Famine in Southern Sudan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Famine in Southern Sudan - Essay Example The history of civil wars in Sudan is long and has its beginning in the middle of the 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 the 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 Southern Sudan. â€Å"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 ethical conflicts, the rural population of 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 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 the 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).