The Suban famine of 1998 - Unfolding of the global dimension

This article attempts to synthesise the links between increased vulnerability to famine in southern Sudan and the unique characteristics of the current civil war, particularly the global dimension. The article examines how global factors, such as colonial legacy, internationally sponsored development, activities of multinational corporations and aid agencies, unfolded and contributed to causation of famine in 1998. The British colonial legacy has created structural political vulnerability that continues to haunt and decimate the communities of southern Sudan. Internationally sponsored development had created subsistence crisis in the North that pushed the impoverished Arab pastoralists to resort to raiding and counterinsurgency warfare in the south. The article shows how the occurrence of famine is correlated with the extraction of oil by multinational corporations in the south. The response of international aid agencies to the famine is examined. The article concludes with a call for these global actors to recognise their share in causing famine vulnerability and the need for global action to end civil war in Sudan.