Sudanese face food shortage
Aid agencies appeal for help
By ChristianWeek staff
MISSISSAUGA, ON–Civil war, droughts and food shortages have displaced more than half a million people in southern Sudan, says World Vision Canada president Dave Toycen. The majority of these are women and children, and many of them face starvation unless they get immediate help.
Toycen recently returned from Sudan, where he found the situation worse than he had expected. "People are eating leaves in order to survive," he says, and families are walking for several days in 40-degree heat to get emergency food. Toycen has compared the prospect of widespread famine with the situation in Ethiopia in 1984.
A Reuters report says Makol Ebil, a grandmother who had walked 100 kilometres to await delivery of food at an airstrip, was told there would be no food deliveries for at least a month. "I don’t think I can walk back…I am too tired and hungry," she replied.
The good news is that the Sudanese government recently lifted a ban on emergency relief flights into southern Sudan for a period of four weeks. The ban had closed all but six of about 40 air strips in the area.
The rainy season, which should start next month, will make the delivery of emergency supplies and food in some areas difficult, a news release states. Cattle paths will turn into mud slides, making ground transportation impossible.
Besides emergency food, aid agencies belonging to the United Nations umbrella organization Operation Lifeline Sudan are hoping to bring crop seed and farm tools into southern Sudan.
William Reimer, director of Mennonite Central Committee’s food, disaster and material resources program, says MCC is partnering with the New Sudan Council of Churches to provide seeds, tools and food for 4,800 families in a particular area.
"The effects of conflict are just devastating, and people are continually needing to uproot and continue to need to find safety."
