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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Refugees, War and Famine in the Sudan |
Author: | Winter, Roger P. |
Year: | 1991 |
Periodical: | Issue |
Volume: | 19 |
Issue: | 2 |
Period: | Summer |
Pages: | 56-61 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Sudan |
Subjects: | separatism refugees food aid famine Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Religion and Witchcraft Politics and Government Military, Defense and Arms Miscellaneous (i.e. Demography, Refugees, Sports) |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/1166337 |
Abstract: | In 1991, 9 to 11 million people were in jeopardy of starvation in Sudan, with about half of the at-risk population war-related, and half drought-related. Actions by and inactions of the Sudanese government have been a major factor in creating the dimensions of this disaster. The narrow and extreme political base (almost exclusively with the National Islamic Front) of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) has led it to pursue policies guaranteed to promote military conflict in a society as diverse, and as unjust, as Sudan's. The Sudanese government obstructed the UN sponsored Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), which was rendered essentially moribund by a combination of manipulation by the Sudan government and poor choices/performance by OLS itself. The USA has been the major promoter and financier of OLS. Political parameters seem to have made the USA (and the UN) too tolerant of the Sudan government's obstructions to Lifeline. The USA was not aggressive about preserving Lifeline's effectiveness and humanitarian neutrality until the Gulf War, when Sudan took sides with Saddam Hussein. Now that tragedy looms once again, a comprehensive, humanitarianly neutral relief effort for all at-risk Sudanese should be the target. There can be no decoupling of the needs of at-risk northerners from those of at-risk southerners. Responding to their needs must not be obstructed by understandable pique at the government of Sudan. |