Famine in Southern Sudan - Essay Example

Sudan is one of the most problem countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa. There is a unique combination of factors, which determine the highest food emergencies in some areas of this country. The most known is so called Sudanese famine of 1998-2000 when only in 1998 there were died more than 100,000 people and approximately 1,200,000 persons were facing famine conditions (FAO, 1998). But what fatal concatenation of circumstances resulted in this humanitarian disaster Were there only environmental conditions that contributed to the famine Or there were social and political reasons for thisThe answer is - both.

The history of civil wars in Sudan is long and has its beginning the middle of last century. But Sudanese have never before been faced to such massive famine. The number of victims is varied in the estimations made by the different agencies and scientists - the limits could be presented as 100,000 - 250,000 lost lives (Creusvaux H. et al., 1999).The actions of Sudanese government were directed not only against rebels but also against their social base, i.e. civilians. The violations of human rights became a general rule in the Southern Sudan.

"Divide et empire" - this principle of Roman Caesars was successfully applied in the conditions of one of the poorest countries of the world. Since the beginning of civil war complicated with local ethnical conflicts the rural population of the Southern Sudan was pauperized by driving cattle out, burning crops, massacres and seizing Dinkas and Jur people as war booty (HRF, 1998).Mass murdering of civilians and pauperizing make people to leave their homeland and increased dependence of refugees on the external relief.

Nevertheless, the Sudanese government prohibited all relief flights into the rebel-held province of Bahr El Ghazal. The ban lasted several months and many people did not get urgently needed food because of political ambitions of Sudanese Muslim leaders. But even after ban canceling the situation was not changed for better - the start-up lag time was too significant. People did not get not only foodstuffs but also seeds for planting (FAO, 1998).But famine was related to the environmental factors as well.

In 1997-1998 the food situation worsened because of the exhalation of continuing strife and poor harvest. It is significant to take in the account that planted area has been reduced both by continuous population displacement and late and insufficient rains. FAO experts (1998) marked in their report that erratic rains negatively affected crop development. On the one hand, there were insufficient rains in Northern Bahr-El-Ghazal, on other hand - localized floods in the eastern parts of the province due to excessive raining and the high level of the White Nile.

As result cereal production was diminished to 45% in 1997.The international community, numerous charity foundations (Oxfam, Medicines Sans Frontiers etc), USAID Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and other agencies actively contributed in the famine relief (USAID, 2004). Their efforts saved many thousands lives. But all costs spent to famine relief are equal to the military expenditures of Sudanese government (HRF, 1998). Without political solution the Southern Sudan will be zone of risk permanently.

References:1. Creusvaux H. et al. (1999) Famine in southern Sudan. Lancet. Vol. 354(9181) p. 8322. FAO/GIEWS (1998): "Sudan" Africa Report No.2, Retrieved on August 30 2005 from http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/faoinfo/economic/giews/english/eaf/eaf9808/ctry/af980741.htm3. HRW (1998) Bahr El Ghazal and the Famine of 1998. Retrieved on August 30 2005 from http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/sudan/SUDAWEB2-01.htm#P387_241134. USAID (2004) Sudan - Complex Emergency Retrieved on August 30 2005 from http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/humanitarian_assistance/disaster_assistance/countries/sudan/ce_index.html