FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 12, 2000
Contact: Jeff Drumtra / Roger Winter
(202) 347-3507
Bombings of Civilian Targets in Sudan Have Doubled; 132 Confirmed Aerial Attacks This Year
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Sudanese planes have bombed civilian sites at least 132 times this year through December 12, compared to 65 known aerial bombings last year. The intensified bombing campaign continues to kill and terrorize innocent civilians, disrupt international relief efforts, and push families from their land and livelihoods. Sudanese government aircraft have struck civilian and humanitarian targets at least 259 times during the past four years.
The most recent attack occurred Dec. 8, when an Antonov bomber struck the southern Sudanese village of Yomciir, killing two people, including an aid worker. Four residents were injured. Residents reported that the plane strafed the village with machine gun fire immediately after the bombing. The bombing of Yomciir was the fifth aerial attack in southern Sudan this month by government planes. Sixteen bombings occurred during November.
This year's dramatic rise in aerial attacks against civilian targets by the Sudanese government has largely been ignored by international leaders, who have issued occasional condemnations of the bombings but have failed to take forceful action even when UN planes and international relief workers have apparently been targeted in the attacks.
"President Clinton recently spoke out against the Sudanese government's bombing of civilian humanitarian targets. That was a positive step. But effective action is needed," said Roger Winter, executive director of the U.S. Committee for Refugees. "The United States should lead the UN Security Council in a formal condemnation of Sudan's actions. The UN should suspend the government of Sudan for its continuing, egregious violations of international law and of the UN charter. If a government doing such things can remain in good standing within the UN system, then UN membership is cheapened and morally meaningless."
Data on bombings in southern and central Sudan come from three sources: the UN's Operation Lifeline Sudan, a consortium of more than 30 international aid organizations; international relief groups that operate in areas of Sudan inaccessible to OLS; and local Sudanese church groups.
Aid workers are convinced that many bombings this year remain unreported and uncounted because they occurred in remote villages in southern Sudan, an area the size of Texas. Therefore, confirmed reports of 132 bombings this year probably understate the true number of air attacks against non-military targets.
An estimated 2 million people have died of causes linked to Sudan's civil war during the past 17 years. Some 4.4 million Sudanese have been forced from their homes-the largest uprooted population in the world.
