Christians Under Attack

 

rebels. The region borders South Sudan, a largely Christian and animist region, which is due to gain independence from the mostly Arabic-speaking, Muslim north on 9 July.

There is concern about the humanitarian crisis and the alleged atrocities being committed. The area has effectively been cut off by the military and not much has been heard from people in the area. One aid worker who has just left the region told the BBC's Will Ross about his experiences:

It is terrifying. The civilians try to hide but generally they run in panic and hence, sadly, there are many casualties who die because of shrapnel. There are bombings and shellings every day in different areas.

There is a plane called an Antonov which circles high in the sky and keeps coming over. Then there is the whistle of the bombs as they fall. You have a few seconds to run but you do not know if it is going to fall on you or not. The sounds of the explosions are huge and sometimes the craters they leave are five or six metres across.

Burning hot pieces of jagged metal, the shrapnel, go flying across the air and if you are not below the surface in a hole or a dug-out you are at huge risk.

'Blood and flies'

Then there are the MiGs [planes] which come in very, very fast and low. These fire rockets and they are terrifying because they are on top of you before you know it. You have no warning.

They are very loud and so the terror that this incites in people, even if you survive these attacks, is enormous.

They can continue for hours on end. You can imagine how awful that is for women and children and men, rural farmers who have no military background whatsoever. And when they sense that this is not an enemy from outside that is attacking, this is their own government, they just do not understand why this is happening.

There are so many poignant, heartbreaking stories.

A local farmer was lying on the floor of a hospital in enormous pain, with a large piece of shrapnel that had gone through his leg, with blood and flies over him. Again and again he was asking the same desperate questions: "Why is our president doing this to us? Why is he bombing us?"

He kept saying: "This is wrong".

Then there was a young man who had fled a village that was attacked and when the SAF [northern] troops withdrew, he found to his horror that his wife and children had been abducted by the army.

With anguish in his voice he said he would rather have been killed than his wife and child taken.

"I don't know what they will do to them, I don't think I will see them again," he said.

No less than 75,000 people have been displaced, and because the bombing and shelling is continuing, that number is probably going up every day.

This is not a war of north versus south - this is about a people within north Sudan who want a peaceful existence in the north just with social and economic opportunities and access to justice.

The Nuba, a large percentage of whom are Muslims, feel their future is with north Sudan.

The people of South Kordofan, both the Nuba and people from the nomadic Arab tribes, feel marginalised by Khartoum. They feel they are not granted basic human rights.

'House-to-house executions'

The area offers a remarkable alternative vision of how Christian and Muslims and animists can live together. I have witnessed after Eid, the Christians bringing breakfast for their Muslim brothers and sisters, and at Christmas and Easter all the people from the mosque coming to say "congratulations".

But people there feel the government in the last few weeks has revealed it has no interest in allowing a political solution that gives rights to an alternative voice in the north, where there is religious tolerance and Christians and Muslims living together.

There is so much anguish. People say they don't want war but they say until the policies of Khartoum change, they see no alternative.

They are asking for help from all northern Sudanese to come back from this madness and have a look at how to build a peaceful, tolerant society in the north.

We are getting very strong reports that house-to-house executions are going on by internal security forces where summary executions are taking place based on ethnicity, political affiliation and even how black you are. These are civilians, intellectuals, teachers, community leaders, Muslims and Christians, and often they are killed by their throats being slit.

This may be only the beginning and it could well continue for many months and intensify. There is a complete lack of access - we learnt that the only airstrip that was left had been bombed and we have heard the government of Sudan will shoot down UN flights operating in South Kordofan so humanitarian flights are no longer an option.

We know that there is no access from the north by road so we are looking at a population that is now effectively besieged - without access to services or humanitarian aid and who are under fire.

I fear the government has started these military operations to try to ensure that opposition voice is completely squashed before the 9 July, so that no thought of help of any sort could come from the south, knowing that the emerging republic of South Sudan would be very unwilling to get involved as it would endanger their independence.

The great majority of Nuba people that I have spoken to are very worried the Egyptian forces that make up a large percentage of the UN peacekeepers are not seen as sufficiently neutral. Their cultural and religious background and their behaviour and attitude towards black Nuba people are unhelpful.

 

 

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