After more than a decade of campaigning by local and international human rights organizations, the government of Sudan agreed this week to allow an extension of humanitarian aid into the Nuba Mountains region of southern Kordofan. This region is inhabited by the Nuba peoples, some of the most severely affected groups in the government’s war against indigenous Africans of southern Sudan.
Numbering around 1.6 million, the Nuba are actually comprised of numerous non-Arabic tribes with distinct cultural and linguistic differences. Some groups are related to the Nubian tribes of northern Sudan and others trace their origins to the ancient kingdoms of Darfur, but most have lived in the Nuba region for thousands of years, retreating to the mountains in response to Arab invasions several hundred years ago. They are also mixed adherents of Islam, Christianity, and traditional religions, and highly value a system of mutual tolerance in which intermarriages are frequent. A common Nuba identity developed over the years out of a shared history of persecution by neighboring Arabic tribes, who have often been supported politically and militarily by the Sudanese government.
The Nuba became embroiled in Sudan’s civil war in 1985, when several Nuban politicians allied themselves with Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) forces. The government subsequently considered all Nuba to be enemies of the state, and has waged a harsh liquidation policy against them ever since. In 1991 the Nuba region was sealed off by the military, and all outsiders were banned from entering the region, including press agents and humanitarian aid workers. This was followed by some of the harshest genocidal campaigns launched during the 18 year civil war, in which thousands of Nuba civilians were targeted in continuous bombings and invasions by the national army. Popular military tactics included the abduction of Nuba children to military camps where they were indoctrinated, drugged, and armed to serve in national forces. Systematic rape of Nuba women was another popular tactic condoned by the government, and soldiers who impregnated their victims were reportedly given bonus payments. Food deprivation was used as a strategy to force Nuba from their land. Crops were burned and looted and livestock was destroyed. After jihad was proclaimed in the Nuba Mountains in the early 90s, tens of thousands of war survivors were forcibly relocated to overcrowded “peace camps” in the desert. Nuba farmlands were appropriated by the government and resold to Arab merchants.
Throughout this long period of extermination, international humanitarian aid agencies have been restricted from entering the region, leading to thousands of additional civilian deaths from rampant starvation and disease. In 1998 UN Secretary General Khofi Annan requested access for relief organization Operation Lifeline Sudan to make an assessment of the humanitarian situation in the Nuba Mountains. A year later the request was finally granted. The resulting assessment reported acute food shortages due to massive internal displacement and land appropriation; appalling health conditions due to limited access to clean water and lack of immunization for children; as well as the complete destruction of the region’s public infrastructure. As all educated Nuba were a primary target of elimination by the army, there were also few teachers, doctors, or community leaders. The UN assessment mission strongly recommended humanitarian intervention.
However, the National Islamic Front (NIF) regime maintained its policy of aid obstruction to the Nuba until November 2001, when U.S. Special Peace envoy John Danforth visited the region on a peacemaking mission. In his recommendations for an end to the civil war, Danforth issued four action proposals to the government. These included a one-month ceasefire in the Nuba Mountains, an end to all civilian attacks, bombings, and abductions, and continuous access to the Nuba Mountains for humanitarian aid purposes.
2000 tons of food aid were subsequently delivered over a four-week period to starving Nuban survivors by the World Food Program. The ceasefire was signed in January and remains in effect, and an agreement was recently signed by representatives of the government and SPLA to end human rights abuses against civilians. UN official Kevin Kennedy recently reported that if the ceasefire continues to hold, UN humanitarian missions will soon be able to operate freely throughout the region. International monitors are scheduled to arrive in April.
