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Genocide in the Nuba Mountains: A retrospective on what we knew, June 2011 – 2013
Eric Reeves
October 2013
Given the tepid international response to events throughout Sudan in recent weeks, we must wonder if what we have seen for two and a half years in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile is the face of Sudan’s political future. Certainly the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party regime has shown no more restraint in violently putting down demonstrations than it has in trying to subdue the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-North (SPLM/A-N). Some will scoff at the suggestion, as they did when atrocity crimes were first reported from South Kordofan with chilling authority in June 2011. That same expedient skepticism is again on display in responding to current events throughout what is now Sudan. Silence about the deepening catastrophe in Darfur, where the last vestiges of security have disappeared, is of a piece with this response: there is no meaningful discussion of the millions of lives at acute risk if humanitarian operations collapse, which they may well do given the intolerable level of insecurity. (read more)
'High numbers' killed, wounded in S.Sudan unrest: UN
AFP
21 October 2013
Juba — Large numbers of civilians have been killed and wounded in attacks in South Sudan's troubled Jonglei state, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said Monday.
Authorities in South Sudan have blamed fighters loyal to anti-government rebel leader David Yau Yau, and said 78 people were killed in Sunday's attacks on villages in Twic East county.
"The attacks resulted in high numbers of killed and wounded," UNMISS said in a statement.
"As soon as the fighting had stopped yesterday, the UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) flew health partners to the attacked areas to evacuate casualties," it said, adding that 31 seriously wounded civilians were airlifted out. (read more)
On Alex de Waal's view of the uprising in Sudan: A brief critique
Eric Reeves
17 October 2013
Alex de Waal presumes to offer in the Sudan Tribune his view of how to "make sense of the protests in Khartoum" (http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article48459). There is much that is useful in his account, but also much that is tendentious—especially in characterizing the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), with its large and growing number of deeply disgruntled mid-level officers. And there is also much that is fuzzy or wrong-headed, particularly in his account of the economic forces that have brought Sudan to the point of 50 percent inflation, an increasingly worthless currency, a lack of foreign exchange currency—which is creating severe problems for the economy, as well as more inflation—and continuing profligate military expenditures on weapons and a vast security apparatus. De Waal mentions the once crucial agricultural sector only briefly in passing ("the agricultural sector [will be hit hard] as diesel prices rise"); and yet the virtual collapse of the agricultural sector is one of the most destructive legacies of the Khartoum regime's 24 years of economic mismanagement. (read more)
Bashing Bashir
Sudan’s president faces his worst protests so far
A CRACKDOWN by Sudan’s security forces on people protesting against the lifting of fuel subsidies has left dozens of people dead in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country since September 23rd. President Omar al-Bashir’s government was prepared for demonstrations, as its recent austerity measures virtually doubled the price of petrol and cooking gas overnight. But it did not foresee that, in carrying out what human-rights groups have described as a “shoot to kill” policy, the security forces would cause a bigger headache than had the protests themselves. (read more)
Here Sharia law in Sudan: Sudanese women flogged in the street by police
A video being circulated by media outlets allegedly shows an Sudanese woman being flogged by a police officer, who is supposedly punishing her just for riding a car with man she was not related to.
A disturbing new YouTube video shows a Sudanese woman crying out in pain during a public flogging.
She was reportedly guilty of riding in a car with a man who wasn’t her husband or an immediate family member, an offense that is prohibited by Sudan’s public order law.
The woman, reportedly named Halima, crouches on the ground and tries to cover her head with a light pink cloth while a police officer walks around her with a whip, stopping to aim before lashing out at her body.
At about 0:39 seconds into the video, the police officer warns the woman, “This is so you don’t get into cars anymore,” according to France24. (read more)
Uprising in Sudan: What we know now
1 October 2013
By Eric Reeves
Events of the past three days may not have been as spectacular in size or scale of violence compared with what we witnessed last week through Friday prayers and into Saturday; however, the significance of what we have learned in this period warrants some consolidation. I think it especially important to understand the specific implications of current developments within historical context, fortuitously provided in brief by distinguished historian Douglas Johnson in an interview with Voice of America. Johnson says Sudan hasn't seen such protests since two previous governments were toppled in the 1960s and 1980s, and emphasized the fact that the protests have spread beyond Khartoum:
"I don't know if [the demonstrations are] being coordinated, but that is an indication of a rising sea of discontent. What you've got to have in Sudan for this to be successful is, one, you have to have a public that has nothing left to fear—and I think we're beginning to see that—and, two, you've got to see a loss of morale in security services. I don't know if you've seen that yet, but those two combined are what brought down the two previous military governments in 1964 and 1985." (Voice of America [Nairobi], October 1, 2013) (read more)
The Cruelty and Barbarism of the Khartoum Regime Are on Full Display: New website provides vast quantities of photographic/visual recordings of events Eric Reeves 29 September 2013
Here is an extraordinary, horrifying collection of photographs taken during the current uprising in Sudan; the photographs here are from Khartoum, Omdurman, and other nearby areas (http://www.sndfca.org/crimes). They are powerful and relentlessly compelling—and they are simply painful to view (the accompanying text is in Arabic). But these images are the truth as seen by those who are on the ground; yes, their organization of the material is necessarily a form of "editorializing"; but editorials, simply because they express a strong point of view, are not merely opinions. (read more)
Uprising in Sudan: What we know now
Eric Reeves
28 September 2013
(A continuation of the overview of September 26: http://www.sudanreeves.org/?p=4334)
In the wake of large, ongoing demonstrations throughout Khartoum/Omdurman on Friday into Saturday (September 28), as well as in other parts of northern Sudan, a tipping point appears to have been reached: people are now more angry than afraid, and nothing could be more dangerous to a regime that has lived by creating fear through its brutal security services and army. Al Arabiya reports that 5,000 people demonstrated in Khartoum on Friday (September 27), and the number continues to be in the thousands today.
