The Sudan Consortium works with a trusted group of local Sudanese partners who have been working on the ground in Southern Kordofan since the current conflict began in late 2011. All the attacks referred to in this report were launched against areas where there was no military presence and which were clearly identifiable as civilian in character. We believe that this information provides strong circumstantial evidence that civilians are being directly and deliberately targeted by the Sudanese armed forces in Southern Kordofan.
During the month of May 2014, the government of Sudan (GoS) not only continued the intense military offensive that it began in April, it increased attacks on protected civilian objects, including medical facilities, schools, humanitarian infrastructure and agricultural activities.
Between 26 and 29 May, the Sudanese Air Force launched repeated bombing attacks against the undefended town of Kauda in Heiban County, Southern Kordofan (SK). As well as destroying numerous homes, the attacks caused extensive damage to the headquarters of the main humanitarian NGO operating in SK, and also damaged two schools and a village medical clinic. This represents the most intense sustained aerial bombardment of Kauda and its surrounding villages since the conflict began in 2011.
Earlier in the month, on 1 May, the Sudanese Air Force attacked the Mother of Mercy Hospital in Gidel, located close to Kauda. This is the main hospital in the opposition-held area of SK and provides essential medical care to over 150,000 people annually. This is the first time the hospital has suffered a direct attack during the conflict, and the attack represents a particularly worrying departure from the norms of international law on the part of the Sudanese government.
International law demands that civilians and civilian objects be protected from attack during armed conflict. Attacks on hospitals, schools and the compounds of humanitarian NGOs represent particularly egregious breaches of international standards on the protection of civilians, and the actions of the Sudanese Armed Forces in this regard may constitute a war crime.
Elsewhere in SK, the Sudanese government stepped up its targeting of the agricultural resources on which the civilian population depends for its survival. Between 15 and 21 May, the Sudanese Air Force dropped almost 200 bombs on the agricultural district of Tangal in Um Dorein County, causing extensive damage to farmland on 11 farms, and seriously disrupting the seasonal planting of crops. These attacks come at a time when the Sudanese government is severely restricting humanitarian access to Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile (SK-BN), and when (as reported above) their armed forces are targeting those few humanitarian organisations that are attempting to alleviate the suffering of the civilians who remain in opposition-held areas. Prevented by the GoS from accessing these areas, and therefore reliant on figures provided by the de-facto Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement–North (SPLM-N) authorities, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that, in the month immediately prior to 18 May, 90,000 people had been displaced by the conflict in SK alone, and that a total of 800,000 people have been internally displaced or otherwise severely affected in SPLM-N-held areas since the conflict began in 2011. This is in addition to around 1.2 million people in government controlled areas of SK-BN who have been affected by the conflict.
As we mark (on 5 June) the three year anniversary of the outbreak of the current conflict in SK, these reports from the Sudan Consortium’s partners on the ground provide a stark reminder that the Sudanese government remains unaccountable for serious ongoing violations of international humanitarian law committed against its own population.
