They kill civilians, burn crops, and steal livestock and seeds. Now they have AK-47s, so they can take hundreds. The result is that thousands of civilians lose their herds and their food reserves overnight. Many trek to other regions in search of food and shelter. The displacement and dispossession fuel the famine more than any rainfall shortage ever could, and aid workers here say that it is an equation the Sudanese government knows well.
Starvation is an inexpensive war strategy.
Khartoum denies encouraging famine conditions or hindering relief operations, but it dealt a severe setback to relief agencies earlier this year by banning flights into Sudan for two months. So food must be airdropped, which is costly and inefficient. On the ground, the war is not so much a religious conflict as a power struggle along ethnic and territorial lines. The Bahr al-Arab River has served as a sort of unofficial dividing line between Arabs of the north and Africans of the south. But analysts say the government wants to control fertile land and underground oil reserves in the south - and perhaps populate it with Muslims.