We may be sure that the National Islamic Front/National Congress party regime, headed by President and indicted génocidaire Omar al-Bashir, has watched carefully the course of uprisings in Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, and Syria. It has learned a good deal, and we are seeing the results of this unfortunate "education" in dramatic fashion in Khartoum and elsewhere. Though information is highly fragmentary, coming from many different sources of varying reliability, there is sufficient overlap and redundancy in accounts to make out the strategy of a regime trying to maintain its stranglehold on national wealth and power. (read more)
Sudan: State of Emergency Declared in East Darfur - Governor By Radio Dabanga 25 August 2013
Ed Daein — The Governor of East Darfur state, Abdel Hamid Musa Kasha, has declared a State of Emergency in East Darfur, and extended the brief of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in the area. In a statement on Saturday, Governor Kasha said that he has authorised regular SAF forces "to deter criminals and militiamen." (read more)
Civilian Destruction in Jonglei: Khartoum’s Role in Arming David Yau Yau’s Militia By Eric Reeves 22 August 2013
There is a great deal of biased attention when it comes to international assessments of the ongoing ethnic strife in Jonglei. UN reports from the ground, primarily from the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), suggest a recent diminishment of violence, and humanitarian access may be improving. Both UNMISS and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) are performing more effectively, and a very recent UN assessment indicated that tensions between the SPLA and civilians was diminishing. Certainly the situation is far from stabilized; ethnic tensions remain high, particularly between the Murle and the Lou Nuer; and it must be emphasized that the previous behavior of the SPLA has entailed very serious violations of human rights and a failure to distinguish between Murle civilians and those Murle who have joined David Yau Yau’s rebellion. (read more)
Humanitarian Conditions in Darfur: Relief Efforts Perilously Close to Collapse, in Two Parts Eric Reeves, August 15, 2013
Without an urgent investment of major political energy and commitment, the international community is soon likely to preside over a catastrophic contraction of humanitarian capacity and access in Darfur. The world must put Khartoum on notice that there will be significant consequences if the regime does not permit unfettered humanitarian access and movement of relief supplies. The regime must also face real pressure to provide meaningful security for increasingly threatened camp areas, an effort that will entail bringing various militia forces under military and police control. Senior officials of the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party (NIF/NCP) must also face strong pressure to cease exacerbating ethnic tensions as part of an ongoing counter-insurgency campaign of unspeakable brutality. These political efforts to pressure Khartoum must come from the UN Security Council and UN Secretariat, as well as from those countries—especially in Europe, Africa, and the Arab world—whose continuing economic and diplomatic support enables the regime to cling to power amidst an economy that is imploding. (read more)
Dear Esther,
Schedule an in-district meeting with your Representative in Congress today! Today we are launching a three month campaign urging our elected officials to take action and pass the Sudan Peace, Security, and Accountability Act of 2013 through Congress. Introduced in April 2013, the bill presents the best opportunity to generate policy that can bring about peace in Sudan through a comprehensive approach. We need to ensure its passage, but the bill is in danger of not gaining the bipartisan support it needs to move to a mark up in committee and pass through the House. (read more)
Humanitarian Conditions in Darfur: A Climate of Violence and Extreme Insecurity By Eric Reeves 4 August 2013
By way of introduction to a forthcoming overview of humanitarian conditions in Darfur, I offer here a current account of the insecurity that has long badly compromised operations of both UN agencies and International Nongovernmental (Humanitarian) Organizations (INGOs). Security conditions have been intolerable for many years now (see declaration to this effect by fourteen UN organizations in January 2007—Appendix 1); over the past year and more, however, violence has called into serious question the viability of any substantial ongoing relief efforts in the region. Virtually no international (expatriate) staff remain in Darfur, certainly not in the field or in remote locations—either for critical assessment work or to provide oversight for aid distribution. And as the recent killing of two workers for World Vision in their Nyala compound makes clear, there is no place of real safety in Darfur: Nyala is the largest city in Darfur, and yet was overrun by militia forces allied with the regime. Police reportedly looked on without acting. Threats are everywhere as lawlessness and a deliberately chaotic violence are countenanced, even encouraged by Khartoum as yet another means of waging a savage war of attrition against the civilians of Darfur for their supposed assistance to rebel groups. (read more)
Mohamed Suleiman's letter to President Obama:
Dear Mr. President,
I am an American citizen since 1992, a member of the Zaghawa tribe and a native of Darfur. Over the past several years, I have been in daily contact with my countrymen in Darfur and in other parts of Sudan. I have heard witnesses’ accounts of many acts of genocide and other atrocities committed by agents and proxies of the government of Sudan against members of my family, my friends, residents of my village and countless others. (read more)
A Policy of Rape Continues By Nicholas D. Kristof 24 July 2013
ABGADAM REFUGEE CAMP, Chad — Kaltouma Ahmed cried softly as she told why she fled Darfur this spring: Armed men in uniforms attacked her village, shooting her 13-year-old son dead, burning her home and then stripping and raping her. As the men raped her, she said, they shouted insults against her ethnic group, the Salamat Arabs. “We’ll exterminate the Salamat men, and Salamat women will become slaves,” she quoted one of the attackers as saying. (read more)
Darfur in 2013 Sounds Awfully Familiar By Nicholas D. Kristof 20 July 2013
ABGADAM REFUGEE CAMP, Chad — ASIYA TAHIR, 20, had her 4-month-old baby, Mariam, on her back in April when three armed men in Sudanese military uniforms seized her and her sister at a well in Darfur.The soldiers beat Asiya and then — according to both sisters who were interviewed separately — pulled Mariam off her back and laughingly checked to see if she was a boy or a girl. Grabbing Mariam by one arm, a soldier flung her into the distance. (read more)
Sudan’s President One Step Ahead of a Suit and a Warrant By Marlise Simons 16 July 2013
PARIS — Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, made a brief appearance at an African Union summit meeting in Nigeria but vanished after human rights groups filed a lawsuit calling for his immediate detention on an international arrest warrant for charges of genocide.
Mr. Bashir had arrived in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, for a two-day meeting on health issues with other African heads of state and attended Sunday night’s opening reception. But delegates at the conference said that in the middle of an official lunch on Monday, he abruptly left the room. During the afternoon session, when Mr. Bashir was scheduled to speak, he could not be found. (read more)
The Killing of Seven UNAMID Peacekeeping Personnel in Darfur: a terrible tragedy, a clear warning Eric Reeves 14 July 2013
On July 13 seven personnel from the UN/AU Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) were killed and seventeen wounded north of Nyala (South Darfur) in a brutal, sustained armed assault distinguished by heavy machine-gun fire, the use of rocket-propelled grenades (RPG), and the deployment of powerful anti-aircraft weaponry mounted carried or mounted on approximately ten vehicles. The attack was almost certainly carried out by militia proxies of the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party regime in Khartoum. Despite promises, the likelihood that the regime will allow a thorough investigation is virtually non-existent, and prosecution even less likely. Just ten days earlier (July 3, 2013) unidentified gunmen ambushed a UNAMID patrol near Labado (South Darfur), 50 kilometers to the east of Nyala. Since January 1, 2008 there have been countless assaults on the UNAMID and more than 50 of its personnel have been violently killed, with many more seriously wounded. And yet there has not been a single prosecution for any of the attacks on these "blue-hatted" peacekeepers that make up UNAMID. In turn, the failure to push adequately for such prosecution by Khartoum only increases the sense of impunity throughout Darfur, and represents yet another failure of the international community in supporting UNAMID politically. (read more)
Sudan's Bashir arrives in Nigeria to anger of rights groups By Reuters 14 July 2013
ABUJA (Reuters) - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir arrived in Nigeria on Sunday for an African Union summit on HIV/AIDS as his hosts chose to ignore an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against him.
