The weapon of relief aid

Sudan News, #38, issue 27, June 1997

Relief agencies, involved with Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), had suspended all aid flights to southern Sudan after the Khartoum regime refused to renew permission for the air operation.

A senior Sudanese government official said that Khartoum had halted air relief flights into southern Sudan because aid agencies had violated their mandate in the region.

OLS normally makes about 30 flights a week into southern Sudan

This happened at the time aid agencies are warning of looming famine in both south and north sudan. The red cross said some 300-thousand nomads living in the northeastern Red Sea hills region are on the verge of starvation. Serious malnutrition is widespread and worsening. the Beja nomads have lost pastureland, and crops have failed because of drought. If sufficient rain does not come in July and August, people who are already malnourished could start dying. Current efforts to distribute sorghum and other food to the Beja nomads have run into logistical problems. The Red Cross says some of the 50 distribution points are caught up in military action.

Another charity, World Vision International, says things are just as bad in the southern Bahr el-Ghazal region. There are already reports of death by starvation in Tonj province, where more than 55 thousand people are in need of immediate assistance. But the Sudanese government has refused to let the UN’s OLS fly its C-130 cargo airplane to the Tonj to distribute or airdrop food, since it is in an area controlled by the rebel SPLA. Informed sources say the reason behind that ban was that the plane was depressing the morale of government soldiers who saw it flying overhead to deliver food to rebel-held areas.