Humanitarian Politics in the Sudan

Abstract

The best efforts of humanitarians notwithstanding, relief for suffering civilians in civil war settings is still not universally honored as a moral imperative. In a host of bloody struggles, particularly in Africa (for example, the Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Angola, and Mozambique), the attention of the international community has been increasingly drawn to the callous prevention, by both governments and insurgents, of innocent civilians to have access to food and medicine. Such tactics have been a regular part of arsenals from the beginning of organized warfare. But the widespread indignation and active mobilization of international public opinion against them is a relatively recent development, as is the successful deployment of this public opinion to restrain the excesses of protagonists.