South Sudan town runs out of food

Press, 1 February 1988, Page 8

South Sudan town runs out of food

NZPA-Reuter Rome The town of Malakal in war-torn south Sudan has run out of food and 120,000 people there may have to survive at least two more weeks with nothing to eat, the Roman Catholic international aid agency, Caritas International, said. It said its British member organisation CAFOD had received a report from the White Nile town which said relief supplies were available but the Sudanese Government was doing nothing to get them through. Caritas quoted the report as saying: “120,000 people now in Malakal town of which 50,000 displaced. Last food was distributed yesterday. No food at all in town — even army has run out and has confiscated relief food.” Malakal is some 480 km north-east of Wau, which is at the centre of fighting between troops and rebels of the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) seeking to wrest control of the region from the north.

The report received by CAFOD said 3000 tonnes of food had been on

barges on the White Nile in Kosti, north of Malakal, for several weeks and might have to be airlifted to Malakal because the journey by river took two weeks. Caritas, which telexed the report to news agencies, said it had been asked not to reveal the sources of the information but had been given “satisfactory clarification” by CAFOD, the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development. Reports reaching Khartoum from the south say famine is spreading with people dying of hunger and diseases related to malnutrition, Reuters reported.

One report from the chief of police in Malakal said people there were starving to death.. The message gave no death toll but a Government official on Thursday said 37 had died.

It appealed to all aid agencies to urge Governments to put pressure on the Sudanese Government to get supplies through, saying it was “making excuses and refusing to give (the) situation in Malakal any sense of urgency.”