Requiem For The Sudan: War, Drought, And Disaster Relief On The Nile

by J. Millard Burr

Overview

After a decade of uneasy peace, the historic conflict between the North and South Sudanese erupted into violent conflict in 1983 This ferocious civil war, witti its Arab militias and widespread use of automatic weapons, has devastated the populace. In additon to the miseries of war, drought and famine took a further toll on an already battered societyalthough this regional calamity remains largely unknown to the outside world, over 1,000,000 people have either perished or been displaced. Furthermore, the Sudanese government seemed little inclined to help its own people Requiem for the Sudan provides a chilling account of the ravages of drought and civil war, graphically recounting how attempts by international agencies and humanitarian organizations to provide food and medical reliefhave been thwarted by bureaucratic infighting, corruption, greed, and ineptitude. Based on a wealth of previously unpublished documents, Requiem for the Sudan clearly illustrates how the failure of conflict resolution, organizational mismanagement, and a government hostile toward its own people had tragic human consequences.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780429977299
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/04/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	385
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

J. Millard Burr

Table of Contents

Preface -- Introduction -- The Death of a Dream -- The Politics of Food -- Battering the Dispossessed -- Starvation in the South -- The International Response -- Operation Lifeline Sudan -- The Return of the Military -- The Junta Is Challenged -- Escalating the War and Reducing Relief -- Conclusion: A Decade of Despair

Editorial Reviews

The gruesome tale of how civil war descended onto a people weakened by drought and famine, and how over a million people have either died or been displaced since 1983 while relief efforts continue to be thwarted by bureaucratic infighting, corruption, greed, and ineptitude. Drawn from previously unreleased documents from the Sudanese government, famine relief agencies, and the international media. Paper edition (unseen), $19.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Except for a hiatus from 1973 to 1983, civil war has wracked the Sudan for the past 40 years. The current flare-up resumed with the imposition of Islamic law in 1983, against which the Christian/animist/African south has revolted from the Arab north. The war has cost over 1.5 million lives and turned millions more into refugee living in the most abject destitution, a disaster the media only cover fitfully. These authors have the experience necessary to write this compendium of the past 10 years of misery: Burr has headed the U.S. government's relief operations since 1989; Collins has written a half-dozen works on the history of the upper Nile peoples. More important than their unspectacular prose style are the facts borne along by their chronological narrative. These generally fall into two categories, the political events--coups, elections, combat, and atrocities--that marked the tightening grip of the Iranian-supported Islamic revolutionary movement, and the ineffectiveness of humanitarian organizations trying to alleviate drought and desertification. Because few libraries collect books on contemporary Sudan, a news hole exists that this matter-of-fact title can fill.

Gilbert Taylor