Can the U.S. Halt Starvation in Southern Sudan?
The heartrending human suffering in the southern Sudan raises the question of the feasibility of yet another intervention in the Horn of Africa. By creating secure zones and by prevailing on the government to stop the air bombardment of helpless villagers and on both the government forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army to cease harassing relief activities, concerted international intervention may well make food, medicine and other provisions available to the hundreds of thousands who presently face starvation. Such intervention, however, cannot have more than a limited effect. As U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Herman Cohen told the Subcommittee on Africa of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March l0th, “Isis. . . clear that the only long-term solution to the southern Sudan’s humanitarian nightmare is an end to civil strife.” So long as the present fundamentalist regime continues in power, the chances of an end to the eight-year-long war on acceptable terms are quite rem
