be quickly achieved.”

The U.S. agency said that the latest program was agreed upon Thursday during a meeting between Walter Bollinger, deputy assistant AID administrator for Africa, and Sudanese Prime Minister Sadek Mahdi in Khartoum.

“The plan reflects a joint effort on the part of the United States and the Sudan to provide essential food and medicines to thousands of people who face death from hunger and disease,” Bollinger said in a statement issued by AID in Washington.

“Critical food shortages brought on by civil strife in the south, heavy rains (in the Khartoum area) and other problems have driven thousands of people from the countryside into towns, where resources have been stretched beyond limit,” he added.

In addition to the food, AID agreed to provide spare parts and other maintenance supplies for barges that could be used to transport food and medical equipment.

Residents of northern Sudan are predominantly Arab and Muslim, while the population of the south is primarily African and either Christian or animist. The government is dominated by the north, while the rebels are concentrated in the south.