Sudan - The Secret Story
The Sudanese region even the UN refused to enter
In 1998, Sudan was still in the midst of a violent and bitter civil war. This film enters a territory of the country that even the UN deemed too dangerous, to uncover the true horror of the civil war.
From 1983-2005 a civil war in Sudan was fought between the Islamic central government in Khartoum and rebel forces, representing the vast majority of Christians and moderate Muslims in the country. This film joins in 1998, with still little end in sight and the UN forced to deliver aid packages to battle the extreme man-made famine that has swept the country. Yet there are some territories where the UN refuses to deliver aid, deeming them too dangerous and unpredictable. One such region is Bahr El Ghazal, in modern-day South Sudan, where government backed raids on villages by Islamic fundamentalists have left thousands dead, and even more displaced, with many comparing such practices with genocide. This brave team enters the region to see first hand the destruction at play. They find people living in swampland, unable to return to their decimated villages and living off dirty, malaria-infected swamp water and waterlily roots. They are helped by aid workers, who have come here independently despite the UN's warnings. While they are keen to supply aid, they admit that it is only a short-term solution; international intervention is needed if the war is come to and end. Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the famine in Sudan is the fact that it's preventable; the country is rich in resources, and plentiful in farmland, yet politics and war are halting progress, and driving ordinary people into extreme living conditions. A unique report from a region that is to this day plagued by violence and civil war.
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