Millions May Starve, New Sudanese Regime Says

KHARTOUM, Sudan â€”  Sudan’s new military ruler said Saturday that domestic food stocks will be exhausted by July, and he appealed to Western and Arab nations for new shipments to feed 7 million people facing starvation.

A U.S. expert was more pessimistic, saying domestic food stocks in this drought-ravaged country would be depleted by mid-May. He also said an internal transportation breakdown is affecting food deliveries to remote areas of Africa’s largest country.

A grim Gen. Abdul-Rahman Suwar Dahab met about 25 Western and Arab ambassadors at the Khartoum military headquarters to plead for additional food donations.

“Failure to secure the basic requirements will very quickly translate into rising malnutrition, sickness and needless loss of life,� said Gen. Dahab, who took power in a coup against President Jaafar Numeiri two weeks ago.

“I strongly appeal to you for continued generous international support to the basic food, water, medical and shelter requirements of these unfortunate people among us,� he said.

U.S. officials have estimated that slightly more than 7 million people face starvation in Sudan. U.N. estimates put the figure at just under 7 million.

Despite the crisis sparked by the worst drought in African history, Dahab said his government will continue to allow into the country refugees fleeing famine in neighboring Ethiopia and Chad.

Robert Brown, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development in Sudan, said that because of a poor harvest, Sudan will exhaust domestic food supplies within a month.

“By mid-May, Sudan will be living totally on imported grain,� he said.

Brown said that since Numeiri was ousted, there appears to have been an almost complete breakdown of Sudan’s internal transportation system used in stockpiling food in remote central and western regions.