Sudan's other humanitarian crisis

Along one of the myriad channels that the mighty Nile cuts through Sudan, some 1,200 people, mostly women and children, are enduring their ninth week of being crammed onto the decks of four rusty river barges.

These decrepit vessels, essentially little more than large rafts, are designed for freight, not passengers. There are no cabins, no toilets, no cooking galleys, no shelter from the sun - or more critically, the rain, now that southern Sudan is soaked daily by seasonal downpours. Each boat is packed bow to stern with as many as 400 people.

A decade or more ago they left their grass-roofed huts in the country's south as civil war crept closer, fleeing to the shaky safety of squatter camps a thousand miles to the north. Exiles in their own country, they and millions of other Sudanese refugees have been there ever since.

Now they are trying to return home - by boat, bus, and on foot - against the advice of aid workers here. They are part of this North African nation's forgotten crisis, lost amid the humanitarian disaster in the western provinces of Darfur. At the beginning of the year, Sudan was on the verge of bringing to an end its 21-year civil war between the Muslim north and the largely Christian south.

But Sudan hit a speed bump on the road to peace as the world turned its attention to the Arab militias killing tens of thousands in Darfur. Some international aid destined for the southern refugees was diverted to Darfur - or is sitting in limbo until a north-south peace deal is signed. With growing numbers of the internally displaced beginning to return home, aid workers worry that a new Sudanese humanitarian disaster may be in the making.

"Darfur is a distraction from the needs of the south, both in terms of political engagement and humanitarian funding for relief and development," says Ben Parker, spokesman for the UN humanitarian coordinator for Sudan.

When the internally displaced people, or IDPs, finally arrive home, the conditions are dire. Because of late rains this year, famine is hitting the villages of south Sudan. Beyond that, two decades of civil war have robbed the region, with a population of 7.5 million, of schools, hospitals, and roads.

"Donors remain on standby to help if a peace agreement is signed in the south, but we hope they see the wisdom of investing now to prepare for the expected mass movement of people north to south if that peace happens," says Mr. Parker. "We haven't had much luck on that yet."

Until Darfur erupted, confidence was high that the Islamic government in Khartoum and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), the one-time southern rebel army, would finally sign a comprehensive peace agreement to end their conflict.

Page: 1 | 2