In November 1983, Diraige wrote a letter to Nimeiry warning him that, unless foreign food aid was requested, Darfur faced a serious famine. This letter would come to be known as the "famine letter." Since 1977, Nimeiry had been creating an image of Sudan as the "future breadbasket of the Arab world", was furious with Diraige for sending this inconvenient letter and refused to respond.