Summary
On June 5, 2011, conflict broke out in Southern Kordofan state, Sudan, between Sudanese forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the southern rebel movement whose forces were in Sudan under the terms of the 2005 peace agreement that ended the civil war. Tensions over security arrangements in the state and the narrow re-election victory of incumbent governor Ahmed Haroun, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for serious crimes in Darfur, triggered the conflict. Fighting spread to neighboring Blue Nile state in September 2011. Days later, Sudan banned the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement - North (SPLM -North), the successor to SPLM after South Sudan’s independence in July 2011, and arrested scores of its members.
Since the conflict started, Sudanese forces have carried out indiscriminate aerial bombardment and shelling in populated areas, killing and injuring civilians and causing serious damage to civilian property including homes, schools, clinics, crops, and livestock. Government forces, including Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and Popular Defense Forces (PDF), have also conducted ground attacks on villages during which they deliberately burned and looted civilian property, and arbitrarily detained people. Soldiers have also assaulted and raped women and girls.
The evidence documented suggests that the Sudanese government has adopted a strategy to treat all populations in rebel held areas as enemies and legitimate targets, without distinguishing between civilian and combatant. This apparent approach lies at the heart of the serious violations of international humanitarian law documented in this report. Human Rights Watch also received reports of abuses by SPLA-North forces, including indiscriminate shelling and unlawful detentions, but did not have access to the relevant areas or individuals to confirm reports.
This report is based on five separate fact-finding missions to Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states in Sudan, and to Unity and Upper Nile states in South Sudan, in 2011 and 2012. Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 200 displaced people and refugees and staff from eight international and national organizations, and documented the human rights impact of the armed conflict on civilian populations, including Sudan’s indiscriminate bombing in populated areas and its refusal to allow critical humanitarian goods and services into Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile.
The researchers documented serious violations by Sudanese forces, including the deliberate killing of civilians, forced displacement, and destruction of civilian property as well as the arbitrary arrests, detention and in some cases presumed enforced disappearances of civilians. In one example, Issa Daffala Sobahi, a guard for a government official belonging to the SPLM, was arrested, beaten, shackled, called “kufar” [infidel] by Sudanese government forces and was detained in a facility inside a military compound with other civilians. He told Human Rights Watch: “They took people to the river and shot them. I myself was taken to the river with three others on the second day. They killed two of us.” He managed to escape from the prison compound.
An estimated 900,000 people have been displaced or severely affected by the conflict, and over 210,000 now live in refugee camps in South Sudan and Ethiopia. Large areas of land in Blue Nile state in particular, are now abandoned. Sudan’s abusive tactics, reminiscent of those used in Darfur and during the long civil war, including the de facto blockading of humanitarian assistance, have worsened already poor conditions.
The international response to this crisis has been muted, eclipsed largely by efforts to address deteriorating relations and resumption of conflict between Sudan and South Sudan in April 2012. The African Union (AU) and United Nations (UN) have repeatedly urged the parties to the conflicts in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile to agree to modalities for aid delivery, which they finally did in August 2012. But because of delays caused by Sudan, the agreement has not been implemented. Hundreds of thousands of people continue to face deprivation, including serious hunger and poor health conditions.
The AU, UN, League of Arab States, and countries with interest and involvement in Sudan including China, the United States, Qatar, and European Union member states, should urgently address the deteriorating human rights situation by insisting Sudan end use of all tactics that violate the laws of war, and allow humanitarian aid groups to have unfettered access to all affected populations in line with international law.
These key international actors should firmly impose clear deadlines on the Sudanese government in particular to allow aid to civilian populations. They should also impose sanctions on those responsible for serious human rights and humanitarian law violations, and seek to establish a UN-mandated investigation into the allegations of serious violations of international law that have occurred since June 2011, with a view to holding those responsible for serious crimes accountable.
The lack of justice for serious crimes committed during the North-South conflict and Darfur also appears to have emboldened those engaged in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile conflicts. The key international actors should ask Sudan to cooperate with the ICC’s investigation into crimes in Darfur, including by ensuring that President Omar al-Bashir, Ahmed Haroun, and other suspects appear before the International Criminal Court to face charges of serious crimes committed in Darfur.