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."

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. 

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.

Oh Sudan...
I have not forgotten you..
Brinkmanship in Sudan.. 

Especially not Darfur..
Darfur in the Shadows, Human Rights Watch

Tabaldi Tree of Darfur

Way Down South...

kids in Juba, Southern Sudan's future

Sudan is on the brink.. yet again.. Perhaps the biggest of its life.  The ensuing Divorce is less than 40 days away.

I sit here in the official 'North' and look on.

We seem a very long way from this North-South debate though. Darfur obviously has its own, special blend of war to wear on its sleeve.  But more importantly, I see people who do not identify with the North-South, Arab-African, Muslim-Christian divide that plagues the rest of this country. I see people, just trying to get on with living their day to day existence; feeding their kids, praying, making it through another night. People who have little understanding of the politics of Khartoum or any knowledge that there are Oil fields in existence in their own country. 

But of course, this divorce will affect everyone in this country.  In one way or another. Even our southern Sudanese staff have started slowly disappearing of late, heading home for the  vote. Will we ever see them again? Will they need a passport and visa to work here in the future?

Some articles I found interesting....

"After the referendum, everything will change. Everything will be easy," teacher Myau Deng Adur said. "For sure we will have buildings."

Another war in Sudan could cost the country and its neighbours US$100 billion in lost economic output as well as humanitarian and peacekeeping assistance..

“The rhetoric by all parties must also be toned down – I repeat, the rhetoric by all parties must also be toned down - something we warned about during our last visit to Sudan. Only then will the public feel secure enough to turn out to register and to vote, without repercussions, wherever they live,”

An Old Dinka song and a New Dinka song.

"In the time when Dendid created all things, 

He created the Sun

And the sun is born and dies and comes again; 

He created the Moon

And the Moon is born and dies and comes again;

He created the Stars

And the stars are born and die and come again;

He created Man

And man is born and dies and does not come again."

~

We'll adjust the Sudan flag

We'll alter the Sudan flag

For Sudan is confused herself

Sadiq El Mahdi is corrupted

Wol Wol is corrupted

SPLA has a knife - fixed at the barrel tip of an AK-47

Courageous men who fear nothing

These are the men that will liberate us through bloodshed

Red armies - soldiers of the Doctor

We'll struggle till we liberate Sudan

The man who suffers form mosquito bites, thirst and hunger?

He is a genuine liberator

We'll liberate Sudan by bloodshed.

The sky in Africa is like no other.
If you have been in this great continent you will know what I am talking about. It is alive with colour and there is kind of 'immense' quality about it. You look up and know that it indeed hangs over an immense and colourful landscape.. like an ocean of reflection.

Juba, 7pm Monday