An additional 400,000 Sudanese have fled as refugees to neighboring countries. Famine killed tens of thousands of Sudanese during 1998. Violence and a government blockage of international aid programs triggered a famine two years ago. Pockets of serious malnutrition persist and could worsen. The Sudanese government regularly blocks humanitarian relief and bombs civilian and humanitarian centers.
Sudanese officials continue to bar international aid programs from large areas of southern Sudan.
Many additional bombings have gone unreported. Most of southern Sudan's 5 million people have absolutely no access to schools or reliable health care. Years of warfare, massive population displacement, and government neglect have devastated southern Sudan. It is one of the most impoverished places on earth.