while south sudan's president salva kiir and his former deputy riek machar wage war, the story of the country's birth, and in many ways the roots of the crisis - could be said to have started here in the united states. it goes all the way back to the 1990s, when sudan was locked in a bloody civil war between north and south. >> we called ourselves "the council". >>it became clear that perhaps the country in the world that was suffering the most where the united states could maybe make the biggest difference was sudan. >> for most of us, it was not just a professional issue, it was a personal issue. >> eric reeves is an english professor at smith college, not far from boston. john prendergast was at the state department, but is best known for traveling to war-torn parts of sudan with george clooney. ted dagne spent two decades at the congressional research service - mostly writing reports on sudan. >> and this is brian desilva. this is the emperor. >> that's you? >> that's me. and this is roger winter, whose nickname is the "spear carrier." >> the men bonded over their devotion to a ne

they are concerned about the oil rich area, fighting broke out in december 2013 when salva kiir accused his former deputy riek machar. >> we estimate that the population benefiting from the services in the hospital is around 200,000. this year, alone we have carried out more than 25,000 consultations, at the time of the evacuation we had more than 30 patients in the hospital. we have treated more than two and a half thousand children for malnutrition this year alone so the medical needs in the area are great and this hospital is the only secondary health care service they can access. >> the world health organization has declared liberia ebola free, the source of the outbreak is now known to be a two-year-old toddler who died in december 2013 in southeastern guinea. nine months later the virus was in guinea, liberia and sierra leone but is a establishing who all died is difficult to determine. the parts that were hardest hit are the lighter patches. in each of these areas at least 500 deaths were record he. again, though, the real figure is probably much higher. the world health organiza