The Eighth Anniversary of War and Genocide in the Nuba Mountains
It is worth remembering—as negotiations continue between civilian representatives of Sudan’s people and the successor junta to that of Omar al-Bashir—that the people of the Nuba Mountains and much of South Kordofan have been under deadly assault for over eight long years.
These have been years of indiscriminate aerial bombardment of villages and farms; years of the most destructive military tactics conceivable, designed to destroy the Nuba people as well as the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-North, as led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu. Years of malnutrition and disease continue under the current “Transitional” Military Council, which maintains a barbarous humanitarian blockade on regions of South Kordofan under SPLM/A-N control. Countless thousands have been killed, and many tens of thousands have been forced to flee their homes and farms for other locations, including South Sudan; and even there they been targeted by the Sudan Armed Forces.
Hospitals, including one run by Nobel Peace Prize-winning Doctors Without Borders (MSF), have been subject to aerial assault in gross violation of international law. Particularly heavily targeted has been the Mother of Mercy Hospital on the outskirts of Kauda, in the heart of the Nuba. There Aurora Prize-winning physician Tom Catena labors constantly to respond to the violence and deprivation that the military forces of Khartoum have deployed so mercilessly, if for now a tenuous cease-fire largely holds.
As much as any of Sudan’s peoples, the people of the Nuba must be heard, their suffering and losses felt, their risk of annihilation understood as a constant reality.
For a powerful video representation of the Nuba on the occasion of this grim sixth anniversary, see | https://nubareports.org/
