InterPress News Service (IPS); July 10, 1997
Nhial Bol

According to the report prepared by Juba Teaching Hospital in Southern Sudan and obtained by IPS, soldiers continue to practice unsafe sex, and with the movement of people due to the war, incidences of the disease are beginning to rise.

Up to 60 of the AIDS cases seen at the hospital have been soldiers, says the 23-page report which has been sent to the Ministry of Health and the National AIDS Committee, a state body within the ministry.

The report calls on both the government and local non- governmental organisations working in the health field to spread awareness on AIDS to the military units, and to young girls and women in the displaced camps who exchange sex for money with the soldiers.

Dr Fathi Abdul Mohammed Adelan, a member of the African AIDS Control Society (AACS), based here, says Sudan needs a programme that seriously addresses the AIDS pandemic, particularly in the army.

The current programme, designed and run by the Health Ministry, has not helped the fight against AIDS, he adds, noting that the incidence of the disease is progressing, and the most serious cases reported in health institutions are from the military.

Adelan attributes the spread of AIDS and STDs in the West, East and South of the country to the outbreak of the Southern conflict which began in 1983, and has since escalated.

"The outbreak of war has contributed much... it gives room to unlawful sexual interlinks between the civilians affected by war and the soliders fighting the war," he told IPS in an interview this week.

The displacement of the rural population, which has little knowledge of the dangers of AIDS and other STDs, to the sophisticated urban centres, has been one reason for the increase in STDs and AIDS, Adelan explains.

"Sudan, the largest state in the heart of the African AIDS belt, and the only one with both Arab and African cultures, cannot stand aloof as AIDS spreads," Adelan says.

The Islamic-ruled country shares borders with Eritrea, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt, the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Libya and Zaire. Most of these countries have high incidences of AIDS.

President Omar Hassan al Bashir's government does not have a clear policy on AIDS, Adelan says, adding that those NGOs involved in AIDS awareness should play an important role in coordinating efforts between institutions, individuals, organisations, health workers and researchers.

The government has often interfered in the fundraising activities of organisations working on AIDS, Adelan says citing the example of his own.

The AIDS Control Society, he says, has not been allowed to raise funds without the blessings of the Federal Ministry of Health.

"We were receiving considerable finanical support from the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations AIDS (UNAIDS) programme..., but all of this support stopped due to interferences from the state. The government wants all support to come via it," he says.

Since 1980 when the first AIDS case was reported in Sudan, the government has never provided any assistance to local organisations working on AIDS. More than 100,000 AIDS cases have been reported in the country since 1980, but health workers say it is far higher.

Local and international agencies also find resistance from Islamic communities to discussions on AIDS and safe sex, and some have had to channel funds for AIDS into other programmes.

An official with Save the Children United Kingdom, who declined to be named, told IPS his organisation had redirected funds for AIDS into relief programmes.

"We have AIDS programmes, but due to the lack of support from the state and the communities, we directed the funds to relief and education programmes," the official says.

Awad Abu Zeid, a lecturer in the faculty of medicine at the University of Khartoum and a member of the National AIDS Committee, says AIDS awareness programmes have been rejected by Islamics and Catholics. Ten percent of Sudan's 28 million people are Catholic, while more than 15 million are Muslims.

Al Tom Sedik, a Muslim sheikh, told IPS that discussions and awareness programmes on AIDS only encourage sexual misbehaviour. He says those dying from the disease contracted it because of poor faith and bad manners, and should be isolated from others.

"Let us not drink water, share food or eat food with careless people...", the Muslim leader adds.(end/ips/nb/pm97)

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