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Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) was established in April 1989. It is a consortium of two UN agencies -- UNICEF and the World Food Programme -- as well as more than 35 non-governmental organizations. Operating in southern Sudan after devastating famine -- a result of drought and civil war -- OLS negotiated with the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) to deliver humanitarian assistance to all civilians in need, regardless of their location. Although OLS has saved lives and assisted hundreds of thousands of people, its mission is far from over. Lack of timely rain and displacement of people prevents farmers from cultivation, making it impossible for the people of South Sudan to become self-sufficient. The following photographs were taken of the relief operation in Thiekthou and Ajiep, Sudan, by UN photographer Eskinder Debebe in August 1998. These photos are from the UN Photo Library archive collection:

Thiekthou:

A World Food Programme aircraft roars over the cloudy Sudanese sky, dropping relief supplies of sacks of grain, 16 tons at a time.
(UN/DPI Photo #187724C)



Villagers, young and old, gather around the air strip with their gourds ready to collect from the spilled sacks of grain.
(UN/DPI Photo #187721C)



Children with gourds wait for permission to gather the spilled grain from air-drops by the World Food Programme (WFP) aircraft near Thiekthou.
(UN/DPI Photo #187723C)



Workers pick up the food supplies air-dropped by the World Food Programme airplane.

(UN/DPI Photo #187720C)




A young boy holds a gourd filled with grain which he gathered from the World Food Programme air-drop.
(UN/DPI Photo # 187727C)



Villagers sort and pound the grain received from the World Food Programme.
(UN/DPI Photo #187728C)


Raphaelle Honnorat, a nurse working for Doctors Without Borders, a non-governmental organization based in Belgium, checks registration cards to issue one week's supply of cereals for children, and sorghum for each family.
(UN/DPI Photo #187718C)


A young boy, his thin figure silhouetted against a setting sun, stands on the airstrip near Thiekthou.
(UN/DPI Photo #187725C)


Grain being picked in a watered field.
(UN/DPI Photo #187736C)

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Ajiep: Therapeutic feeding centre

A mother holds her son in a village near the relief centre in Ajiep.
(UN/DPI Photo #187738C)



A young boy, his health and expression displayed in stark contrast to the malnourished child he holds, waiting at the Operation Lifeline Sudan feeding centre in Ajiep.
(UN/DPI Photo #187752C)



The effects of hunger and famine seen in the figure of a boy in a village near Ajiep.
(UN/DPI Photo #187739C)



His wife having died but a few days before, a father cares for his infant child.
(UN/DPI Photo #187741C)



Children at a supplementary feeding centre in Ajiep.
(UN/DPI Photo #187744C)



A malnourished child at the feeding centre in Ajiep.
(UN/DPI Photo #187742C)



A child suffering from malnutrition where it is being treated at the therapeutic feeding centre run by Doctors Without Borders, a non-governmental organization based in Belgium.
(UN/DPI Photo #187735C)



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