War. Again.

STATEMENT BY THE UN RESIDENT AND HUMANITARIAN COORDINATOR IN SUDAN ON THE SITUATION IN BLUE NILE STATE

The United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan is deeply concerned about the recent outbreak of fighting in Blue Nile State between the Sudan Armed Forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North which has already caused thousands of people to flee their homes.

The fighting, which started in the State capital, Ed Damazine, on the evening of 1 September, has spread to other parts of the State and thousands of people are reported to have fled their homes. In Kurmuk, in the southern part of the State, some 16,000 people are reported to have fled across the border into neighbouring Ethiopia since the fighting began. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Ethiopia is currently assessing the needs of those who crossed the border.

The United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator called on both the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North to end the fighting immediately and to seek to resolve any disputes through peaceful means, to prevent more loss of life and to enable displaced people to return to their homes. He also called on both sides to allow humanitarian staff to assess the needs of civilians affected by the fighting as soon as it is safe to do so, so that they can assist in addressing any urgent needs. He emphasized that both sides have a responsibility to ensure the protection of humanitarian staff and to prevent any looting and destruction of offices and warehouses where vital aid is stored, noting that we must avoid a repeat of incidents of this nature that have been witnessed elsewhere in Sudan recently.

More media coverage from New York Times and Time Magazine and Eric Reeves overview Here. 


"Are we seeking power for power’s sake? Or are we seeking to make the world and our nation better places to live? If we seek the latter, violence can never provide the answer. The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that".

 - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Save Nuba

Darfur (and all the horrors that this place-name is capable of invoking) is happening all over again.. just next door, in a beautiful place called The Nuba Mountains. Ethnic cleansing, hidden away from the eyes of the world by a guilty government. A repeat of performance of previous atrocities committed there in the 1990's. And somehow it can happen again, despite the UN watching on and the repeated requests by local NGOs for international monitors to be allowed in.  Aerial bombing and denial of humanitarian-aid access are their chosen tools. (I would go in, if only I could..) Sudan certainly has a talent for genocide.
                                                  
I asked a Nubian colleague of mine how his family are doing. He smiled and said they were fine. I asked where were they and he said they were hiding in the caves in the mountains and not coming out in the day time, to avoid the bombs. That is why they are fine. For now. 

(I'm sorry, but some images in the clip are horrific. War is horrific.)

So, you see, while the world blindly celebrates The Republic of South Sudan, war still plagues other parts of this broken land. The strategic segregation of separate peace deals across this country has its critics. John Prendergast makes some suggestions to US Policy interventions here, worth a read. 

In his words:

"This is a dynamic time in international relations and should allow for a re-examination

of what is possible in Sudan. The international responsibility to protect civilian life

is making a comeback and aggressive measures must be deployed in response to the

crimes against humanity in the Nuba Mountains. The Arab Spring has opened the door

to sweeping reform that should not leave Sudan untouched. And the stove-piped policy

of mediating individual Sudanese conflicts—marked by continuous accommodation of

the Bashir regime’s international neutrality—has failed the people of Sudan. It’s time to

try something else."

Where it's at

To mourn or celebrate?

Returning to Sudan after two months at home has been an interesting mix of emotions. In 5 days time this will no longer be the biggest country in Africa. The partition into two separate countries was meant to be about peace. About finding peace, finally, after all this time. I see the separation as a kind of acceptance of human-kinds intolerance to what is different and the inability to coexist with the unfamiliar. But if dividing means less innocent lives end up suffering, then perhaps this is a just acceptance.  The last few weeks however, leading up to this 'peace',  have been nothing but bloodshed in the sensitive border regions of South Kordofan and the disputed town of Abyei. It feels poor taste to be celebrating anything when civilian women and children are running to shelter from their own government bombing them. Meanwhile in sunny Darfur, bombs over Jebel Mara, intermittent village attacks and kidnapping threats on aid-workers continue, making it equally as difficult to celebrate the split. Locals talk about other regions now separating from Khartoum, South Kordofan and of course Darfur. But drawing borders has never been a strong-suit of this long cursed country.

Today I spent 8 hours in a camp, amongst hundreds of  displaced Darfuri families, as we conducted our re-verification of ration cards. As I ushered women and babies about and grabbed the occasional translated conversation, I could not help but be shocked, once again, (continually!) at the desperately poor situation these peoples lives take shape in, simply because their government has neglected them time and time again throughout history. Their countrymen in Khartoum live in substantial wealth, as they drive their imported cars and send their kids to university.  Out here, they will only ever dream of such things.  It is days like this, as I look into their faces and the state of the children, that I understand the anger that fuelled this fight in the first place and the need to disassociate with a country that is clearly not their own. 

This is what is happening next door to where I am based.

Credit to Rebecca Hamilton for the Washington post. 

Please read this full article if you have time..

"So you know, this is not a war about south versus north, nor Christian against Muslim, or black against arab. There are as many Muslim Nuba as Christian (and a healthy percentage of traditional spirituality), they see their future in the north, they are intermarried and have been living along side arab nomadic groups and northern communities for centuries. There are nomadic arab communities in southern Kordofan who also voted for the SPLM and many of the Misseriya and Hawazma groups remain as marginalised as the Nuba; and as vulnerable to the policies of the centre. The Nuba SPLM are not the same as the southern SPLM/A. They are fighting to resist a regime that refuses them basic rights and a voice - access to justice and even basic social and economic rights. This is so important because the Nuba offer a vision for Sudan that builds on religious tolerance and a local understanding of democracy - relevant for so many areas of the world right now.

"And the war is in a large part our fault again. The UN 'peace-keeping' forces are not only totally ineffective (summary executions going in front of blue berets in Kadugli) but may even add to the problem. The diplomatic efforts are too often driven by ill-informed strategies or self-serving policies more related to economic gain for us rather than any sense of humanity or justice. This return of a horrific war needn't have happened if only there had been much stronger international support for the planned political process. There was never enough international pressure to promote a genuine chance for a just peace. The Carter Centre really messed up big time in failing either to monitor properly or to follow-up sufficiently on all the blatant misconduct by the Government - the local elections, which offered a real political way forward, were utterly and so obviously rigged and yet no one said boo to Bashir and his cronies."

Humanity at its Finest

"Human nature, psychological characteristics that all normal humans have in common".

"The human condition, the totality of experience of existing as a human". 

The reports just get worse as the days go on..

Here and again here. 

And the official update from the UN here. 

Whatever the madness, and the lack of understanding of how humans can behave like this, I think it is important to be informed.

Not Again :(

Sadness in South Kordofan... 

Sudans people are once again wandering in search of a home free from suffering.
When will this end?
When the world finds a renewable energy source and no longer hungers for Oil?
Or when the borders are re-drawn?
Or when a country is ruled by just people with kind hearts?

No one can answer my questions.
But I think it is still important to ask them occasionally.