Sudan is a country stricken by decades
of civil war and intermittent natural disasters including drought, flooding
and famine. Suffering from a 16-year civil war, Sudan has one of the world's
highest numbers of internally displaced populations - reaching close to
4 million people.
Who is CRS Reaching and With What
Aid?
In July 1998, word spread that thousands of people were suffering from extreme malnutrition in the Bahr El Ghazal region of southern Sudan. Catholic Relief Services moved into the region and immediately began distributing food to thousands of internally displaced people, many of who had walked from the town of Wau, approximately 100 miles away. As many as 250,000 people died in 1998 from war-related famine and illnesses. At the peak of the crisis, an estimated 2.6 million people required emergency assistance. The crisis continues, even though you no longer see it on the nightly news.
Catholic Relief Services, which has worked in Sudan for 12 years, continues to provide a combination of immediate food assistance, agricultural rehabilitation, and long-term development projects for the people of southern Sudan. The agency serves the internally displaced people in the areas of Eastern and Western Equatoria, the Bahr El Ghazal and Lakes regions of southern Sudan - many of whom fled their homes looking for food.
Ongoing agency food security programs provide the internally displaced populations. A Catholic Relief Services sponsored emergency project integrates food aid and with the distribution of seeds and tools. Now, the internally displaced people have been able to harvest and eat the food they have produced locally. Crops planted include groundnuts, maize, sorghum and root crops including sweet potato and cassava. Over the last years, these efforts have contributed to a 45% reduction in malnutrition.
CRS/Sudan also continues to support refugees returning home from northern Uganda. In an effort to help them settle back in to their communities, the agency provides returnees with food, non-food items, and seeds and tools.
Agency Contributions Lead to the Following Accomplishments:
Rumbek
- Three hand dug wells have been rehabilitated. Two of the wells are located at the Diocese of Rumbek compound and one is at a nearby village.
- 250 jerrycans, 100 shovels and 55 pick axes were distributed to beneficiaries in Rumbek
Nimule
- Farmers are busy harvesting sorghum, sweet potatoes, groundnuts and simsim
Labone
- The second season found farmers busy harvesting groundnuts.
Ikotos/Ngaluma
- The quantities of local crops of sorghum salvaged from the drought were small. Farmer's in Ngaluma, planted sweet potatoes and cowpeas for the first season of 2000.
Agency Distributions Include:
More than 382 metric tons of sorghum, lentils, vegetable oil and salt donated to CRS from the US Government reached a target population of nearly 18,000 in the towns of Nimule, Lobone, Ikotos and New Cush
Monthly relief rations to 31,000 people who were unable to produce enough crops to feed their families, or needed additional food to supplement what has been grown
Emergency kits for 5100 households
Assistance to both supplementary feeding centers and therapeutic feeding centers in the Rumbek areas reaching more than 1200 people a month many of whom are children, elderly malnourished adults, the blind and pregnant and lactating mothers
Additional Assistance:
A project intending to improve the quality of and access to education in South Sudan, Catholic Relief Services is helping the Catholic dioceses of Yei and Tambura/Yambio acquire learning materials, teacher training and infrastructure for schools. The diocese of EL Obeid has already purchased stationery, books and furniture and provided incentives for a teacher.
Throughout 2000, CRS/Sudan will continue with agriculture, water and sanitation, basic health education, capacity building and emergency preparedness assistance;
Promote capacity building, through the support of women's groups, farmer groups, village water communities and other local organizations;
Promote other forms of food production, so families can work to support themselves as much as possible;
Provide training to health educators;
Provide small loans to individuals to help them establish entrepreneurial enterprises; and
Support Sudanese non-governmental organizations to advance the development of civil society
Background
Seeds of civil war were sown during the British occupation of Sudan when the North received the abundance of resources and development attention. The North was also developed as a predominately Arabic culture which embraced Islam and the Arabic language; Christianity was introduced and continues to dominate in the South. Since independence in 1956, the vast cultural and economic divides in the country have fed a civil war in which the North is fighting to maintain control of the country while Southern factions fight to gain equal rights, access to resources and a voice in government.
The security situation has improved tremendously in southern Sudan. Two of the largest tribes in this region, the Dinka and the Nuer, have recently held peace talks to end their long running conflict. The elders from the Nuer tribe stepped foot onto Dinka land for the first time in almost 10 years. A few areas that were agreed upon at the initial peace meetings were:
- to stop the raiding of cattle (which is the livelihood of the Dinka),
- to allow free movement of each tribe onto the other's land, and
- to encourage trade, particularly cattle trade, and exchange of goods in each other's market.
The Nuer tribe will be hosting the next round of peace talks where the Dinka tribe will be welcomed onto their soil.
Despite the improvements in security in Bahr El Ghazal, the potential conflict between the government of Sudan and Sudanese People's Liberation Army, and also inter-factional fighting, remains problematic. This often causes sporadic displacements of the population. However, CRS/Sudan remains able to respond to these sometimes unpredictable and disastrous situations.
Often blamed for the 1998 famine in the Bahr El Ghazal, the well known warlord Kerobino Kuanyin Bol was killed in a reported mutiny in September.
Agency History
Overall, CRS has worked in Sudan for 12 years. To carry out its emergency work, CRS/Sudan operates 11 base camps in southern Sudan. The main office of the CRS/Sudan program is in Nairobi, Kenya from where the entire program is directed and communications and security are maintained to the field locations. The primary local partner of CRS in its emergency program is the Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Association (SRRA).
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