I've been doing some interesting train reading these days.
I'm nearly finished with Philip Caputo's "Acts of Faith"
It's about Sudan, specifically the conflicts amongst Sudanese government-backed Islamic militants and the Nuba people, and humanitarian aid organizations working out of that area. It' s a work of fiction but it certainly has my brain working, and out of curiosity, I started doing some internet research.

I know some basic things about the genocide in Sudan (and yes, unlike our government, I do not hesitate to call the conflict "genocide," because that's what it is, the calculated extermination of a people), but I did not know specific things that this book discusses, such as details about Nuba life and "illegal humanitarian aid organizations," or "renegade aid" as I like to call them, so I googled some things.

First of all, wikipedia provided me with some info about the Nuba:

Nuba

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nuba man from the 'Nuba' Sudanese tribe

Nuba is a collective term used for the peoples who inhabit the Nuba Mountains, in Kordofan province, Sudan, Africa. Although the term is used to describe them as if they were a single tribe, in fact the Nuba are quite diverse, and are made up of different ethnic and linguistic groups. Estimates of the number of Nuba vary widely; the Sudanese government estimated that they numbered 1.1 million in 1993.

Leni Riefenstahl, better known for directing Triumph of the Will and Olympia, published a collection of her photographs of the people titled The Last of the Nuba in 1976

Between 1973 and 1994, the Sudanese government introduced programs to promote large-scale, privately owned agriculture to many regions including the Nuba Mountains. The efforts were redoubled as a result of IMF structural adjustment programs instituted in 1978. Large-scale mechanized farms were introduced, which pushed small peasants into marginal land between semi-arid and more lush savanna areas. Sudanese governments during the period misperceived the Nuba as a unified ally of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), which furthered the oppressive measures against the tribes. These measures were indiscriminately applied, even to groups having no connection to the SPLA, such as the numerous Nuba Muslims. An example of these measures is the refusal to grant leases for undeveloped land that had been marked for future large-scale agricultural uses to peasants who were starving during the drought between 1983 and 1985. By 1999, over 100,000 people had been forcibly displaced by the agriculture programs, many of whom moved to urban areas, and are forced to face the difficulties associated with that type of transition.

In the 1986 elections, the Umma Party lost several seats to the Nuba Mountains General Union and to the Sudan National Party, due to the reduced level of support from the Nuba Mountains region. There is reason to believe that attacks by the government-supported militia, the Popular Defense Force (PDF), on several Nuba villages were meant to be in retaliation for this drop in support, which was seen as signaling increased support of the SPLA. The PDF attacks were particularly violent in nature, and have been cited as examples of crimes against humanity that took place during the Second Sudanese Civil War (Salih 1999).

Sorry for the blue underlines, I can't seem to get them to go away.

Through wikipedia links I found this site. It's particularly interesting because it has up to date news as well as pictures on it.

Next I wanted to find out more about renegade aid, ie aid flown into Sudan via private chartered and not sanctioned by the U.N. This is incredibly tricky to find out about online, but I am going to continue my quest for information. What I did find was information that basically said non U.N. aid is getting to Sudan now. Caputo's novel was published in 2005, so given the time at which it was written, the situation has probably changed, given the volatility of the region as well as some of the peace accords that have been attempted.

Since this entry is disjointed a bit, I've put some links below in case anyone is interested in further research, though these truly only scratch the surface.

A Smith professor's site
A non-profit website based in France
Amnesty International Statement on the blocking of Humanitarian Aid
An organization dedicated to the survival of the Nuba
A "humanitarian aid report"with lots of African news on it
A great article from National Geographic about the Nuba, with pictures