Sudan

Food Security & Agricultural Development

In partnership with All Nations Christian Care Sudan, WER is supporting agricultural development initiatives in Southern Sudan to help communities to combat the problem of long-term food insecurity in the region.

Many farmers suffered either the slaughter or theft of their oxen during the conflict in Southern Sudan and have subsequently faced the challenge of ploughing their land by hand. Not only is this extremely hard labour and time-consuming, but has also proved to be an inefficient method of ploughing the land as the soil is not sufficiently turned or airated.

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Humanitarian Aid

WER is working with All Nations Christian Care Sudan to distribute humanitarian aid, including healthcare packs and food, to remote communities in the southern provinces of Sudan.

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Sudan

Sudan is the largest country in Africa and shares borders with nine countries - Egypt, Libya, Chad, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is a vast country with a wide range of landscapes, including deserts, mountain ranges and rain forests.

Long-term development in Sudan has been severely challenged by more than two decades of civil war between the mainly Muslim north and the Christian and Animist south. This war led to the death of more than 2 million people and the displacement of millions more. The conflict came to an official end on 9 January 2005 with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the Sudanese government. Despite the progress made with the peace agreement, conflict continues in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. Pro-government Arab Janjaweed militias have been responsible for the systematic killings of non-Arab Sudanese in Darfur. The United Nations reports that more than 2 million people in this region have fled their homes and over 200,000 have been killed in the fighting.

Though the violence in Darfur is in decline, the failure between the government and several rebel groups to agree on specific peace terms makes it increasingly difficult to officially declare the war over. With continued violence and the prospect of southern-Sudanese independence on the horizon, the future of Sudanese stabilization remains unclear.

Decades of conflict have destroyed most of Sudan’s infrastructure and, as large numbers of displaced people return to their homes in the south, there is a great need for reconstruction and development. In addition to the violence that plagues the country, the lack of infrastructure has obstructed the allocation of humanitarian assistance to suffering Sudanese populations.

The most recent Human Development Report ranks Sudan at 147 out of 182 countries, with a low human development rating status. The Human Development Index (HDI) value is 0.526 compared to the HDI of the UK, which is 0.946.

WER, through our GIK programme, has provided humanitarian relief to the region of Darfur and is working in southern Sudan in partnership with All Nations Christian Care (ANCC) Sudan.