Sudan bombing ‘causing huge suffering’ in border state

UN accuses northern armed forces of indiscriminate military attacks against civilians in Southern Kordofan An air strike campaign in the Sudanese border state of Southern Kordofan is causing “huge suffering” to civilian populations and endangering humanitarian assistance in the region, the United Nations has said. The northern military has been fighting southern-aligned groups it describes as rebels in the oil state for more than a week, with clashes escalating to include artillery and aircraft. “Intensive bombing by SAF (the north’s Sudanese Armed Forces) in the past week is continuing in the surroundings of Kadugli and Kauda, where two jet fighters dropped 11 bombs this morning around 10.30, apparently targeting an airfield,” UN mission in Sudan (UNMIS) spokesman Kouider Zerrouk said on Tuesday. He said two bombs fell close to the perimeter of a UNMIS compound 150 metres from the airfield. “This bombing campaign is causing huge suffering to civilian populations and endangering humanitarian assistance,” he said. “We reiterate our call on the SAF, SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) and other armed groups who are involved in this conflict to immediately allow access to humanitarian agencies and stop indiscriminate military attacks against civilians and protect them in accordance with international law.” A northern army spokesman, Al-Sawarmi Khaled, denied that Khartoum’s military actions were killing civilians, saying fighting was only between the army and rebels. “There are not any victims from the civilian people.” Fighting in Southern Kordofan has raised tensions at a sensitive moment for Sudan, with the south set to declare independence in less than a month. The split has been complicated by a raft of unresolved issues, including where the border should be drawn and how to divide oil revenues. Southerners voted to secede in a January referendum which was promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north-south civil war. That conflict killed 2 million people. Also on Tuesday, the UN refugee agency urged Sudanese authorities to allow road and air access for aid workers trying to help thousands of people fleeing the fighting. Humanitarian flights have been denied permission to land in the state capital Kadugli for nearly a week and roadblocks manned by armed militiamen have hampered land access, the UN high commissioner for refugees said. “Insecurity means our operations are severely constrained and UNHCR is currently unable to reach a warehouse just 5km [3 miles] from the UN peacekeeping mission’s base in the city,” spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told a news briefing. Further underlining the deteriorating situation, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organisation said premises belonging to the two agencies in the area had been looted. Fleming said the UNHCR knew of 41,000 displaced people in the state, but it feared that many more were fleeing their homes, mostly children and women. Aid agencies had been able to deliver food and other help to only 6,000 people. “This is far below the number we would be able to reach if we had secure access,” she said. Sudan Africa United Nations guardian.co.uk

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