Bashir, accused of masterminding genocide and other atrocities during Sudan's Darfur conflict, which has left some 200,000 people dead, in theory risks arrest if he travels to one of the more than 120 states including Nigeria that have signed up to the ICC. (read more)
Wolf Criticizes Obama's Abdication Of Leadership In Sudan Jill Shatzen, Contact: (202) 225-5136 11 July 2013
WOLF CRITICIZES OBAMA’S ABDICATION OF LEADERSHIP IN SUDAN Special Envoy Position Still Vacant While Human Rights Situation Deteriorates and Indicted War Criminal Bashir Remains at the Helm in Khartoum
Washington, D.C. (July 11, 2013) – Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), co-chairman of the Congressional Caucus on Sudan and South Sudan and the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, as well as a longtime advocate for human rights and religious freedom globally, today released the following statement charging the Obama Administration with neglect in dealing with the deteriorating human rights situation in Sudan. (read more)
The arming of rebels in Sudan and South Sudan: What is the evidence? By Eric Reeves 17 June 2013
News reporting in general, a great deal of analytic writing, and virtually all diplomatic pronouncements about military support for rebel groups—in South Sudan and Sudan—have had a peculiar “evenhandedness.” Indeed, this equanimity is finally bizarre, given the many indications that such military support is so completely one-sided. All available evidence makes clear that substantial military support—arms and ammunition in particular—flows directly from Khartoum’s security and intelligence services to various renegade rebel militias operating in South Sudan. At the same time, no party—not Khartoum, not the diplomatic community, not credible journalists—has provided persuasive evidence that Juba is providing anything remotely comparable to such support. Here we should bear in mind that Juba is well aware that any evidence of assistance to the northern rebels would be immensely costly in any diplomatic context; and given the difficulty of concealing major weapons transfers—especially since the South has no significant aerial means of doing so—Juba is highly unlikely to take the risk of providing the very evidence Khartoum is so desperate to claim it has. The rebel groups inside northern Sudan understand this well, if in some cases grudgingly. (read more)
An open letter to the Public Editor of the New York Times concerning Darfur Eric Reeves, 11 June 2013 Margaret Sullivan, Public Editor of the New York Times
Dear Ms. Sullivan:
I gather that my previous communication concerning the February 26, 2012 New York Times dispatch from the village of Nyuru, West Darfur (“A Taste of Hope Sends Refugees Back to Darfur”) seemed not to warrant a response. I assume further that the NYT continues to stand by this dispatch as a legitimate representation of the nature of life in Darfur at the time. This is such a deep and comprehensive failure of journalistic integrity that I feel obliged to circulate this second, fuller communication to you as widely as possible, and have begun by copying this email and distributing it by other electronic means. In short, this is an “open letter.” (read more)
“The Collapsing Sudanese Economy: Political and Military Implications, International Obligations,” Yale Journal of International Relations, May 22, 2013
[This essay was written in early January 2013; little has changed in the macroeconomic picture for either Sudan or South Sudan. Recent mutual threats of an oil stoppage would of course dramatically increase the economic crisis depicted here, and which is already threatening of peace in a range of ways. Inflation continues its relentless rise in Sudan, despite "official figures" suggesting otherwise. The connection between fighting in Jebel Amer (North Darfur) and the Khartoum regime's desperate need of foreign exchange currency has become steadily clearer--May 28, 2013] (read more)
Some reflections on the invisibility of Darfur By Eric Reeves 11 May 2013
I'm often asked, "Is the Darfur situation still awful? is it still a humanitarian crisis?" It's a painful question to have to answer, if only because of the difficulty in providing even a superficial overview of such unfathomable human suffering and destruction; or the brutality of Khartoum's war of attrition against humanitarian relief efforts; or the massive and continuing displacement of civilians (more than 1.3 million since 2007). And it is just as difficult to give an adequate account of the role of the Khartoum regime in sustaining what Human Rights Watch a number of years ago called "Chaos by Design." In fact, the vast crisis in Darfur continues to be "designed"—sustained by denial and obstruction of humanitarian access; by Khartoum's granting impunity to militia proxies engaged in extortion, murder, and land appropriation; and by the relentless military assaults of the regime's regular Sudan Armed Forces and its proxy forces. The SAF air force in particular continues its brutal assaults—largely indiscriminate aerial assaults on civilian targets, of which there have been many hundreds confirmed (seewww.sudanbombing.org). (read more)
Killing UN Peacekeepers: A Ruthless Proclivity of Khartoum's SAF, Militia Proxies By Eric Reeves 9 May 2013
The recent (May 4, 2013) deaths of two UN peacekeepers in Abyei have a chilling familiarity, though to this point there has been no firm establishment of responsibility. Familiar also are the formulaic declarations of outrage coming from various quarters when UN peacekeepers are killed in greater Sudan. There are three large peacekeeping missions there—operating at tremendous expense, and limiting peacekeeping capacity throughout the world. Two of these peacekeeping missions have experienced serious losses because of actions on the part of the Khartoum regime's Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and its militia and paramilitary proxies, typically armed and directed by the SAF and the security apparatus in Khartoum, especially Military intelligence (MI). (read more)
Mr. Nafie Goes to Washington Eric Reeves, May 2, 2013
There has been a good deal of understandable outrage at the decision by the Obama administration to invite to Washington Nafie Ali Nafie, senior advisor to President Omar al-Bashir of the Khartoum regime. Al-Bashir himself could not be invited, of course, because he has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur, crimes in which Nafie is deeply complicit and for which he bears major responsibility. But al-Bashir's voice and that of others in the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party regime will be well represented by Nafie. Indeed, like other members of the regime already indicted by the ICC—including Defense Minister and former Interior Minister Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein—Nafie's own future lies in The Hague if justice is done. His central role in orchestrating the Darfur genocide is well known, indeed is acknowledged by Nafie himself. (read more)
THE DARFUR GENOCIDE AT TEN YEARS: A Reckoning Eric Reeves, 19 April 2013
There is in Darfur no end in sight for conflict, murder, rape, assaults on displaced persons camps, agricultural and village destruction, brutal extortion schemes, and continuing violent human displacement. The primary targets of this mayhem overseen by the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party regime in Khartoum continue to be primarily civilians from African tribal groups surviving tenuously in an increasingly chaotic Darfur; it is the cruelest of counter-insurgency strategies, since the military opponents of the regime are rebel groups that refuse to accept a peace agreement contrived in Doha (Qatar), not ordinary farmers and landholders. Moreover, for several years an increasing number of Arab tribal groups have been drawn into the fighting, often pitting one Arab group against another; this has produced rapidly growing "collateral damage" as Khartoum seeks to subdue Darfur by means of a war of attrition in which impunity, chaos, and inter-ethnic violence serve the regime's ultimate military and political purposes. The insecurity consequent upon such polices threatens international relief organizations, many of which have already withdrawn or been expelled, and many more are contemplating withdrawal. (read more)
Darfur Conflict: Sudan’s Blood Stalemate By James Copnall 29 April 2013
A decade after the disastrous war in Darfur began, there is no end to sight to the fighting.
The intensity of the conflict in Sudan's western region has diminished since its early years, but most of Darfur is still extremely dangerous. More than 1.4 million displaced people still rely on food handouts in camps throughout Darfur, and many others have fled the country.
The multi-layered conflict has also done colossal damage to Sudan's image: The US and many Western activists have accused the government of genocide. Even before the war broke out, Darfur was in trouble. Like many of the regions on Sudan's periphery, it was underdeveloped and politically marginalised. Diminishing rainfall over decades had made life precarious in Darfur, leading to recurring food shortages. (read more)
Sudan: Indiscriminate bombing exacerbates humanitarian crisis in Southern Kordofan By Amnesty International 17 April 2013
The UN Security Council and African Union (AU) must take immediate action to halt indiscriminate attacks in Southern Kordofan, Amnesty International said in a new report that highlights the urgent need for humanitarian access to the conflict-affected areas.
Indiscriminate bombings, lack of humanitarian assistance and massive displacement which has severely disrupted agricultural production, have all conspired to place civilians in the areas controlled by the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N) in Southern Kordofan, in an extremely precarious situation.
This will only get worse in the next few months as food supplies are dwindling and the impending rainy season makes roads impassable.
“The international community continues to watch this catastrophe unfold as the humanitarian situation worsens in conflict-affected areas of Southern Kordofan. It’s time for some concerted action,” said Khairunissa Dhala, Amnesty International’s South Sudan researcher. (read more)
Bombings have severely disrupted daily activities in Southern Kordofan, with civilians seeking shelter in foxholes and caves.
