SUDAN: 'Extreme concern' at potential food crisis

NAIROBI, 10 January (IRIN) - Large numbers of displaced people around Upper Nile in southern Sudan were putting pressure on local populations whose food needs were not secure, and fears were growing of a humanitarian crisis, UNICEF spokesman Martin Dawes told IRIN on Wednesday. Humanitarian agencies have indicated that food needs will increase in Sudan, and contingency preparations are underway to address the approaching crisis. "We are extremely concerned", said Dawes.

Food needs will increase by about 20 percent in 2001, compared to the year 2000, according to the the World Food Programme. WFP press officer Lindsey Davies said there was an urgent need for prompt action to avoid a repetition of the scenes of 1998, when there was a major famine in Bahr el-Ghazal province in South Sudan.

"There is real cause for concern over a looming crisis that will face more than 3.2 million people in Sudan due to the combined effects of civil war and worsening drought, both in the north and south of the country", Davies said. Diplomatic sources told IRIN that military activity in southern Sudan, especially in greater Bahr-el Ghazal, had come earlier than usual.

Annual cycles of fighting in Sudan tend to be dictated by seasonal weather patterns. "It seems to be a strategic process to secure the oil fields", said one regional diplomat. There has been a recent increase in the number of raids in Bahr el-Ghazal involving the pro-government militia, the Peoples Defence Forces (PDF), the source said.