ABSTRACT
In a paper prepared for Congress in March 1988, a State Department analyst betrayed this ambiguity: "Colonel Garang portrays himself principally as a Sudanese nationalist determined to address problems of Sudan. A stream of articles appeared in the international media about the spreading starvation in Southern Sudan, and they seem to have been crucial in changing Sadiq's mind with regard to the ICRC program. The Food Aid Administration Office in El Obeid agreed in March to provide Abyei with 350 tons of sorghum-an amount sufficient to give 25,000 displaced persons a month's ration-of the 3,250 tons that had been unallocated during the first component of the Western Relief Operation. It provided Sadiq and Garang with a redefined program that earmarked six sites-Kongor, Yirol, and Pochala in SPLA territory and Wau, Juba, and Malakal held by government forces-in which food deficits were thought to be severe and in which surveys should be carried out immediately.