Sudan’s Bashir confirms he will stand down by 2015 19 March 2013 By the Sudan Tribune
Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir has reiterated his intention to step at the end of his term in 2015, saying Sudan is in need of “fresh blood”. In an interview with Qatar’s Al Shraq newspaper due to be published on Wednesday, Bashir said deliberations were now underway within the National Congress Party (NCP) to select a new presidential candidate for the next general elections. ( Read more)
US advocacy group attempts to ward off Sudan envoy pick 19 March 2013 By the Sudan Tribune
As the Obama administration prepares to nominate a new special envoy to Sudan, a major Sudan advocacy organisation has urged secretary of state John Kerry not to nominate former US ambassador to Sudan Tim Carney, who is reportedly being considered for the post, according to US foreign policy blog site The Cable. In a rare move, Act for Sudan is attempting to head off Carney’s possible nomination before it materialises amid concerns his stance on US policy on Sudan could undermine peace efforts in the region. NGOs usually wait until a nomination is announced before they express public opposition. ( Read more)
Jonglei: Dozens wounded in clashes between SPLA, rebels 18 March 2013 By Sudan Tribune
Dozens of people were wounded in fresh clashes between South Sudan’s army (SPLA) and an armed group in Jonglei state over the weekend, eye witnesses toldSudan Tribune. Phillip Aguer, the spokesperson of the army confirmed the incident, but did not unveil further details on casualties involved. ( Read more)
Sudan accepts to negotiates with SPLM-N rebels, NCP sources 14 March 2013 The Sudan Tribune
Sudanese government has accepted to hold direct political talks with the rebel Sudan people’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N) but demanded a delay before engage discussions, a Sudanese source said. A well placed source in the National Congress Party (NCP) on Thursday told Sudan Tribune that consultations are going on between a leading member of the ruling party, the head of the African Union mediation Thabo Mbeki and the SPLM-N leader Malik Agar over the resumption of talks between the two parties. ( Read more)
Sudan Sign Agreement to Resume Oil Exports By Isma’il KusKush 12 March 2013
KHARTOUM, Sudan — Sudan and South Sudan, moving to reduce the hostilities that have severely weakened both of their economies, signed an agreement early Tuesday morning that could lead to the resumption of oil production in two weeks.
“Resumption of production shall take place as soon as technically feasible,” the agreement read. South Sudan became independent of Sudan in 2011, taking with it nearly three quarters of the oil wealth. The pipelines, refinery and port to export the oil, however, are in Sudan. ( Read more)
Ahmed Khatir, Nuba Reports 8 March 2013
On March 7, an Antonov airplane circling over Buram County, South Kordofan dropped 8 bombs in the region. Nobody was hurt in the attack. The bombings started around 3:15 PM. The Antonov dropped 2 bombs in Angolo, destroying 1 house; 3 bombs in Toroji; 1 bomb in Tabanya, causing damage to the Tabanya Primary school and 1 bomb in Buram. A Nuba Reports journalist witnessed the bombing and physically confirmed the locations of the impact sites.
Karim Khan (L), the lawyer for Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain (C) and Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamus (R), both suspected of having committed war crimes in Darfur, speaks at the International Criminal Court in The Hague June 17, 2010 (Reuters)
ICC judges set May 2014 as trial date for two Darfur rebel commanders Sudan Tribune 6 March 2013
(KHARTOUM) – The judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) have decided that the trial for two Darfur rebel commanders accused of killing African peacekeepers will commence in May 2014.
Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain and Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamus each face three counts of violence to life in the form of murder, war crime of attacking a peacekeeping mission and pillaging.
The two men allegedly commanded a 1,000-strong rebel force in the Sept. 2007 attack, on the African Mission in Sudan (AMIS) base in Haskanita in North Darfur. They looted the camp of 17 vehicles, refrigerators, computers, mobile phones, ammunition and money. (read more)
10 Years Later: What Everyone Should Know Now About The Darfur Genocide By Zack Beauchamp, Think Progress 5 March 2013
No one could call it a happy anniversary: roughly ten years ago, the Sudanese government embarked on a genocidal campaign in the Darfur province against local non-Arab ethnic groups, a decision which the U.N. estimated as taking around 300,000 lives. Today, violence is still ongoing in Darfur (albeit at a lower level) and, to make matters worse, the government in Khartoum is escalating a murderous military campaign against rebels and local civilians in two other provinces — South Kordofan and Blue Nile. While many experts will likely weigh in this week with detailed and knowledgable assessments of the violence in Sudan past and present (CAP’s Enough Project, for example, is doing a ten-day commemoration event), it’s also worth exploring the values at work in anti-genocide campaigns. Because a concern with protecting international human rights, and legal accountability for their violation, has deep roots in the American liberal tradition — a point that should remind us why the suffering in Sudan today should be a critical issue for progressives today. (read more)
Armed soldiers stand guard near an aircraft at Talodi in South Kordofan, 50 km from Sudan's ill-defined border with South Sudan, April 12, 2012. (Reuters/Alexander Dziadosz)
Sudan border state fighting affects 1 million, famine looms-western MPs By Katie Nguyen, Alertnet 28 February 2013
LONDON (AlertNet) - The United States, Britain and Australia must urgently address the humanitarian crisis in Sudan's South Kordofan and Blue Nile states which risk suffering a man- made famine, a coalition of 98 politicians has said.
In an open letter to their respective foreign ministers, the politicians compared the Sudanese government's crackdown in South Kordofan and Blue Nile to its offensive to crush a decade-long rebellion in the western region of Darfur.
"Once again, civilians, mainly women and children, are caught in the cross-fire as the Sudanese Armed Forces and associated militias wage war," the letter said. (read more)
Sudan: Qatar Pledges Additional Financial Support for Peace in Darfur, Sources By Sudan Tribune 26 February 2013
Khartoum — The State of Qatar has pledged to provide Khartoum the needed money to implement its commitments provided in the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD), as it pushes a rebel group to conclude negotiations before a donors conference.
The gulf state which sponsors a peace process since 2009 to end Darfur conflict will also host next April a donors conference aiming to collect funds to achieve recovery and development projects, after the signing of the DDPD in July 2011. (read more)
Sudan: Lawmaker Raises Alarm Over Fighting in Darfur By reuters 25th February 2013
Fighting over control of a gold mine in the Darfur region has killed more than 500 people and destroyed 68 villages since January, a Sudanese lawmaker said Monday, sharply increasing estimates of the casualties from the violence. The United Nations had earlier said that the clashes between the Bani Hussein and Rizeigat tribes in North Darfur had displaced 100,000 people and killed more than 100. On Monday, the lawmaker, Adam Sheikha, a member of the ruling National Congress Party from the El Sireaf area that includes the mine, said that 510 people had been killed and 865 wounded since the outbreak of violence. Human rights groups and the United Nations estimate that hundreds of thousands of people have died in Darfur since 2003, when mainly non-Arab rebels took up arms against Sudan’s Arab-led government. In January, Arab tribes in the region, many of whom were armed by the government to help quell the Darfur insurgency, began to fight each other for control of a gold mine and other resources.
“Stop the Planes”—Now! By Eric Reeves 23 February 2013
The plea could hardly be simpler, or more urgent: “Just stop the planes.” This cry for help came from “Khadija,” a woman interviewed by Amnesty International (see below) while standing in front of the bombed remains of her home in a small village in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan.
“Just stop the planes.”
And yet more than twenty months after Khartoum launched its military assault on the Nuba people of South Kordofan, the bombing continues relentlessly. The same is true in neighboring Blue Nile State. And yet neither Amnesty International nor Human Rights Watch nor the International Crisis Group nor any other major organization analyzing and reporting on the situation in South Kordofan has proposed actions or policies that will oblige the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party regime in Khartoum to “stop the planes.” In its latest analysis (February 14, 2013), besides offering the obvious urgings, ICG pleads for a comprehensive response to greater Sudan’s interlocking crises. But its specific recommendation to non- Sudanese parties amounts to a referral to incompetence and ensures inaction— (read more)
UPDATE on the Situation in Darfur
Sudan and Darfur Rebel Group Sign Ceasefire Under UN-African Union Auspices By All Africa 11 February 2013
The Government of Sudan and one of the main rebel factions in Darfur have signed a ceasefire agreement to move the peace process forward, the United Nations-African Union mediator announced today.
