282 thE sudan handbookaid projects that came to exercise influential roles in Sudan. Following
a conference in Khartoum in March, Sadiq al-Mahdi’s government
agreed to establish Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), a unique working
arrangement for the international humanitarian presence, enabling its
expansion and deepening role. After 1989 the number of international
agencies and expatriate staff grew significantly, vast resources were
directed into humanitarian relief, and there was greater access to remote
villages throughout Sudan via air relief operations. Thanks to its airfields,
wartime rural southern Sudan had more contact with the outside world
than at any period in its history.Operation Lifeline SudanOLS was a tripartite agreement between the Government of Sudan
(GoS), the SPLA and the UN in 1989 to allow humanitarian relief to
be delivered to both government and rebel-held territory. Premised on
the right to humanitarian assistance by civilians in need, OLS was the
world’s first humanitarian programme to assist civilians on both sides of
an ongoing war within a sovereign state. OLS aimed to avert an antici-
pated famine through nutritional interventions (grain distribution and
feeding centres). It was produced by a conjunction of circumstances:
flooding in Khartoum in August 1988 that led to media coverage of the
autumn famine in that year, moves by the GoS and SPLA towards peace,
and political developments outside Sudan, including a new US admin-
istration. OLS was organized into a Khartoum-based Northern Sector
led at first by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
and a Nairobi-based Southern Sector coordinated by UNICEF, with the
help of a new logistical base in Lokichoggio, northern Kenya. The UN
provided coordination and support to an NGO consortium on the basis
of agreed principles, including the neutrality of humanitarian relief.
Some NGOs (including Norwegian People’s Aid, otherwise known as
the NPLA, the Norwegian People’s Liberation Aid) preferred to retain
their ideological and operational independence, and did not sign up forThe Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors UN coordination.
(www.riftvalley.net).