ABSTRACT
The children and the women of Southern Sudan have been reduced to slavery: The children tend to the livestock of their Northern Sudanese masters; the women are expected to provide sexual services in exchange for a meager sustenance. The leader of the coup was Chief of Staff General Abd al-Rahman Siwar al-Dahab, who formed a transitional military government that sought, only half-heartedly, to end the civil war. The crucial role played by Western humanitarian relief agencies also must be counted in what proved a continuing and controversial effort to provide aid to the long-suffering Sudanese. Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), the disaster relief program inaugurated in April 1989 under the auspices of the United Nations and funded in large part by the United States, was a unique response to the terrible year of drought in 1988 during which hundreds of thousands of Southerners died.
