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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
One of about 200 burnt-out huts in Yei; destruction of
homes was a common form of reprisal during the civil war in
southern Sudan.
Courtesy Robert O. Collins
Except for a period of tenuous peace between 1972 and 1983,
Sudan has been the scene of armed rebellion in the south since
before the nation became independent in 1956. The second stage of
the Sudanese civil war entered its ninth year in 1991. The
protracted struggle pitting the mostly Muslim north against the
adherenys of indigenous faiths and of Christianity in the south
has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths--mostly
noncombatants--and has forced millions to flee the south in
search of food and to escape the violence. The rebel forces
controlled most of the rural areas of the south as of mid-1991,
besieging the government troops holding the major towns. Both
sides were guilty of violence against civilians, but the
government's policy since 1985 of arming undisciplined tribal
militia bands was responsible for the most flagrant cruelties.
Data as of June 1991
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