Sudan: War Grinds On

Sudan's 17-year civil war dragged on during the first half of 2000 with new refugee flows to neighboring countries, bombings of civilian targets and humanitarian aid projects by government planes, slave raids by pro government militia, collapse of a two-year ceasefire in a key province, and a reluctant decision by 11 international aid agencies to stop their operations in southern Sudan.

Sudan continued to produce more uprooted people than any country on earth. An estimated 4 million Sudanese remained internally displaced, and more than 400,000 were still refugees. During the first half of the year, at least 5,000 new Sudanese refugees fled to Uganda, about 5,000 fled temporarily to Ethiopia, and several thousand new refugees sought protection in Kenya.

Sudanese government and rebel forces launched military offensives. The rebels, known as the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), captured an important southern town, Gogrial, in June. The attack on Gogrial effectively ended a two-year ceasefire in southern Sudan's Bahr el-Ghazal Province, which suffered a deadly famine two years ago. Insurgents aligned with the SPLA attacked the outskirts of a major northeastern town, Kassala, prompting tens of thousands of residents there to seek shelter in 18 camps for displaced families.

Government troops launched an offensive in central Sudan's Nuba Mountains area in March, disrupting a vaccination campaign there and further isolating one of the world's most remote areas. Rebels and pro-government troops clashed near government-controlled oil fields in Upper Nile Province, producing additional population displacement. Armed militia aligned with the government continued to terrorize local residents with regular raids on villages in Bahr el-Ghazal Province, taking large numbers of children and women hostage.

Sudan's implacable combatants "not only bring about further deterioration of humanitarian conditions in the area, but also jeopardize the crucial humanitarian ceasefire that both partes pledged to respect earlier this year," lamented Carolyn McAskie, emergency relief coordinator for the UN.

As in previous years, government planes continued to bomb villages and aid projects despite a pledge in April by the country's leader, General Omar El-Bashir, that such bombings would cease. Government planes bombed a school and a relief center in February, killing 14 persons; a hospital in March, killing three; and a health clinic operated by ICRC in July, among other bombings. Aid agencies accused the government of 33 aerial bombing attacks against civilian targets in July alone.

Eleven international aid groups, including major agencies such as World Vision, CARE, and Oxfam, closed their programs in southern Sudan in March because of efforts by rebel authorities to exert greater control over relief activities. U.S. officials and other international donors attempted to persuade rebel leaders to accommodate the relief groups' concerns, without success.

Some relief organizations, including CARE and Oxfam, indicated in late July that they had reached an agreement with rebel authorities and would resume humanitarian activities in southern Sudan later in the year.

The temporary pullout of many—but not all—relief organizations impeded aid deliveries to southern Sudan and hampered assessments of local populations' needs. MSF reported in July that nearly one-quarter of the residents in some conflict areas of Upper Nile Province were malnourished and were in "dire need of assistance."

At the end of July, no end to the war was in sight. Sudanese government officials threatened to impose new restrictions on relief programs because, the officials said, some aid agencies "have had the negative effects of prolonging the war." The Sudanese government canceled peace negotiations scheduled to begin in late July.

(August, 2000)