Health care in the South is basically non-existent, and very few people have access to clean water. Economy Four out of five Sudanese make their living either farming, raising livestock, or both. In southern Sudan, food production is the single activity that absorbs the energy of the people. Women tend to the farming and domestic chores, while males hold responsibility for grazing and herding. The civil war has destroyed much of the economy in the South and caused significant loss of people, cattle, and crops.
Rudimentary subsistence is all that exists in the South.
Low wages and expensive housing make life in the city difficult for the approximately 5 million people living there. Often, families depend on income from relatives working abroad. They know how to support themselves in normal times. Their lives have become a constant struggle against hunger and sickness because 15 years of war have forced them from their farms, robbed them of precious cattle and seeds, and destroyed their traditional livelihoods. Since independence in 1956, Sudan has been at war with itself.