"This is a major breakthrough in the road towards a comprehensive and lasting peace accord in Darfur," said Aichatou Mindaoudou, who is also the Acting Joint Special Representative in the UN-AU peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID).
The Government, represented by State Minister and Head of the Darfur Follow-up Office, Amin Hassan Omer, signed the ceasefire with Arko Sulaiman Dahiya, Vice Chairman and Head of Delegation from the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), on 10 February in Doha, Qatar. (read more)
Former UN Sudan Chief visits the country’s warzones: warns of potential for another Darfur scale catastrophe Aegis Trust 18 January 2013
Dr Mukesh Kapila, Special Representative for the Aegis Trust and former UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, has just travelled 1000km through Sudan’s Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile, where international humanitarian relief access has been blocked since armed conflict erupted there between the Sudanese Government and opposition groups in June 2011. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people remain in the two areas, where Government bombing has severely hampered agricultural activity for the past 18 months, triggering desperate food shortages. Dr Kapila also visited South Sudan’s frontier with Darfur, where a ten-year crisis continues to affect millions displaced.
"I witnessed the 21st century's first genocide in Darfur during my time as UN Chief in Sudan in 2003-2004. Returning to Sudan a decade later, I saw the same tactics of systematic ethnic cleansing in full play in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile,” says Dr Kapila, whose visit to the two areas was organised by the Aegis Trust in conjunction with the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART).(read more)
Egypt's former President Mubarak and Sudan's President Bashir shake hands, Photo: AP
Egypt to Join the ICC but also Guarantee Bashir Immunity By Mark Kersten, Justice in Conflict 20 February 2013
Many, many months ago, I wrote that Egypt had declared it was set to join the International Criminal Court (ICC). That was back in early April 2011, when the country was in the midst of the ‘Arab Spring’. Nearly two years later, Egypt’s Minister of Justice, Ahmed Mekki has announced that the country will soon join the Court. But that wasn’t all. Mekki also announced that Egypt will sign an Article 98 Bilateral Immunity Agreement with Sudan in order to prevent Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir from being arrested and surrendered to the ICC. (read more)
Egyptian flies the nation's flag, Photo: Carsten Koall/Getty Images
Soldiers from Sudan’s army rest after gaining control of the area, at the Blue Nile state capital al-Damazin (Reuters)
Sudan army says it recaptured area in Blue Nile from SPLM-N rebels By The Sudan Tribune 18 February 2013
(KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese army announced on Monday that it has reclaimed back an area in the border state of Blue Nile from the rebels of the Sudan People Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N).
The army spokesperson Colonel Al-Sawarmi Khalid Sa’ad was quoted by Sudan official news agency (SUNA) as saying that they liberated Mafo which lies in the southwest part of the state.
Col. Sa’ad went on to say that the army flushed out SPLM-N rebels which he estimated its size there as equivalent to a battalion adding that they had tanks, artillery and Land Cruiser vehicles. (read more)
Darfur refugee, advocate speaks out, shares story By: Arika Herron, Winston-Salem Journal 15 February 2013
It was hard to reconcile the words coming out of Hawa Abdallah Mohammed Salih’s mouth with the woman standing on stage at Mount Tabor High School Friday.
Salih, a 28-year-old refugee and advocate from Darfur, stood strong and proud, smiling as she thanked the several hundred Mount Tabor students who gathered in the high school’s auditorium to listen to her story. Salih’s story is one of true horrors – of burned villages, death threats, arrests, torture and the systematic killing of an entire people.
“I am a witness,” Salih said. “I lost 100 members of my family. My village was destroyed. I am a witness to the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed killing my people.”
A survivor of the Darfur genocide in Sudan -- one of the worst humanitarian tragedies of the modern era -- Salih was forced to flee her village 10 years ago when it was destroyed by the Sudanese government and its militia known as the Janjaweed. Salih and her family had to find shelter in makeshift camps for displaced people. Ten years later, Salih’s family is still there. She only gets to communicate with them every few months. (read more)
Sudan: 13 Arrested on Charges of Plotting Coup
By The Associated Press November 22, 2012
The Sudanese authorities arrested 13 people on Thursday, including the former director of national security, saying they were suspected of plotting a coup. The state-run Radio Omdurman said a “subversive plot” had been uncovered and aborted. Among those arrested was the former director of National Security and Intelligence Services, Lt. Gen. Salah Abdallah Gosh, left, according to Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman. General Gosh was intelligence chief for 10 years before being promoted to security adviser in 2009. Once a member of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s inner circle, he was fired in April 2011 for his criticism of the government. Last summer, Sudan crushed pro-democracy protests inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings. Hundreds of protesters angered by painful economic austerity measures were arrested and detained for demanding the ouster of Mr. Bashir.
Urgent Action60 Nuba Civilians detained in Dillanj
The Sudanese security in South Kordofan/Nuba mountains state, started arrest campaign against Nuba peoples men and women in the past few weeks. The latest campaign in Dillanj, the second biggest city, in Nuba mountains after the capital Kadugli. On November 18th , 60 Nuba peoples were arbitrary arrested among them men and women, they were all taken to the 14th division of the Sudanese armed forces in Dillanj, but their families are not allowed to visit them. The 60 men and women are from Oncho tribe, reside near of Dillanj. (read more)
Addressing the UN on Sudan: Possibly Futile, but Still Necessary
Faith McDonnell The Institute on Religion and Democracy November 20, 2012
One activist has compared the fight to stop Sudan’s jihadist genocide with trying to kill a cancerous tumor with radiation. To most successfully shrink or destroy tumors, radiation oncologists attack them with simultaneously multi-directional radiation beams. Similarly, Sudan activists have learned that it is necessary to conduct multi-directional attacks against the Islamist regime of Omar al Bashir. They attempt to weaken the regime and prevent its atrocities by pressing the Administration, Congress, the media, the financial world, churches and other religious groups, and international leaders. In this spirit, even those of us who have little faith in the United Nations recently signed on to a letter to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), requesting it strongly act to protect innocent civilians in the conflict areas of Sudan. (read more)
Sudan: Power Struggle in Khartoum
By David L. Phillips and Ahmed Hussain Adam, AllAfrica 16 November 2012
ANALYSIS Sudan is on the brink. Its military has suffered humiliating defeat and dishonor. The economy is in free-fall. Islamist factions are breaking ranks with the regime. President Omar al-Bashir's allies can see the writing on the wall. Khartoum has become a snake-pit, with everyone trying to promote their power and privilege in the event of Bashir's demise. Bashir is seeking to consolidate control by embracing Islamists and Shariah law. The so-called "Islamic Movement Conference" will convene later this month to choose a new Secretary General of the Islamic Movement for Sudan. Nothing new will come from the Conference, even though Islamist leaders from around the world may join. The Movement is just a symbolic body, with no real political authority or integrity. (read more)
Muslims, Christians targeted by Sudanese strongman al-Bashir in aerial assault
By Joshua Rhett MillerFoxNews.com November 14, 2012
Sudanese strongman Omar al-Bashir has launched aerial bombardments with increased frequency in the oil-rich Nuba Mountains, where Muslims and Christians alike are being targeted with “tremendous” force, experts told FoxNews.com. The attacks led by al-Bashir, who remains wanted for genocide by the International Criminal Court, have reached their highest levels in the past two months since the conflict began in June 2011. And while it remains very difficult to estimate how many people have died, more than 300,000 people of indigenous ethnic groups known collectively as the Nuba peoples have been displaced in South Kordofan, a province of Sudan, according to Ryan Boyette, a former American aid worker who lives in the region. (read more)
Humanitarian Crisis in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states of Sudan Hannibal Travis 14 November 2012
