Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1891 — FAMINE IN THE SOUDAN. [ARTICLE]

FAMINE IN THE SOUDAN.

Frightful Situation of African*—«MH Tribes BUtt»4 to Death. A correspondent at: Suakim telegraphs On the 29th that the full magnitude of tad famine that for eighteen months has rav* aged the eastern Soudan can never be known. It is only where Europeans ha vs been present that some detailed informa* I tlon bas reached tbe outside world as t« j the terrible condition pf the people extent of tEe affected region is very great; in fact, trustworthy native accounts indicate that there is not a town nor district from Egypt proper to, Sennaar in thp south, and from Barfoor in the west >through Kordofan to the Nile province* and east to the sea, that has not been,during the past year and a half, mors than idecimated by starvation. Not only the inhabitants of the plains have suffered, but misery has also reached the mountains from the Beni Ameri country to Abyssinia. The chief causes of the famine are described to be: First,the insecurity of prop* terty, the natives heing on this account afraid t® place too mucltground under cultivation; second, tho partial destruction by drought of crops in 1889, the supply of grain being very deficient, and, third, the ,total failure of the winter crop of 1889-90, the locusts having destroyed nearly every green thing. Tbe cotton crops of Dorua and Duroor were also devoured. The Inhabitants of the country had to rely on the coast ports for supplies which were released by the Egyptian government with a spare band, causing unnecesary suffering to thousands of people. The oldest native inhabitant never saw the locusts so "thick as they have been this year. Tho country was visited eight times by vast clouds of these rapacious insects. The victims of famine are so numerous thst it is not an exaggeration to say that some sub-tribes of the Hadendowas and Amarars have ceased to exist. The awfu experience of people has not, however lessened their determination to maintain their freedom. The "greatest sufferers among the tribesmen have been tbe families of those who, in 1884 and 1885, arrayed them selves in battle against the English, colonial and Indian forces, and those bones are still bleaching on the plains in silent protest against the English attempt to place the people- again under Egyptian ruleNow many widows and children lie unburied beside these bread-whiners, starvation having found them easy victims. In some places in the Soudan the poorer classes were forced to eat cats, dogs and lizards,all vegetable food having disappearedThere have also been many undoubted cases of cannibalism, freshly interred bodies of the dead having been exhumed to satisfy the cravings of hunger. Here snd there a whole village is found deserted, with skelotons of the dead remaining iu some of the houses. The wealthy fared hardly better than the poor, as riches could not procure food that did not exist. To add to the terrors of the situation, smallpox broke out and spread over nearly the entire famine district. For the past two months there has been some improvement, * and by spring the people Will probably have regained their normal condition, but they will not forget that the British and Egyp.. tian authorities, by closing the gates of Suakim against them, firs Responsible for much of their terrible sufferings.