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The Case of Sudan John K Distributing Food Aid as a Civilization is Dismantled: The Case of Sudan John K. Morris The southern Sudanese comprise 30 Cet article examine la situation des "refugies de l'interieur" dans un pays oh la percent of the population consisting of guerre civile oppose depuis de nombreuses annees le Nord contre le Sud et oh two main groups: the Nilotic group of la famine menace constammentles plus pauvres. Au-dela des effets de la guerre cattle-herding Dinka, Nuer and et de la famine, l'auteur evoque les changements dans les droits fomiers qui, Shilluk whose animals graze the cen- dans l'ensemble du pays, ont prive des agriculteurs et des eleveurs de leurs tral grassland of the south; and the terres au profit de grandes plantations mecanisees privees. L'extension et la Christians and animists, who cultivate multiplication de ces vastes domaines, tres visibles dans le paysage, sont the wooded lands along the borders of fortement encourages par le gouvernement en raison de leur contribution aux the country. exportations des cultures de rente. L'auteur decrit ensuite les evhements qui Sudan has a complex demographic jalonnent la periode recente du conflit et les succes et obstacles que rencontrent make-up that has been reduced to a les organisations humanitaires pour distribuer l'assistance dans un pays d4- North-South dualism supported by chire par la guerre civile. racial, ethnic, cultural and religious differences, with correspondingpoliti- Introduction organizations (INGOs) have faced in cal and economic disparities. The trying to get aid to those who are in north comprises two-thirds of the land The rains in southern Sudan usually need. The displacement of people in mass and population of the country, begin in April. They mark the end of Sudan occurs in a cycle of war, disloca- and dominates the south, which re- the government's annual military of- tion, drought, flood and famine, along mains largely undeveloped. Tensions fensive against the Sudanese People's with the effects of pushinglpulling which naturally occur between north Liberation Army (SPLA) in the south. peasants off common lands. This and south are further inflamed by a This past dry season-from about movement off land is accompanied by process of Islamization that has be- January to March-was a bloody one a move from sustainable agriculture to come very aggressive in the latter part in southern Sudan. The armed forces unsustainable monoculture. Follow- of this century. of the government were able to get the ing this introductionis a description of Half of the people who live in the upper hand against the SPLA, which the land and situation in Sudan which south of Sudan have been uprooted. has been embroiled in infighting. Re- is strongly affected by mechanized They left their homes primarily be- ports of new assaults appeared in the farming. This is followed by a descrip- cause of war and drought, and 1994 western media in mid-February this tion of the reasons for displacement in marks the eleventh year of war be- year. Fighting led to a large movement the country. The last section recounts tween the government of Sudan and of refugees travelling toward the Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), an the southern Sudanese who are cur- Ugandan border. This latest assault agreement between military groups rently on the defensive. Besides was accompanied by a drought that and aid agencies for the free passage of 600,000 displaced in the south, some put 1.5 million people at risk of starva- aid to those affected by drought and two million others have moved tion in southern Sudan. Aid workers famine. north-many migrating to the squat- say that unless food comes quickly, ter settlements around Khartoum. they can "contemplate the worst fam- The Current Situation Four hundred thousand others have ine in Sudan since 1988, when up to There are an estimated 28 million peo- left the country for refugee camps in 300,000 people died" (Economist 1994, ple who belong to 132 distinct ethnic Uganda, Zaire, Kenya, Ethiopia and February 12). groups in Sudan, the largest country in the Central African Republic (Econo- This article considers the internally Africa. People of Arabic race and Mus- mist 1994, February 12). Most of these displaced in Sudan, the context of lim religion/culture live in the north people originated from the hardest hit these displacement, and the difficul- and dominate the capital, Khartoum. regions of Western and Eastern ties international nongovernmental They are also found in central Sudan Equatoria (ibid; see map). where they are mainly riverine farm- JohnMorris, a geographer, is currently a postdoc- ers, pastoralists or rain-dependent The Land toral fellow funded by the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada at CRS, York farmers. Camel breeders live a no- The White