---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: John Ashworth <[email protected]> Date: Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 9:10 AM Subject: [sudan-john-ashworth] Fw: Major offensive could be imminent in South Kordofan To: Group <[email protected]>
“It is extremely important to remember that the primary responsibility lies with the government…they are responsible for the protection of civilians regardless of their color, religion etc whether in South Kordofan or elsewhere.” "The people from the Nuba Mountains in Southern Kordofan are northerners... As independence drew near, Khartoum viewed the 30,000 or so fighters in South Kordofan... as a threat and launched an aggressive offensive to disarm them" 1. North Sudan military massing in Kadugli Satellite images show northern Sudanese military vehicles including heavy artillery in Southern Kordofan * Reuters * guardian.co.uk, Sunday 19 June 2011 18.16 BST Satellite images show northern Sudanese military vehicles including heavy transports and artillery massing in Kadugli, the capital of the conflict-stricken the oil-producing Southern Kordofan state, say monitors. Fighting between the north and southern-aligned groups has spread since 5 June. Tens of thousands of people have fled the violence, according to the UN. The fighting has also raised tensions at a sensitive time in Sudan, with the south less than three weeks away from becoming an independent country following a January referendum seceding from the north. "New imagery ... confirms that the Sudan armed forces, or SAF, control the town of Kadugli in Sudan's tense border region of South Kordofan, and that thousands of civilians have been displaced," the Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP) said in a report. The images "show a massing of SAF artillery, light vehicles, and heavy transports of the kinds used to carry tanks, troops, and munitions". Set up last year by the actor George Clooney and other activists, the SSP says it seeks to head off renewed fighting and atrocities in Sudan by publishing commercial satellite images collated and analysed with the help of a UN agency. A spokesman for the northern military was not immediately available for comment. It has previously said its forces were fighting to end an armed rebellion in the state. Southern Kordofan – the main oil-producing state that will be left in the north after the south secedes on 9 July – is home to thousands of fighters who fought against Khartoum during the last civil war, many of them from the Nuba mountains region. Officials with the south's dominant Sudan People's Liberation Movement have said clashes started when the north tried to disarm fighters there. Northern officials have blamed the southern-aligned groups for provoking the fighting after an official from the north's ruling National Congress party was named winner of a gubernatorial election last month. The south's independence vote was promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war. That conflict claimed some two million lives. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/19/north-sudan-military-massing-kadugli END1 2. Major offensive could be imminent in Sudan, monitors say By the CNN Wire Staff June 19, 2011 -- Updated 0220 GMT (1020 HKT) STORY HIGHLIGHTS * Satellite images reportedly show Sudan Armed Forces control state capital * Violence has engulfed the Sudanese state of Southern Kordofan * Thousands of civilians have been displaced * South Sudan is set to gain independence on July 9 (CNN) -- A major military offensive may be in the offing in the northern Sudanese state of Southern Kordofan, a monitoring group said Saturday. The Satellite Sentinel Project released images, captured on Friday, that it said shows the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) control Kadugli, the capital of Southern Kordofan. The monitoring group, which combines satellite images with field reports to provide an early warning system for violence, identified at least 89 apparent military vehicles in the city, including heavy ammunition transport trucks, light vehicles and possible towed artillery pieces. Satellite images: Military buildup? The images also reportedly show a camp of at least 300 temporary shelters clustered around the U.N. peacekeeping base north of Kadugli, evidence that thousands of civilians have been displaced, the group said. "The images support reports from the ground that SAF soldiers remain locked in a tense conflict with elements of the Sudan People's Liberation Army, or SPLA, in South Kordofan. And the images reveal that SAF's deployment of forces is consistent with U.N. documents indicating that a major SAF offensive could occur soon," the Satellite Sentinel Project said in a statement. Southern Sudan is set to become the world's newest nation July 9 after an overwhelming majority voted for independence in January. But prickly issues remain: Drawing final borders and dividing oil revenues in Africa's third-largest oil-producing nation. Six months after the peaceful referendum, fighting between Khartoum's armed forces and fighters aligned with the SPLA has swept across border regions, including in Southern Kordofan. The two sides fought a bitter and bloody civil war that went on for decades and killed two million people. The renewed clashes over land, oil and power threaten a fragile 2005 peace agreement and plunge the troubled nation closer to another outright war, longtime observers of Sudan say. Fighting between the SAF and the SPLA erupted earlier this month near Kadugli, the capital of oil-rich Southern Kordofan state. After July 9, Southern Kordofan will be a part of the North. The latest fighting followed disagreement over security arrangements and also the re-election of Ahmed Haroun as governor of the state. Haroun is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur. The people from the Nuba Mountains in Southern Kordofan are northerners who aligned with the south's rebel movement during the civil war. As independence drew near, Khartoum viewed the 30,000 or so fighters in South Kordofan who are loyal to the Sudan People's Liberation Movement as a threat and launched an aggressive offensive to disarm them, Jonathan Temin of the United States Institute of Peace has said. Alarmed, global powers have stepped up calls for both sides to put down their weapons. "There is no military solution," said U.S. President Barack Obama in an audio message recorded this week for the Voice of America broadcasting