Mismanagement, Fighting in South Paralyzes Sudan’s Relief Operations : Starvation: A Red Cross official estimates that 350,000 may die by the end of February if food supplies fail to get through.

Starvation, a constant peril in the war zone of southern Sudan, once again threatens hundreds of thousands of people because of intense fighting and government mismanagement.

Francis Junod, who runs the International Committee of the Red Cross relief operation, said 350,000 of the region’s perennially malnourished residents may die unless supplies get through by the end of February.

Junod said his agency could not accept conditions accompanying a government offer, announced on television late in January, to end a 2 1/2-month ban on supply flights.

He said the Red Cross was told its planes could fly only to the government-held city of Juba, which would violate the agency’s pledge to fight famine in areas held by rebels as well as the government.

Obstruction and neglect by the 7-month-old military junta have strained its relations with most relief organizations.

A train loaded with relief supplies has sat since September in Babanoussa, a railway switching center just north of the famine area. The army commandeered the locomotives to haul weapons and U.N. officials decided not to hitch on the relief cars because of the risk.

“I think the new regime is not well-coordinated for what, to them, is not a vital matter,” a Western relief worker said. “It’s more mismanagement than the northern government’s not helping the southerners.”

Some workers privately accuse the government of limiting the access to famine areas in order to hide evidence of government atrocities.

Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan el-Bashir, leader of the junta, has accused relief personnel of smuggling weapons and supplies.

Some agencies are leaving because of the problems, made worse by an offensive of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army.

The rebels seek more autonomy from Arab Muslims who dominate the north, an area the size of Texas populated by blacks who are predominantly Christian or animist.

Fighting in the rebel offensive launched in October has been the most intense of the war, which began in 1983.

Both sides have used food and deprivation as weapons.

In 1988, the worst year for innocent civilians, hundreds of thousands of people starved to death in the swamps, jungles and deserts of the south. U.N. officials put the total at 250,000, but others said the number was twice that.

The United Nations began Operation Lifeline-Sudan last year to prevent another disaster. It used airlifts, Nile River barges, trucks and trains to get food into position before floods isolated vast areas during the rainy season.

Generally it worked, but a donor meeting scheduled for November to pledge support for this year has not been held. Relief officials blame the government for the delay.

Junod, deputy head of the International Committee of Red Cross in Geneva, said about 100,000 people in the Bahr el-Ghazal region and another 250,000 in Juba, the principal city of the south, were most in danger of starving.

“Right now it has the potential for disaster,” he said.

The government banned relief flights Nov. 3, ostensibly to allow time to investigate two unexplained bombing raids on rebel-controlled airfields areas being supplied by Operation Lifeline.

Since then, the government-held towns Aweil and Gogrial and the rebel strongholds of Mayen Abun and Akon have not been resupplied.

“Within a month to six weeks, the people in these towns will have to move to look for food,” Junod said. “We want to try to avoid large migrations because many die on the away.”

Juba, capital of the Equatoria region 750 miles south of Khartoum, the national capital, has been under rebel siege for months.

Rebel gunners shelled the city last month, killing about 20 civilians by U.N. count, and urged residents to evacuate. Some relief workers have left, but there is no place for the civilians to go.

Red Cross food stocks in Juba can feed the population for a month, Junod said. A trickle of supplies, 50 to 60 tons daily, arrives on an airlift of the Lutheran World Federation, but each shipment is enough for only a day.

“Right now it does not look possible to help the people in northern Bahr el-Ghazal and Juba,” Junod said. “We fear there will be human losses.”

The Lutheran airlift, from Nairobi in neighboring Kenya, flies without guarantees of safe passage from either the rebels or government, and how long it can continue remains a question. Rebel gunners have shot down at least two civilian aircraft during the war, with the loss of more than 75 lives.

After more than two months of effort, the Red Cross has obtained government and rebel approval for a few flights into the south to evacuate most of its workers, Junod said.

He said the agency would leave only few people there. The United Nations also plans to take non-essential personnel out of the south.

Medicine Without Borders, a French group that already has left, lost four staff members to the war in December when their small plane was shot down. Neither side has accepted responsibility.

Relief workers say government agents confiscated short-wave radios from southern cities, removing their only means of communicating with Khartoum, and that cooperation from military commanders in the field has become rare.

Bashir publicly declared support for Operation Lifeline, however, and it moved 110,000 tons of food and supplies into the south last summer during a cease-fire he extended month by month.