Nile runs through Eastern University. His studies focus on the refugee madic life in the scrubland of the north Equatoria, feeding the largest swamp experience, and nongovernmental organiza- and west, and to the south, the Baggara in the world. This mosquito and croco- tions serving refugees and immigrants. Arabs herd cattle, dile-infested expanse known as "The 26 RepUge, Vol. 14, No. 1 (April 1994) Barrier" is one of the SPLA's major strongholds. In the dry season, how- ever, some of the swamp dries, making it accessible to the military, and forcing many people to flee. In the province of Bahr el Ghazal to the southwest, relief officials report that more than 200,000 people have been surviving by gathering wild food. In the same region, United Nations officials estimate that since 1989, a wasting disease carried by a sand fly has killed more than 60,000 people trapped by fighting. The disease, Kala- Azar or visceral leishmaniasis, can be cured in thirty days by proper medical attention (Lorch 1993). Sudan is a fertile country, but the areas from which people are being dis- placed, and the areas in which the gov- ernment is building "peace camps" for their forced resettlement, tend to be incapable of supporting life. Some of these are located in the desert 30 km west of Khartoum. The wind there never stops blowing; it is abrasive to exposed skin and eyes. Under the sand the ground is so rocky that latrines can- not be dug deep enough to guard against diseases (Flint 1993, March 13). Further south and west of the Nuba Mountains (see map), food shortages have led the government to relocate the Nuba to peace camps. One-sixth of the Nuba population (163,000) are now held in one hundred "peace vil- lages"-a number of which are in Map by J. Morris Kordofgn's provincial capital of Khdugli. In these camps, men are con- under threat of being shot. The camps a shortage of medicine. In a nearby spicuous by their absence. Reporter are located in the precarious geopoliti- squatter settlement, Dar-as-Salaam, Julie Flint of the Manchester Guardian cal boundary between north and south there is only one functioning bore hole for 218,000 people (Flint 1993, spoke with women about the absence Sudan. A relief worker commented: April 30). of men. They said that their husbands Look at the location of these peace were either shot by government forces villages: most are in insecure areas. The need for camps is partly the result before the relocation, or later, after The Nuba are being used as human of a change of land tenure endorsed by having arrived in Khdugli. Other re- shields [by the government] (Flint the government that has resulted in ports suggest that some of the men 1993, April 24). the development of many large mecha- have been taken from Kadugli to Many of the peace villages are also in nized farms. Nahud-a groundnut farming area the vicinity of large mechanized farms Mechanization of Farming and the outside the Nuba Mountains that suf- where Nuba land has been sold to the fers from chronic labour shortages Jalleba-the urbanized, Arab trading Loss of Soil/Nutrients (ibid). class-who exploit the camps for Mechanized farms now dominate ag- Some of the peace camps are in cheap labour. Health conditions in the ricultural land in Sudan. Since inde- northern Kordofln, while others are camps are dreadful. pendence, the Jalleba, who have even further afield. The Nuba are not In as-Salaam, two clinics treat three dispersed throughout Sudan and the allowed to leave the peace villages hundred children everyday, despite neighbouring countries, have focused Refuge, Vol. 14, No. 1 (April 1994) 27 on large-scale rain-fed mechanized Mechanized farms account for the and uprooting perhaps three million farms. The 1970 Unregistered Land bulk of cash crops available for export southerners-roughly half the south- Act facilitated a restructuring of land from the country, although these farms ern population-from their homes. tenure by evicting or buying off peas- are controlled by just one percent of Piece by piece, an entire civilization is ants and ignoring traditional rights to farmers. Some 8,000 largely absent being dismantled. The most recent es- common grazing lands. The establish- leaseholders, tend to be horizontally calation of civil war in Sudan has con- ' ment of mechanized farms has been structured in the production, distribu- tinued uninterrupted since 1983, when strongly supported by the government tion, and trading of their cash crops. the civilian government in Khartoum since the 1970s because they provide Meanwhile, traditional subsistence adopted a program of Islamization for cash crops for export, particularly sor- agriculture still forms the basis of live- the whole country-a policy which ghum (83 percent of total cropped lihood for two to three million peasant resulted in the formation of the SPLA.
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