wfn.org | Starvation threatens some 350,000 people in southern Sudan

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

Emergency aid flights underway

GENEVA, 4 June 1998 (lwi) - To speed up aid deliveries to famine-stricken
parts of southern Sudan, the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in cooperation
with the ecumenical aid network "Action By Churches Together" (ACT) has now
begun sending additional food aid by air. Although airlifting is
considerably more expensive, the step is being taken because of the very
difficult dirt roads and tracks in southern Sudan as well as fuel and truck
shortages in the parts of Uganda and Kenya bordering Sudan. Some 350,000
people in the Bahr al Ghazal region are estimated to be at risk of
starvation due to the civil war and drought.

Trucks carrying loads of seeds and food already have arrived in Rumbek
county, southern Bahr al Ghazal, after a difficult overland trip.

ACT efforts are currently concentrated in the Yirol and Rumbek counties,
where, in addition to the local population, there are 69,000 internally
displaced people. This refugee group is particularly at risk. According to
ACT, many of them are already so weak that the food must be brought
directly to them, as they can no longer walk to the distribution centers.

Aid workers also report clear and widespread signs of malnutrition in the
villages. The drought and renewed fighting in southern Sudan have
drastically limited every kind of trade, according to an ACT press release.
Many people have only wild fruit, leaves and roots to live on.

Sudanese church leaders as well as aid workers have expressed their fear
that the famine may spread to other areas. 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 Sudanese government, according to
ACT.

For several years the Sudanese army has been trying to resettle the Nuba
people by force in so-called "peace camps" which are under government
control.

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Lutheran World Information
Editorial Assistant: Janet Bond-Nash
E-mail: jbn@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/