There is a humanitarian crisis affecting at least 650,000 at-risk people in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states of Sudan, and refugees across the border in South Sudan. Contrary to recent suggestions that the emergency has been managed to some kind of chronic or normal condition, USAID's Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net) reported this July that South Kordofan was an emergency and that conditions were expected to fall below the "stressed" condition. (read more)
International Acceptance of Khartoum's Continuing Campaign of Extermination The Fate of the "Tripartite Agreement" on Humanitarian Access to South Kordofan and Blue Nile
Eric Reeves November 12, 2012
For well over a year, the world has known fully—from a wide range of sources—about military efforts by Khartoum to starve more than one million civilians in South Kordofan, and subsequently Blue Nile—overwhelmingly people of the African tribal groups in these two regions. These people are perceived by the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party (NIF/NCP) regime as the civilian base of support for the indigenous political and military rebellion by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army-North (SPLM/A-North). The means of destruction have been various, but starvation is the potent weapon of mass destruction that is every day more fully deployed, not only in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, but in the refugee camps in South Sudan (and to a lesser extent in Ethiopia) to which some 250,000 people have fled (OCHA Sudan Humanitarian Bulletin, October 22 – 28, 2012). Many have died during this flight or in camps that have been nearly overwhelmed by the challenges of providing humanitarian assistance in these remote regions, particularly Upper Nile State. Many more have died invisibly in Blue Nile and South Kordofan. Humanitarian indicators, discussed below in overview, are terrifying and rapidly growing worse. (read more)
Letter to UN Security Council
November 11, 2012
Dear Members of the United Nations Security Council,
Thank you for your attention with regard to resolving the outstanding matters between Sudan and South Sudan related to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 and for your efforts to address the dangerous and ongoing crises in Sudan.We write to you in reference to UNSC Resolution 2046 and your expressed intention to take appropriate measures under Article 41 of the UN Charter if any or all parties fail to comply with the Resolution. (read more)
As If We Are Not Living On The Same Planet
A Congratulatory Message to President and Mrs. Barack Obama
Dear Ambassador Lyman, the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan:
The SPLM-North and the majority of the Sudanese people were inspired and energized by the American election, and the core values and democratic peaceful exercises it involves that result in respect for the will of the people and the recognition of diversity as a matter of national strength for the United States. The American election came as a contrast to the tragic situation the Sudanese people are in, being ruled for 23 years by an indicted President that is continuing to commit genocide against his own people and has used the resources of the country, the taxpayer’s money and the Sudanese national army to commit genocide and war crimes. What a contrast. It is as if we are not living on the same planet. (read more)
U.N. ELECTS GENOCIDAL SUDAN TO ITS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL UN Watch Urges U.S., EU, U.N. Chief to Speak Out
8 November, 2012
NEW YORK-UN Watch, the Geneva-based non-governmental human rights group, urged UN chief Ban Ki-moon, rights commissioner Navi Pillay, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice and the EU’s Catherine Ashton to condemn today’s U.N. election of “genocidal, misogynistic and tyrannical” Sudan to its 54-member Economic and Social Council, a top U.N. body that regulates human rights groups, oversees U.N. committees on women's rights, and crafts resolutions from Internet freedom to female genital mutilation. (read more)
For Immediate Release Sudan: North Darfur Attack Kills 13 Civilians Hold Attackers Accountable; Allow Peacekeepers Access
Human Rights Watch Press Release Nairobi, November 7, 2012
– The government of Sudan should urgently investigate an attack on a village in North Darfur on November 2, 2012, that killed 13 civilians, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should allow African Union/United Nations (UNAMID) peacekeepers prompt and full access to the site. Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that at around 8 a.m. on November 2, scores of heavily armed men in vehicles and on camels attacked Sigili, an ethnic Zaghawa village 40 kilometers southeast of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. The attackers entered the village, fired on civilians, and looted and burned shops and homes. Thirteen civilians, including two infants, were killed and several more were wounded or abducted. (read more)
Sudan Blocks UN Force from Investigating Deaths
ABC News, Associated Press November 3, 2012
CAIRO -The international peacekeeping force in Sudan's Darfur region said Saturday that its forces were blocked by the military from reaching the destination of an alleged attack that killed 10 people. The hybrid U.N. and African Union peacekeeping force, UNAMID, said in a statement that mourners brought 10 bodies reportedly killed in Friday's attack to the gate of its headquarters in Darfur on Saturday. The Sudanese military blocked its convoy from reaching the area of the alleged attack to gather information on the incident, it added. Friday's attack reportedly took place in Sigili village, located in the Shawa area in North Darfur state. Hundreds marched in a symbolic show of unity through North Darfur's capital city of el-Fasher to protest the incident on Saturday. (read more)
Concerning civilians in Blue Nile and South Kordofan, an open letter to: Princeton Lyman, U.S. Special Envoy for SudanDepartment of State Washington, DC
Eric Reeves November 5, 2012
Dear Ambassador Lyman: I write to you to express my profound dismay at the character of Obama administration responses to the various political and humanitarian crises that continue to define greater Sudan. I wish in particular to express my distress at the failure of the administration you represent to respond with appropriate urgency and commitment to the vast and still-growing humanitarian crises in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, as well as the consequent exodus of Sudanese refugees to South Sudan. These immense and geographically wide-ranging humanitarian crises must also include the more than 100,000 Dinka Ngok who fled before and after Khartoum's military seizure of Abyei in May 2011—an egregious violation of the Abyei Protocol that is key to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). (read more)
Sudanese Marginalized Forum USA: Condemn the Sudanese Communist Party’s Shamed Statement on the bombing of Yarmouk Military Factory as “scandal line support of the Islamo-Arab extremists”
The Sudanese Communist Party revealed its radical nationalist Arabism face through the statement issued on October 27, 2012, after Yarmouk Military Factory was struck on Oct 23rd, the factory that produces banned weapons internationally and was founded and backed by Iran and it supports Hezbollah and Hamas as well as the National Congress Party regime, that classified as countries and organizations sponsor terrorism. The targeted factory that manufactures bombs and long range Weapons including Shihab missiles and banned bombs which have all been used against civilians and innocent children, women and elderly and have continue to destroy all infrastructure causing the displacement and replacement of the population in Nuba Mountains / Southern Kordofan, Darfur, Blue Nile and the all Sudanese marginalized regions. (read more)
Genocidal Massacres in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile State, Sudan
Hashem Mekki, Genocide Watch 1 November, 2012
As a Nuban, I am disappointed that the international community has ignored the crimes against humanity committed by the Sudanese Armed Forces against our people. Because its priority is to avoid a return to war between Sudan and South Sudan, the international community has turned a blind eye to bombing, starvation and massacres in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile. To make matters worse, the US and EU are now even pushing for investment in Sudan – the perpetrator of the violence – thereby helping the regime of Al-Bashir continue its human rights abuses unhindered, the same way it did in Darfur. (read more)
KHARTOUM, Oct 31 (KUNA) -- The Darfur Regional Authority announced here at a press conference today that it would ask the donor nations conference, to be held in Doha in December, for the sum of USD 8 billion.
This sum was arrived at as a result of studies jointly undertaken by the government of Darfur with its international partners and donors to determine the amount of monies needed for development projects in that region, said Authority spokesperson Ibrahim Madbo, who insinuated that the eight billion dollars might be adjusted at a later date, with the possibility of increasing it.