network. "The leaders of Sudan and South Sudan must live up to their responsibilities," Obama said. "The government of Sudan must prevent a further escalation of this crisis by ceasing its military actions immediately, including aerial bombardments, forced displacements and campaigns of intimidation." U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has also urged an end to the fighting in Southern Kordofan, which has displaced more than half a million people throughout the state, according to U.N. estimates. http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/06/18/sudan.fighting/ END2 3. UN denies peacekeepers’ abuses in Sudan north-south border state June 19, 2011 (NAIROBI) – The UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) has categorically denied allegations of misconduct against its peacekeepers in the country’s war-stricken state of South Kordofan, and complained that the closure of airspace and restrictions on access are undermining its humanitarian operations there. Established to buttress the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which in 2005 ended more than two decades of intermittent civil wars between North and South Sudan, UNMIS has recently faced criticism and accusations by independent observers and both parties to the ongoing conflict in Sudan’s north-south border state of South Kordofan. With a current strength of 10, 420 military personnel, UNMIS is mandated to monitor ceasefire along border areas between North and South Sudan which voted under the CPA to declare full independence on 9 July. The oil-producing state of South Kordofan lies within the Arabised north Sudan but it is home to the African Nuba population which largely sided with the south during the war. Fighting in South Kordofan erupted two weeks ago as the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) of North Sudan moved to carry out its earlier threats to disarm armed groups affiliated with South Sudan’s ruling, and also northern opposition party, Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). The fighting later escalated into artillery and aerial bombardment which, according to UN estimates, has so far displaced 60, 000 people and may have killed another 64. The SPLM has accused UNMIS’s Egyptian peacekeepers of complicity with SAF and of raping local women under UN protection. "We are investigating serious accusations against the Egyptian forces, and we have doubts on its role, especially that its history in the region shows that they are not straight and have abnormal and criminal tendencies," the SPLM’s leader in South Kordofan Abdul Aziz Adam Al-Hilu said earlier this month. Gamar Dalman, an adviser to Al-Hilu, told Sudan Tribune on 10 June that UNMIS Egyptian peacekeepers had raped six women who sought refuge at the mission’s headquarters. But UNMIS spokesperson Kouider Zerrouk, speaking over the phone with Sudan Tribune on Sunday, said that the mission had probed these allegations and concluded they were “absolutely” unfounded. “As a mission we take seriously all the reports about the mission’s activities and mandate…Our primary inquiry concluded that this did not happen, absolutely did not happen,” Zerrouk said. The UN official reported continuation of fighting in various parts of South Kordofan State despite the fact that AU mediators, led by former South African president Thabo Mbeki, announced last week that the warring sides had agreed to cease hostilities and initiate negotiations, though without elaborating on a timeframe. According to Zerrouk, aerial bombardment and artillery are still continuing in South Kordofan and that the situation is “quite worrying” despite a lull in the fighting yesterday. Zerrouk went on to say that the mission’s humanitarian operation continue to be adversely affected by restrictions on access to affected areas, reiterating calls for opening up of airspace over South Kordofan. “It (airspace) is extremely important because it is affecting humanitarian operations,” he explained, adding that the government “needs to act on this request.” UNMIS, which recently said it had relocated a 120-strong infantry of peacekeepers from South Sudan capital Juba in order to enforce the protection perimeter outside its headquarters in Kadugli, was also said to have been unable to provide the required protection of civilians under its mandate, which authorizes it to “take the necessary action to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence.” “There are numerous cases of abductions, forced disappearances and summary executions, including of local staff of the mission, which allegedly took place inside and outside the premises of the mission, suggesting a complete state of paralysis in terms of UNMIS capacity to conduct core functions,” Sudan Democracy First Group (SDFG), a coalition of local Sudanese activists, said in a press release dated 13 June. According to SDFG, UNMIS has reacted with silence or refusal to a number of requests to evacuate individuals who were in danger on the pretext of “the mission mandate does not allow.” Zerrouk, however, defended the mission against these accusations, saying that UNMIS was doing everything in its power and within its mandate to protect, and ensure deliver of aid to, a number of 4000 to 8000 civilians sheltered around the mission’s headquarters. The UN spokesman was keen to mention that the primary responsibility to protect civilians lies with the government of Sudan. “It is extremely important to remember that the primary responsibility lies with the government…they are responsible for the protection of civilians regardless of their color, religion etc whether in South Kordofan or elsewhere.” (ST) END3 ______________________ John Ashworth Sudan Advisor [email protected] +254 725 926 297 (Kenya mobile) +249 919 695 362 (Sudan mobile) +27 82 853 3556 (South Africa mobile) +44 750 304 1790 (UK/international) +88 216 4334 0735 (Thuraya satphone) PO Box 52002 - 00200, Nairobi, Kenya This is a personal e-mail address and the contents do not necessarily reflect the views of any organisation -- The content of this message does not necessarily reflect John Ashworth's views. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, John Ashworth is not the author of the content and the source is always cited. You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sudan-john-ashworth" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.co.za/group/sudan-john-ashworth -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
