Dinka cows, normally not slaughtered for food, are being eaten as famine grips Sudan

From Correspondent Catherine Bond

MAYATH, Sudan (CNN) -- Among Sudan's Dinka people, cattle are the equivalent of a savings account, used as a dowry for marriage or for payment made in compensation for a crime.

But while the Dinka keep cattle, they don't often eat them. So the sight of butchered meat on sale in the markets of Bahr El Ghazal, an area of the country being hit hard these days by drought and famine, is a cause for concern.

"Our observations indicated by April of this year that the slaughter rate had gone up 500 percent, and the price of the beef had gone up 300 percent," said Raphael Mutiko of the relief group Oxfam. "That is scary, because if you let these people eat all their animals, then you are going to be with them to support them forever."

A hand hoe is all some have to till crops

The famine in Sudan, which affects an estimated 1 million people, has been exacerbated by both drought and an intractable civil war.

For almost 15 years, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and other rebel factions have been fighting the government in Khartoum. The rebels want autonomy for the mainly Christian south from the Muslim north.

In an effort to diversify the economy, SPLA officials who hold sway in Bahr El Ghazal have been trying to get the Dinka to change their traditions -- to devote more energy to cultivating crops than to herding cattle.

But that's a long-range vision. Right now, there is virtually no food. People eat greens that grow in the wild, while children drink what milk the increasingly lean cows can produce. In the village of Mayath, about 40 deaths related to starvation have been reported in just four weeks.

And observers fear that if the Dinka cope with the short-term situation by slaughtering most of their cattle this year, the famine could be even worse next year -- and the number of deaths could rise.

A declining herd could also undermine plans by rebel administrators to encourage people to put their cattle to work in the cultivation of crops.