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

J. Millard Burr (Author), Robert O Collins (Author), J Millard Burr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 16, 1994 | ISBN-10: 0813321212 | ISBN-13: 978-0813321219

After a decade of uneasy peace, the historic conflict between the Northern Sudanese, who identify with their Middle Eastern neighbors, and the Southern Sudanese, who are of African heritage, erupted into violent conflict in 1983. This ferocious civil war, with its Arab militias and widespread use of automatic weapons, has devastated the populace. Nature has added to the miseries of war, bringing drought and famine to the already battered victims of violence. Although this regional calamity remains largely unknown to the outside world, the death toll among the Southern Sudanese far exceeds that in both Somalia or Bosnia. Over a million people have either perished or been displaced.This chilling account of the ravages of drought and civil war is based on a wealth of documents—never made public—from Sudanese government sources, private and foreign governmental aid agencies, research groups, international media, and other organizations involved in famine relief efforts. The authors graphically recount how the attempts of the international agencies and humanitarian organzations to provide food and medical relief have been thwarted by bureaucratic infighting, corruption, greed, and ineptitude.This rich narrative illustrates with great clarity the convoluted relationship that relief agencies had with the Sudanese government as they tried to negotiate the means of survival for the area’s desperate population. It is a sad tale of the tragic human consequences of the failure of conflict resolution, of organizational mismanagement, and of a government hostile toward its own people.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

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 refugees

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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

J. Millard Burr is a former relief coordinator for Operation Lifeline Sudan, U.S. Agency for International Development.Robert O. Collins is professor of history at the University of California at Santa Barbara. J. Millard Burr is a former relief coordinator for Operation Lifeline Sudan, U.S. Agency for International Development.Robert O. Collins is professor of history at the University of California at Santa Barbara. J. Millard Burr is a former relief coordinator for Operation Lifeline Sudan, U.S. Agency for International Development.Robert O. Collins is professor of history at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Product Details

• Paperback: 385 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press (November 16, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813321212
• ISBN-13: 978-0813321219
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,567,227 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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