BENTIU – Over 5,000 refugees have arrived in South Sudan’s Unity State after being displaced by fighting over the last month between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in the north Sudan state of South Kordofan last June.
Residents gather outside the UNMIS sector headquarters after fleeing fighting in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan, Sudan, Thursday, June 9, 2011. (UNMIS)s)
The SPLA say the fighting erupted after the SAF attempted to disarm them in the run up to South Sudan’s independence on July 9. During the North-South civil war disenfranchised groups from the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan joined the Southern-based SPLA in the war against Khartoum.
Since South Sudan became independent, Khartoum has demanded that SPLA members from North Sudan move to South Sudan, disarm or integrate into SAF. Khartoum says that the fighting, which began in Kadugali on July 5 was triggered by an SPLA attack on a police station.
Around 70,000 people are estimated to have been displaced by the fighting. Most have moved north but some like the 5,113 who entered Unity State moved southward into newly independent South Sudan.
On Thursday Unity State officials witnessed the Situation in Parieng County where many of the refugees had arrived.
Reverend Andudu Adam Elnail, the Anglican Bishop of Kadugli, detailed the deteriorating situation in his home state at a news conference on Friday.
“In my diocese, my offices all they were burned, and also the cyber café with all computers was burned. And my house was shot at and other denominations of churches were burned," he said. "As I speak now, the Catholic Church in Kadugli is occupied by the military. And many people have been killed. They are culling people from house-to-house. Also, some of my congregations, they give me very clear what they saw in the mass graves in Kadugli. And also there was some satellite image was brought to confirm what eyewitnesses they have saw.”
He warned that in the Nuba mountains, which is home to many pro-South Sudan groups, the situation is worsening with aerial attacks that are killing civilians. He added that this is the planting season and warned that the people of Southern Kordofan could face serious food shortages next year because so many have fled and there is no one to farm.
“There is a lot of killing going on and we consider this is ethnic cleansing, so that is why we are calling on the U.N. and the Security Council to consider what is going on in Sudan,” he said.
Reverend Andudu appealed to the U.N. Security Council to stop the bombing and authorize a fact-finding commission to go to Southern Kordofan to verify what is happening there. He also urged the council to press Khartoum to allow in humanitarian agencies to bring food and medicine to those in need and to authorize monitors to watch the situation.
Sudan's southern Kordofan is governed by Ahmed Haroun, who is wanted on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur by the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
Human rights groups say as many as 200,000 people have been displaced by fighting between Khartoum's army and pro-southern elements in Southern Kordofan which broke out on June 5. Activists say Sudan's military is targeting the state's ethnic Nuba people, many of whom backed the south during the 21-year civil war.
This is a state-sponsored ethnic cleansing campaign where the government of Sudan is killing its own people through a campaign of artillery shelling, aerial bombardment, and house-to-house killings,” he said.
Last month, a leaked draft U.N. report said Sudan's army and police may have committed war crimes in Southern Kordofan. But Khartoum has dismissed the report saying the information is biased and untrue.
Currently the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) is preparing to leave the country. Khartoum said it no longer wanted a U.N. presence in the country after the south became independent on July 9.
The U.N. Security Council is expected to discuss Sudan next Thursday, and could receive a briefing on the situation in Southern Kordofan at that time.
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