Sudan’s new war zone
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Sudan’s new war zone
Published on : 13 September 2011 – 3:10pm | By RNW Africa Desk (RNW)
Nuba Mountains
The Nuba Mountains are mainly inhabited by ethnic African peoples. Most of the two million Nuba’s are Muslim. The region of South Kordofan – where the Nuba Mountains are – is Sudan’s main oil area. The other oil fields are now in South Sudan which became independent on 9 July.
The Nuba’s struggle used to be closely connected to the war in the non-Islamic South Sudan. In 1989, the Nuba rebels entered into alliance with the South- Sudanese Liberation Army, SPLA. In the 2005 peace agreement between President Omar Al-Bashir’s government and the SPLA, the provinces of Blue Nile and South Kordofan were promised “popular consultations” to determine their constitutional future within north Sudan.
These consultations have never taken place. Ahmed Haroun of Al-Bashir’s ruling party was elected governor of the region in disputed elections in May. Haroun is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes committed in Darfur.
They come to the Nuba Mountain region every day, the Sudanese government planes. “They dropped three bombs,” says Yasamin in the village of Koleli, “two women were killed and several children wounded.” The young man sits near a Baobob tree, which has been split in two by the bombardments. At the end of Ramadan last month, the bombs were followed by a ground attack by Sudanese government forces. “They took some of our possessions, they raped women and abducted several young men,” Yasamin continues. “They shouted: ‘you are SPLM, we are going to finish you.”
By Koert Lindijer, Koleli
Koleli lies near the town of Dilling, which is controlled by government forces. But in the countryside around the town, the northern rebel group the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement North (SPLM/N) has a free hand. The rebels are not stationed right in Koleli – their camps are always a little bit removed from the population centres.
The new South
Civilians have now become the targets in a new war that has broken out in northern Sudan. Fighting began in June in the Nuba Mountains, then spread this month to the neighbouring Blue Nile state. “The new southern Sudan”, the residents call their area, referring to the 50 years of civil war in South Sudan which separated from the north in July. What all these areas have in common is that they are inhabited by black Africans, in contrast to the Arabs and Arabic people elsewhere in the north. “They tried to exterminate us Africans and take our land,” says SPLM/N commander Logli Drod.
Many Nuba’s have seen it all before, when they fought alongside the southern Sudanese against the government between 1989 and 2002. But now the rebels also control large areas west of the Nuba Mountains, a region where they not previously active. And here, where the population have no experience of war, the bombardments instil the most fear.
Afraid of the dark
Hakama Adam offers a plate offers a plate of food to her granddaughter Amona. Together with her 100-year-old husband, she lives with several families in a cave. For three months she has been hiding here, because of the terror from the air. Amona bites her nails. “I want to go back to school. I am afraid of the dark here and there are so many snakes.” Her school at the foot of the mountain was also hit by bombs.
Thousands of Nuba’s are thought to have taken shelter in the caves over the last few weeks. They fled the towns after a wave of arrests of SPLM/N supporters. They say that Nuba’s, including those who are members of the governing National Congress party, are being dismissed from government jobs, arrested and killed. “It is genocide against us,” says Kula Mayon, a teacher who escaped from the town of Lagowa.
Run behind the bomb
Government troops have set up roadblocks around the towns and the rural people are not allowed in to trade or to buy food. Many have been unable to plant their crops because of the bombardments and famine looms on the horizon. Foreign aid agencies have been refused access by the government.
“We are being strangled,” says Hassan, who works for a local NGO. He tries to teach the Nuba how to protect themselves when the bombs fall. “Lie flat on the ground, don’t run. He shows me an area where what the SPLM/N claims was a chemical bomb has fallen. Fumes rise from a pool of water in the small bomb crater that irritate the eyes and the nose. “When this type of bomb falls, I advise you to cover your mouth with your T-Shirt. And run behind the bomb, against the wind.”
http://www.rnw.nl/africa/article/sudan%E2%80%99s-new-war-zone-0
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