Humanitarian organizations warn: Gloomy year awaits the Sudanese

Humanitarian organizations working in Sudan expect the year 1999 to be gloomy for more 4 million Sudanese civilians, who during 1998 suffered from fighting, starvation and floods.

In a statement broadcast in Nairobi on Tuesday, coordinators of the "Lifeline Sudan" organization warned that the return of starvation to the Bahr al-Gazelle district in southwestern Sudan is not to be ruled out. The statement added that the western Upper Nile district in southern Sudan is also threatened by grave humanitarian conditions due to floods and the civil war.

According to estimates made by the World Food Program, more than two million Sudanese will depend on food aid until October 1999. The statement called for extending the cease-fire decision valid in Bahr al-Gazelle district between government troops and the southern Sudanese rebels. The cease-fire is to end on January 15, 1999.