Dateline ACT
Sudan No 3/98
Geneva, May 27, 1998.
Trucks carrying 79 metric tons (MT) of food and 20 MT tons of seeds have
started arriving Rumbek county, southern Bahr al Ghazal, after a difficult
overland trip. The food include sorghum, beans, oil and salt. Another 350
MT of food will be taken into Southern Sudan shortly by trucks currently
awaiting fuel supplies.
In order to speed up aid deliveries to famine stricken parts of Southern Sudan airlifting of 150 MT of food is to commence in a few days. Although airlifting is considerably more expensive than overland transport, this step is being taken by ACT-Lutheran World Federation in order to overcome very difficult dirt roads and tracks inside Southern Sudan as well as fuel and truck shortages in the parts of Uganda and Kenya bordering Sudan.
About 350,000 people are estimated to be at risk of starvation in war and drought torn parts of Bahr al Ghazal. In Yirol and Rumbek counties of Bahr al Ghazal, where ACT currently works, about 69,000 internally displaced are the most vulnerable group. But staff on the ground stresses that the needs extend far beyond the displaced population.
"Some of the people here are so weak that food aid literally has to be taken to their doorsteps. They cannot walk to a distribution center," a staff member explains.
Aid workers report widespread signs of malnutrition in the villages visited. A small number of children have died in southern Bahr al Ghazal due to lack of food. Local markets have all but ceased to exist and cattle prices are dropping as many animals are offered for sale. Due to last year's drought and, not least, recent flare-ups in the civil war in Southern Sudan, normal trade and barter have drastically declined leaving many people searching for wild fruits, leaves and roots as last sources of food.
Depending on the availability of seeds, as well as the strength of the younger men and women, and the rainfall in the next couple of months, the current famine conditions in Bahr al Ghazal may extend through out this year.
Sudanese church leaders as well as aid workers with ACT members are worried that considerable food shortages are not only a problem in Bahr al Ghazal. ACT members are currently monitoring reports of hunger in the otherwise inaccessible Nuba Mountains. The Nuba have for years been cut off from aid (and contact with the international community in general) by the government of Sudan. For several years the Sudanese army has carried out a widespread burn and destroy campaign trying to force the Nuba people to settle in so called government controlled "Peace Camps".
Reports from ACT members, working as the only international organizations in Southern Blue Nile, stress the need for providing seeds and tools in addition to food aid as malnutrition is widespread. ACT members are therefore transporting 535 MT of food to assist populations affected by the fighting. This is in addition to earlier provisions of 64 MT of seeds and 6,500 agricultural tools. Southern Blue Nile has been the scene of some of the most intensive fighting in Sudan for the last year.
Encouraged by the last weeks positive response to the current appeal for Southern Sudan, Church Ecumenical Action in Sudan (CEAS) is looking into extending activities in Bahr al Ghazal as well as exploring needs and possibilities in Upper Nile, the Nuba Mountains and parts of Eastern Equatoria. CEAS is a consortium of Sudanese and international churches and agencies including both ACT and Caritas Internationalis.
For further information please contact the ACT Office by E-mail
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