Two Health and Human Rights articles in this week’s issue of THE LANCET highlight the ongoing and forgotten war in Sudan. Now two decades on, the health and wellbeing of the people of Sudan remains a major concern. In the first article, César Chelala discusses the impact of oil in the south of the country. For the past year, government forces have carried out a campaign aimed at depopulating large oil-rich areas, and continues to use oil fields and revenues for war purposes. Child malnutrition rates are 50% in some conflict areas, and vaccine-preventable diseases are still a major threat.
In a second article, Vincent Brown and colleagues from Epicentre and Médecins Sans Frontières, Paris, France, present their results from a recent survey done under difficult circumstances in Aweil East county, where militia groups regularly direct armed raids against Dinka villages. Many individuals reported deaths and disappearances among family members, which included children younger than 5 years of age from gun-shot wounds.
Contact: César Chelala, 390 West Broadway, New York, NY 10012, USA; E) CCHELALA@aol.com
Nathan Ford, Médecins Sans Frontières, 124 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1, UK ; E) nathan_ford@msf.org
The Lancet