SUDAN-AGRICULTURE: STARVATION IN THE MIDST OF PLENTY
KHARTOUM, Nov 25 (IPS) - SUDAN, UNABLE TO TRANSPORT FOOD TO MORE THAN THREE MILLION PEOPLE STARVING IN THE WAR-RAVAGED SOUTH OF THE COUNTRY, IS SET TO EXPORT SORGHUM TO ITS NEIGHBOURS THIS SEASON.
"SUDAN IS READY TO EXPORT THE SORGHUM TO ALL ITS NINE NEIGHBOURS", HEAD OF STATE, LT-GEN. OMAR HASSAN AL BASHIR, TOLD A POLITICAL RALLY IN EL GADEREF, 600 KMS EAST OF THE CAPITAL, KHARTOUM THIS WEEK.
SUDAN, THE LARGEST COUNTRY IN AFRICA, BORDERS EGYPT, LIBYA, CHAD, THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC (CAR), ZAIRE, UGANDA, KENYA, ERITREA AND ETHIOPIA.
BASHIR SAID SUDAN, WHICH IS RECOVERING FROM DROUGHT, IS ALSO SHARING THIS SEASON'S HARVEST WITH REFUGEES FROM ERITREA, ETHIOPIA, CHAD AND UGANDA.
SUDAN, WITH A POPULATION OF MORE THAN 28 MILLION PEOPLE, HOSTS OVER A MILLION REFUGEES, ACCORDING TO A RECENT REPORT COMPILED BY THE STATE-RUN SUDANESE COMMISSION FOR REFUGEES.
BUT BASHIR, WHO DID NOT INDICATE THE QUANTITY OF SORGHUM AVAILABLE, SAID: "THIS SEASON'S SUCCESSFUL HARVEST OPERATIONS SHOULD SEND A STRONG MESSAGE TO THOSE THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES WHO DEPEND ON WESTERN ECONOMIC ASSISTANCE".
SUDAN'S PROBLEM WITH THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY CAME TO A HEAD WHEN THE UNITED STATES AND THE EUROPEAN UNION, CITING GROSS HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS, SUSPENDED ALL BUT HUMANITARIAN AID TO AL BASHIR'S REGIME IN 1990.
SINCE THEN SUDAN, WITH FEW DIPLOMATIC LINKS BEYOND IRAQ, IRAN AND LIBYA AND SHUNNED BY THE DONORS, HAS BEEN ATTEMPTING TO BREAK OUT OF ITS ISOLATION.
IN A MESSAGE DIRECTED TO WESTERN CAPITALS, AN UNREPENTANT BASHIR SAID: "THIS YEAR'S HARVEST IS A CHALLENGE TO THE WEST AND ITS MEDIA WHICH HAS ALWAYS BEEN PORTRAYING SUDAN AS A SUFFERING AND A STARVING NATION".
MORE THAN 300,000 PEOPLE DIED OF FAMINE-RELATED DISEASES IN THE WAR-TORN SOUTHERN SUDAN IN 1987, PROMPTING THE UNITED NATIONS TO LAUNCH 'OPERATION LIFELINE SUDAN' TO AVOID A REPEAT CATASTROPHE.
© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service