From: wsargeant@IGC.ORG (Winslow L. Sargeant)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: IPS:Khalil*famine*East Africa
Date: 7 Apr 92 05:49:37 GMT

/* Written  5:35 pm  Apr  6, 1992 by researchdesk in cdp:hunger.general */
/* ---------- "Khalil*Famine*East Africa" ---------- */
	THE CYCLE OF FAMINE AND STARVATION IN EASTERN AFRICA
			A Man-Made Tragedy

		       By Saad M. Khalil 6/91

     While the attention of the world is currently being focused
on the calamitous events that are taking place in the northern
mountains of Iraq, once again, a human tragedy of unprecedented
proportions is engulfing millions of people, mostly children in
the three East African countries of Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia.
The recurring episodes of famine and starvation have become the
norm rather than the exception in that region.  It is true that
most of Sub-saharan African countries have experienced varying
degrees of drought in the last two decades.  Nonetheless, there is
absolutely little wisdom in blaming it all on mother nature.  Most
of these calamities resulting from starvation and famine in the
area is caused by man, the governed as well as the governors.

     The victims of famine in these countries share some bleak
common grounds:  Raging civil wars and political unrest that have
bankrupted their economies.  Government agricultural policies that
are tailored to satisfy the urban needs for inexpensive food by
keeping food prices artificially below their the market value.
Needless to say that, the three countries have been or presently
under ruthless military dictatorships.  The overgrazing as well as
the slash-and-burn farming methods are annihilating the Savanna
forests in the Sub-sahara, resulting in desertification and the
degradation of the eco-system. To give the reader an idea as to
how these man-made causes are perpetuating the cycle of misery in
that part of Sub-saharan Africa let us have a close scrutiny of
the circumstances surrounding food production in Sudan.

     The seven-year old raging civil war between the central
government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) led by
Joseph Garang is costing the country dearly.  The war has resulted
in the uprooting and displacement of millions of Sudanese peasants
and pasturalists in Southern Sudan who were able to produce ample
grains and meat to provide for their subsistence.  Now, those
millions have to depend on other sources of food for their mere
survival, thus adding even more strains to the  already critical
food situation in the country.  There are no signs of letting up
on either side of the warring parties, meanwhile, the country's
economy remains in a state of total collapse.

     The agricultural policy of the military regime in Sudan is
the perfect catalyst for failure and further decline in
agricultural output.  The main objective of that policy is to
provide low cost foodstuff to an ever-swelling urban population to
avoid political unrest.  Not only does the government pay very low
prices to the rural food producers, but it has resorted to a
policy of forced grain expropriation similar to that adopted by
the Bolsheviks in Russia in 1918 and during the famine period that
ensued.  Last year, the regime dispatched its security and armed
forces to the villages and farms in Central and Eastern Sudan to
prevent the angry farmers from harvesting their grain crops in
defiance to the government's expropriation policy.  This year, the
Government has resorted to the same policy of forcible
requisitioning of grains from the farmers, and it is likely that
it will continue to use such policies unless detered. There is no
doubt that such policies and measures will discourage future food
and crop production in the Sudan, resulting in further food
shortages.

     Relief agencies estimate that seven million Sudanese will die
of hunger unless international food donors make urgent food
shipments to Sudan.  To the dismay and disbelief of the donors,
the muslim fundamentalist controlled military regime had
categorically denied the existence of wide spread starvation and
famine in the country.  The continuing international isolation of
the military regime in Sudan which was worsened recently as a
result of its support to Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, has
prevented many past donors such as the Gulf Arab countries and
many Western European countries as well as the US to rush to the
help of the regime.  Aid from the West and the US has dwindled to
a trickle in light of the gross violations of human rights by the
regime since it overthrew a democratically elected government in
June of 1989.  It is unlikely that the present regime's medieval
type of administrative, political and economic institutions which
are being hastily erected to match its theocratic ideology, would
be capable of alleviating the problems of hunger and starvation in
Sudan.

     The major aid donors need to orchestrate their future efforts
in Africa and particularly in countries where famines seem to be
firmly structured into these economies.  I believe that without
establishing peace, democracy and political stability, quick aid
fixes are not likely to solve the problems of hunger and famines
in Sub-saharan Africa.  The millions of war-displaced farmers need
to return to their farms and animals to till the land and provide
for themselves and their families.  To encourage this process, I
suggest that a program of Food for Peace and Democracy, be
established by aid donors for these African countries.
Establishing peace, political stability and democracy must take
precedence over the political and strategic interests of the
donors' governments.  This is not easy to implement, but it surely
is one of the right paths to adopt in overcoming problems of
famine and starvation in Africa.

	   By: Saad M. Khalil

	   Lecturer, Department of Economics, University of
	   Colorado, and Metropolitan State College of Denver