Madbo expressed great optimism that the Doha conference would satisfactorily address the urgent requirements of his region.
The Doha donors conference came about as part of recommendations reached at the Doha peace conference on Darfur, when the Sudanese government signed a peace agreement with the Freedom and Justice Movement of Darfur in July of last year, which ended a conflict between the two sides since 2003.
Some armed groups in Darfur refused to join the peace agreement because it did not address some of their demands. The fight between the Sudanese government and that of Darfur resulted in the death and displacement of over two million people.
Ban Ki-moon is calling for an investigation after one peacekeeper was killed and three others wounded in an ambush. Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, has demanded an investigation after one peacekeeper was killed and three others wounded in an ambush in Sudan's North Darfur state. Martin Nesirky, Ban's spokesman, said on Wednesday that all the victims from the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) had South African nationality. "The secretary general urges the government of the Sudan to conduct a full investigation and to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice," a statement from Ban said. "The secretary general expresses his condolences to the government of the Republic of South Africa, UNAMID and to the family of the fallen peacekeeper." A joint statement from the 15 members of the UN Security Council condemned the attack in the strongest terms, and called on the Sudanese authorities "to swiftly investigate the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice." (read more)
Fiddling While Sudan BurnsHelp Nuba – A Sudan Advocacy Organization
By Rabbi Kaufman on October 11, 2012
Furious is the word that best describes the reaction to efforts made by the United Nations, African Union, United States and Europe to improve the economic state of Sudan even as it continues to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching hundreds of thousands of people in the Nuba Mountains. The international community is so focused on prevention of fighting between Sudan and South Sudan that it has chosen to wholly abandon the demand of requiring Sudan to allow humanitarian access into rebel held areas of South Kordofan and is actively counteracting its own sanctions regimes against the genocidal government of Sudan by promoting investment. This insanity must cease! (read more)
GENOCIDE EMERGENCY: THE NUBA MOUNTAINS of SUDAN
By Genocide Watch, 8 March 2012
After years of war, as South Sudan celebrates its independence, Sudan’s state of South Kordofan is again afflicted by genocide. South Kordofan is situated in a geopolitical hot spot, bordering northern Sudan and South Sudan. It is strategically, and geographically important due to the significant oil reserves in the region. Like Darfur, the state of South Kordofan suffers from long-term political and economic marginalization.
In the heart of South Kordofan are the Nuba Mountains, also known as ‘Jibal al-Nuba’, home to the Nuba people. Over fifty Nuba tribes live in the Nuba mountains. They are not united politically. The Sudanese government’s long-term goal is to transform Sudan into an Islamic Arab state. The Nuba suffered genocidal massacres and were driven into displaced persons camps in the 1990’s. They are again under brutal military attack by Sudanese armed forces.
The Nuba people have suffered from oppression, discrimination, and genocide. In the early 1980’s the Nuba’s growing discontent with the government’s Arabist policies, drove many Nuba to join the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLM/A.) The late John Garang’s vision of a “new Sudan” in which Sudan would become a secular state, where diversity was respected, resonated well with the Nuba.
In efforts to weaken the SPLM/A, the government in Khartoum launched attacks on the Nuba. The National Islamic Front initiated a jihadist campaign intended to eradicate the Nuba population. Government forces, especially the Air Force, along with government-armed militias, committed mass atrocities in the Nuba Mountains. Under the Genocide Convention, the atrocities committed in 1990’s against the Nuba were acts of genocide.
From 1987 to 2001 the Nuba Mountains were a war zone. In 2002, a ceasefire agreement was signed. The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement failed to address many of the issues concerning the Nuba. The Nuba were not permitted to vote in the January 2011 referendum on southern secession from Sudan.
State elections in South Kordofan were repeatedly delayed. In May 2011, elections were held, many anticipated that Abdel Aziz al Hila, a popular former commander of the SPLA would win the election for Governor of South Kordofan. However, the National Elections Commission appointed by Omar al-Bashir officially announced that Ahmed Haroun won the elections. The SPLM/A has stated that the election outcome was fraudulent.
Haroun is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for atrocities he committed in Darfur. He is charged with 20 counts of crimes against humanity and 22 counts of war crimes. The Sudanese government has refused to surrender Haroun. Instead al-Bashir promoted him from Chairman of the Humanitarian Affairs Commission (HAC) to Governor of South Kordofan. It is appalling that a criminal like Haroun has been rewarded for committing acts of genocide. The South Kordofan elections signify the vindictiveness and incompetence of the Sudanese regime, and the elections illustrate the culture of impunity in Sudan. Haroun lives in Khartoum and is afraid to set foot in South Kordofan.
The National Congress Party issued a letter to SPLA headquarters stating that by 1st of June the SPLA units in the state of South Kordofan must disarm in accordance to the CPA’s provision. On June 5, 2011 under the pretext of “counter – insurgency,” the government started supplying Arab –based local militia with arms to murder Nuba civilians. The Sudan Armed forces (SAF) along with Arab militia are currently engaging in widespread, systematic attacks on Nuba civilians that are intended to destroy in part the Nuba ethnicity. These acts constitute genocide and crimes against humanity.
There are innumerable reports of government military units called the "Abu Tiera” rounding up innocent civilians using prepared execution lists, proof of intentional premeditation. The Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) are using a systematic policy of intimidation, rape, torture, and detention against women and children and the elderly. Genocide Watch has received reports that populated areas in the Nuba Mountains are subject to aerial bombings by the Sudan Air Force, followed by ground attacks.(Read More)
Activists claim video shows Sudanese forces repeating Darfur genocide
Guardian Reporter, Mail & Guardian 17 October, 2012
The Satellite Sentinel Project says it has evidence of indiscriminate attacks by the Sudanese government in the state of South Kordofan.More Coverage Dramatic video footage and satellite images have revealed Sudanese security forces are waging a violent campaign in the Nuba mountains comparable to war crimes in Darfur, activists have claimed. The Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP), whose founders include Hollywood actor George Clooney, posted a video online that they say shows the terrifying ordeal of a teenager being tied up and interrogated at gunpoint as a village goes up in flames. (read more)
State news: Sudan to reopen borders with South Sudan
CNN Wire Staff 8 October, 2012
Despite periodic violence and continued unresolved issues, Sudan's president on Sunday authorized the reopening of all border crossings with South Sudan, state news reported. President Omar al-Bashir ordered the reopening of all passages -- by land, water and air -- between his African nation and its newly independent neighbor South Sudan, the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reported. The president met Sunday with Foreign Minister Ali Ahmad Karti and Mutrif Sadiq, Sudan's recently appointed ambassador to South Sudan, to ask his help in carrying out the directives and make normalizing relations between the two countries a priority.Sudan, South Sudan peace talks continue. (read more)
Sudan urges cancellation of its debts
Al Jazeera 30 September, 2012
Foreign minister tells UN Sudan needs assistance to recover after critical oil revenue was lost when the South seceded.
