By Moyiga Nduru
NAIROBI, Feb 7 1996 (IPS)

Increased insecurity in Southern Sudan is threatening efforts to bring humanitarian aid to millions of people afflicted by famine and war, according to U.N. officials.

“There has been an alarming trend towards abductions of relief personnel and hostage-taking for political ends, mainly by southern factions and militias,” a World Food Programme (WFP) official told IPS Wednesday.

WFP is one of the agencies battling to assist some 4.25 million people who are starving because of recurrent droughts in the region as well as the fighting there.

For the past four years, Southern Sudan has been the scene of fighting between rival factions of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), which have also been battling pro- government militias and the national army.

The SPLA began its insurgency 13 years ago to press its demand for autonomy for the south of Sudan, populated by non-Muslim Blacks. However, it split in 1991, with some leaders calling for the region to break away completely from the Arab and Muslim north. Since then, factional fighting has resulted in the flight of over 250,000 people to neighbouring Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia.

More than three million others have fled to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, where they live in squalid camps, and depend on relief food from U.N. agencies.

In 1987, over 300,000 people, mainly civilians, died of famine- related diseases in southern Sudan, leading the United Nations to set up Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) in 1988 to prevent similar catastrophes in the future.

This time around, the situation could be much worse, aid workers said Wednesday. The OLS and other agencies said they were finding it impossible to reach parts of northern Bahr el Ghazal, Jonglei and Upper Nile — the area worst hit by famine — due to fighting there.

“These areas have been arenas of war for various militia leaders. People are facing insecurity in all forms. In parts of Bahr el Ghazal, militia raids destroyed up to three-quarters of people’s grain stores; and in the Sobat region, we know that fighting forced people away from their traditional grazing and fishing grounds,” said Philip O’Brien, OLS coordinator.

According to O’Brien: “Thousands of people have been deprived of health services, and may face severe food shortages for the second year in a row. If and when we gain access to these areas, which also depends on clearance from the Sudanese government, we may uncover urgent needs which will require extra funding”.

However, reaching the needy is a risky proposition as in 1995, almost 40 relief personnel were taken hostage in three separate incidents, and there were more than 40 evacuations of relief workers from locations in southern Sudan.

OLS’s operations, which have been suspended, have constantly been hampered by the belligerents’ attempts to use the food it supplies as a political weapon.

The insecurity has also forced many U.N.-run health centres to close down in areas outside the government’s control.

“For example, in northern Bahr el Ghazal, people’s access to health services dropped to about 4 per cent of the population (in 1995) from 36 per cent in 1994, and some 4,000 children were vaccinated against measles — only 6 percent of the 1994 figure,” said O’Brien.

He added that relief staff had reported an increase in the incidence of diseases, including kala-azar, typhoid and diarrhoe, in recent weeks.

The critical food shortage in the South has been confirmed by SPLA officials, one of whom told IPS: “Things are very, very bad there. In some places, people simply survive by eating wild fruits.”

“In parts of Upper Nile”, he said, “there’s no alternative diet except fish, which is consumed at breakfast, lunch and supper for weeks on end — until you can’t take it anymore.”

The humanitarian crisis in Sudan led six U.N. agencies to launch an appeal on Wednesday for 107.6 million U.S. dollars for war-affected civilians in southern Sudan, the transition zone between the north and south of the country, and the camps for displaced people around Khartoum.

The money would be used to feed an estimated 2.1 million people and fund projects to assist some 4.25 million people in the areas like health, nutrition, water, agriculture, livestock, shelter, education and special care for children in difficult circumstances.

With the growing problem of donor fatigue though, it is not clear whether the U.N. and the roughly 200 local non-governmental organisations will get all the funds they need. In 1995, many rehabilitation projects were curtailed by a lack of funding.

“U.N. agencies received only 39 per cent of funds required for emergency activities in Sudan, most of which came late in the year, seriously compromising the UN’s ability to respond to the growing humanitarian crisis,” said O’Brien.

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