Sudan Stranded Amid the Gunfire

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In recent months, more than 40,000 victims of famine have tramped across battle zones to reach the southern Sudanese town of Wau and its life-giving supplies of food. Last week not a single ounce of relief grain was delivered to the starving region. A transport plane filled with 315 tons of corn stood idle in neighboring Uganda, and 200 food-laden vehicles were halted at the border. With food supplies all but exhausted, some famished Sudanese were reduced to eating leaves off the trees. And when guerrilla fighting broke out in the crumbling provincial capital, many of the half-starving refugees were forced to take to the road.

Once again emergency aid had become a hostage to politics and war. Wau's always depleted cupboard began emptying fast two weeks ago when rebels using a Soviet SA-7 missile shot down a twin-engine Sudan Airways passenger plane as it took off from the southern town of Malakal for Khartoum. The attack, which killed all 63 persons aboard, caused international relief agencies to suspend food shipments to southern Sudan, where some 2 million people face death by starvation. The shooting took place just one day after the Sudanese People's Liberation Army had warned that "any plane, military or civilian, flying to Juba, Wau, Malakal or any other town in War Zone No. 1 will be doing so at their own risk."

Both the drawn-out tragedy on the ground and the attack in the air reflected an increasing sense of anarchy in southern Sudan, which the rebels have virtually severed from the rest of the country. Since 1983 the insurgents have violently resisted efforts of the Muslim-dominated government in Khartoum to impose its customs on the Christian and pagan south. Led by John Garang, a Christian from the Dinka tribe, the rebels have especially chafed against the "September laws" of former President Gaafar Nimeiri. Imposed in September 1983, the Islamic laws have been applied with unusual severity to all Sudanese, whatever their religion. In 1984 alone, hundreds of people, including foreigners, were given 80 lashes if liquor was detected on their breath. More than 200 others, convicted of theft, had their hands cut off as punishment.

When Nimeiri was ousted in a bloodless coup last year by his Defense Minister, Abdul Rahman Suwar al Dahab, it seemed peace might be restored. But before long, the fighting resumed. In May the first national election since 1968 brought to power Sadiq el Mahdi, leader of the moderate Muslim Umma Party. Making peace his top priority, the Oxford-educated Sadiq lost no time in arranging a meeting in Ethiopia with Garang, who holds a doctorate in agricultural economics from Iowa State. Yet the two leaders could not concur on terms for a cease-fire. Last week Sadiq agreed to repeal the September laws within ten days. But how he would unify a country with 160 ethnic groups speaking 100 different languages still remained unclear.