Sudan has told the United Nations General Assembly that its debts must be cancelled and its economy supported as it struggles to recover from losing three-quarters of its critical oil revenue to South Sudan when it seceded a year ago. "Sudan requires assistance to go through this very sensitive stage towards better horizons. For that we believe that debts must be cancelled and its economy supported," Ali Ahmed Karti, the Sudanese foreign minister, said on Saturday. The International Monetary Fund this week urged Sudan to meet donors to discuss debt relief and some IMF board members called for "exceptional efforts" from the IMF and the global community to help Sudan reduce its debt of about $40bn. South Sudan seceded in July 2011. Leaders from both states finally reached a border security deal on Wednesday to restart badly needed oil exports, but failed to solve the other key conflicts left over from when they split. (read more)
Leaders from the two Sudans recently reached a border security deal to restart badly needed oil exports [Reuters]
AFS SUPPORTS GENOCIDE EXPERTS CALL FOR THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO ACT
Act for Sudan, a bipartisan alliance of American citizen activists and Sudanese U.S. residents who advocate for an end to genocide and mass atrocities in Sudan, today welcomed the letter to the Obama administration from the global genocide scholar and expert community concerning Sudan. In the letter, 62 genocide scholars stated, “Sufficient evidence exists for us to believe the Sudanese regime is attempting to annihilate those whom the government suspects of supporting the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North’s (SPLM-N) aims. Hence many local people are automatically targeted regardless of their true political affiliations.” The letter highlights the humanitarian crisis, saying, “The Sudanese regime continues to slaughter its own civilians, while denying them access to aid and in defiance of various international treaties and conventions it has signed, not to mention the Sudanese constitution” and details the steps that the United States should immediately take “to ensure aid is delivered to South Kordofan and Blue Nile.”
Act for Sudan welcomes this clear leadership from the world’s top academic leaders on the ongoing campaigns of mass atrocities being committed in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states of Sudan.
In the media release accompanying this letter, genocide scholar Samuel Totten stated,“It has become impossible for us to remain silent. We exist to remind the world that genocide is not a crime merely found in history books, but something we must stand strongly against in both word and deed right now. If we do not stand with the victims, then we are automatically standing with those who commit such crimes. We urge the Obama administration to take a stand against these atrocities now for this very reason; otherwise, history will be unforgiving for further inaction.”
Act for Sudan calls on the Obama administration to make a public statement in response to this letter and begin a new course for U.S. policy on Sudan that embraces the protection of civilians from mass atrocities.
August 27, 2012
To: President Barack Obama
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice
Special Assistant to the President Samantha Power.
From: The Undersigned Genocide Scholars
Subject: Humanitarian Catastrophe in South Kordofan and Blue Nile States of Sudan
On June 6, 2011, the Sudanese regime, led by indicted war criminal Omar al-Bashir, unleashed a wave of targeted ethnic killings against the people of the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan state, Sudan. Since then this state-sponsored violence has spread to engulf much of South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.
The continuing multiple atrocities amount to at least crimes against humanity. This, in and of itself, is alarming. According to the tenets of the Responsibility to Protect now is the time to protect the targeted population. (Read More)
Dear fellow members of Act for Sudan:
Mark Hackett and I are working with a group to get desperately needed food and aid to the Nuba people. We are working with Nuba leaders, including but not limited to the Nuba Relief, Rehabilitation, and Development Organization (NRRDO), and working to get there ASAP. This action will be publicized afterward to bring much needed awareness, attention, and pressure for the world community to respond to this crisis with accelerated intervention.
Mark has offered Operation Broken Silence as the 501c3 organization to process the funds for this endeavor.
Knowing that you are all concerned for the Nuba and others who suffer under these genocides of Sudan, we would like to offer those who would like to participate in meeting their needs an opportunity to do so by supporting this effort with whatever you may contribute, including others you know who would also like to help.
You can donate through Mark's or Slater's fundraising pages to help us reach our committed goals, or you can create a fundraising page for yourself or form a team to work on it together.
The Nuba people of South Kordofan province in Sudan experienced genocide from 1985-2002, and the world was never informed about it. This was happening while we witnessed Bosnia and Rwanda and the world community cried "Never Again!" The Nuba lost approx 50% of their population as they experienced the brutality of rape and pillage tactics of the Mujahadeen ("holy warriors"); constant aerial bombardment and "peace camps" (concentration camps) by their own government; and forced famine.
"In Laying Waste to the Nuba Mountains, Amnesty International reports thousands of civilians dead, tens of thousands in peace villages, total destruction of scores of villages, and the prevention of relief efforts to respond to devastated civilians. Because of the cordon sanitaire, and without a land link to other SPLA-controlled areas, many Nuba consider themselves the Africans most exposed to the political and cultural domination of the Arab north. The Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance and the British NGO Christian Solidarity International reported the continuation of this Sudanese Government approach as this was being written in the summer of 1996." - http://www.raceandhistory.com/historicalviews/nuba.htm
In June of 2011, the Omar al-Bashir regime in Sudan once again unleashed a wave of killing, rape, and forced starvation against the Nuba people in South Kordofan province, home to the historic Nuba Mountains. Daily aerial bombardments and ground attacks against civilians have kept the Nuban people from being able to farm the land that is historically and legally theirs. With no food growing in the region and Bashir refusing to allow humanitarian aid in, hundreds of thousands of lives are now threatened by war-related causes such as preventable disease and forced starvation.
An Operation Broken Silence assesment team, a member organization of the End Nuba Genocide Coalition, slipped across the frontlines into the Nuba Mountains on the one year anniversary of the war in June of 2012. While there, the team witnessed the stunning results of the crimes outlined above. Market places are without food to sell or are completely abandoned. Small clinics have run out of the most basic first aid supplies. A failure to vaccinate the next generation of children has led to a measles outbreak. As the team drove further north into the Nuba Mountains, they passed through deserted towns, some being bombed and burned to the ground during the ongoing genocide being committed against the Nuban people. Those who survived fled across the border into South Sudan or further north into the Nuba Mountains.
With the atrocities ongoing and no signs of Bashir allowing direly needed aid into the Nuba Mountains, we can no longer wait and hope for other governments to step in and forcefully bring relief. Daily bombings, ground fighting, starvation, and preventable disease are claiming lives right now.The End Nuba Genocide Coalition, an international network of organizations, faith-based institutions, genocide scholars, and individuals has come together to raise funds for the purchasing and delivery of urgently needed humanitarian aid, including food, medicine, clinic supplies, and clean water solutions directly into the Nuba Mountains and to refugees who have fled to South Sudan. International bodies and other governments may not be willing to push aid directly into war-affected areas, but together we are.
Spread the word. Ask your friends, family, and coworkers to join.
If you would like to donate by check or cash, please make contributions out to "Operation Broken Silence" with the words "End the Nuba Genocide" in the memo line and send to: Operation Broken Silence, P.O. Box 3715, Cordova, TN, 38018
Please include your email address in the envelope so we can email you a receipt. If you would like to donate to a particular indviduals campaign, please include their name as well.
Proposed Nuba Mountains Legislation will track Darfur law (Click Here)
For supportive information on the extension of the scorched-earth genocide policy (Click Here)
To view the "Public Redacted Version of the Prosecutor's Application under Article 58" by International Criminal Court for the Situation in Darfur, Sudan, click here
South Kordofan a growing concern
The situation in the Nuba Mountains is dire. The government in Khartoum continues to launch aerial attacks on civilians, humanitarian aid is restricted, and the number of wounded and killed is growing by the hour. Hundreds and thousands of civilians are fleeing to South Sudan and Ethiopia. The influx of refugees is creating yet another humanitarian catastrophe. Inadequate food supplies are causing famine like conditions. Read More
“I came because I was starving,” said Muhasin Kuwa, a 24-year-old woman who just arrived at the refugee camp. Both of her parents had starved to death, along with seven small children in her small village, she said. Click here
Sudan on the brink of War
In a two-hour interview on Blue Nile TV, the president of Sudan Omer Hassan al-Bashir stated that war is now a possibility. "The climate now is closer to a climate of war than one of peace." Bashir Read more
Genocide Watch is the Coordinator of the International Alliance to End Genocide P.O. Box 809, Washington, D.C. 20044 USA. Phone: 1-202-643-1405 E-mail:communications@genocidewatch.org
