“The situation in the Sudan is worsening while recording new peaks of violence and continue to unfold acts of repression against Christians and opponents, particularly college students groups that are continuing the mobilization against Omar al Bashir’s regime.”
This in brief summary comes from the 2016 Report: Sudan, Darfur and other crisis, realized by the NGO Italians for Darfur to document human rights violations and repression of freedom of information in Sudan and South Sudan.
South Sudan afflicted by famine and malaria
The annual report also monitors the situation in the fronts of conflict, noting the resumption from August 2016 of the civil war in South Sudan, with over 2 million 200 thousand displaced people and half the population dependent on humanitarian aid, but also the massive bombing of the Nuba Mountains and in Blue Nile State.
The report shows that in recent weeks the crisis in South Sudan has worsened as a result of a terrible famine that brought the country to face unprecedented levels of food insecurity with 2.8 million people, almost 25% of the population, which continues to be in urgent need of food.
The situation is aggravated by the on going conflict from December 2013 with continuous clashes and attacks, which also hit the positions of the United Nations hosting displaced people. The most recent episode, last February 18, recorded a balance of 18 dead and 25 wounded in Unrefugee camp in Malakal, in the northern part of South Sudan.
A confidential communication from the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) reported that the National Liberation Army of Sudan soldiers (SPLA) took part in the attack targeting the displaced, burning tents and looting properties.
The situation of instability caused by the violence resulted in additional delays for the food support to the population and the study, citing an update of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), shows that the next season of “lean”, where food is scarce, It will begin early this year and the food crisis will be more severe from over the years.
The evidence of the use of chemical weapons in Darfur
The report also contains new evidence, documenting the use of chemical weapons in Darfur, where for fourteen years there is an ongoing conflict, which has caused 300 thousand deaths and more than two and a half million displaced.
The images that prove the use of chemical weapons against civilians in the Jebel Marra, which takes its name from the volcano symbol of Darfur, have been gathered by Abdel Wahid al Nur, leader of the Movement/Sudan Liberation Army (SLM/A), currently in exile in France.
Distressing images, showing civilians with terrible injuries caused by chemical agents, have been exhibited in Rome at a hearing at the Human Rights Commission of the Senate, where last week was presented the report.
The testimonies report that as a result of chemicalsattacks many of the survivors were disfigured, with the skin flayed full of blisters, ulcers, blisters, and some of them undergo the continuation of an increasing agony, while others have lost their sight and have serious problems respirators.
Last April, Italians for Darfur had already denounced the first episodes, then confirmed in September by an Amnesty International report, which revealed that at least 250 civilians, including many children, were killed during a thirty chemical attacks in 2016.
The documentation of these war crimes was extremely difficult because last year no journalist, activist and aid worker was able to carry out research in the field. The region, controlled by SLM/A’s rebels, since 2003 is at war with the central government and is besieged by the Sudanese armed forces, which from the beginning of 2016 launched an offensive on a large scale by intensifying the attacks.
Always in the Jebel Marra area, also in 2017, in at least three episodes were dropped chemical agents contained in aerial bombs and rockets. In most of the 171 villages affected, however, there were only civilians and did not register the presence of armed rebels.
Over a hundred of these villages were completely destroyed, and more than 50 thousand people were forced to flee. Some took refuge in the caves in the Marra Mountains, while others have been brought in the refugee camps.
The United Nations estimates that at least 34 thousand civilians are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance in this area of Darfur. However, the crisis remains serious throughout the region where only last year there were more than 600 thousand newly displaced.
Simultaneously, the conflict in Darfur has further intensified, spreading in the Abyei area, in South Kordofan and Blue Nile, pushing hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee even from these areas.
@afrofocus
“The situation in the Sudan is worsening while recording new peaks of violence and continue to unfold acts of repression against Christians and opponents, particularly college students groups that are continuing the mobilization against Omar al Bashir’s regime.”
