The chief of UNICEF's Operation Lifeline Sudan program, Simon Strachan, noted that in SPLM-controlled areas, over 200,000 more children attended primary school in 2004 than in 2003.
"We therefore call upon the highest authorities in the Government of Sudan and in SPLM-N as well as the entire international community to ensure that the interests of the children concerned are of primary consideration in the next round of negotiations with all parties set to be held soon in Addis Abeba.
But the south's woes have been added to by the incompetence and corruption of the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS), mainly composed of former guerrilla fighters in the SPLM, the political movement of the SPLA.
Unsurprisingly, the Sudanese leaders are determined by one means or another to remain in control.The SPLM, for its part, is focused on an entirely different election: the referendum on southern secession that was promised as part of the CPA.
There are several prominent Dinka Ngok in both the Sudan People's Liberation Army, which fought for the south's independence, and in the SPLM, its political wing.
When independence came in July last year, many SPLM forces in Blue Nile and South Kordofan were left stranded in Sudan.
Salva Kiir Mayardit, and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), led by former vice president Riek Machar had been locked in a yearlong cycle of cease-fires and broken peace agreements.
Disputes over voter eligibility, registration and border demarcation between the two main political forces the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movementt (SPLM) in the south and the National Congress Party (NCP) in the north mean the likelihood of the vote taking place on time within the agreed laws is small.
While UN agencies have conducted two recent assessment missions to the Nuba Mountains, this is the first time that the Government has approved the delivery of UN assistance to people living in the SPLM-controlled areas of the Nuba Mountains.
The net result is that children in SPLM-controlled Sudanern Sudan, who form more than half the population (3.9 million of an estimated total 7.5 million in 2003) face multiple threats to their healthy development while their rights are neglected wholesale.
Mr Akol will probably fight the SPLM in the national elections due next year.
