Humanitarian organisations still not permitted to enter areas of conflict - UN
JULUD, Sudan (AlertNet) - Deep in Sudan's troubled Nuba Mountains, Mukwar Salob, a 65-year-old farmer, has been unable to plant.
Like many of the most vulnerable in this volatile area bordering newly independent South Sudan, Salob has spent his days trying to evade the Sudanese army's bomb and artillery attacks, and his nights seeking refuge in caves with women, children and other older people.
"Life is awful in the caves. There are snakes, mosquitoes and it is cold at night. But it is safer than at home," he said. "We fear the bombardments and most of our able men are in the resistance movement. We did not plant. We will go hungry soon."
Despite his age, Salob climbed easily over the boulders just above his cave and pointing to the horizon, he said: "There is Dilling. There is the enemy, just 10 kilometers away from here. We have hardly gone a day without violence."
Fighting broke out in June in this region, one of several flashpoints along the border with South Sudan, between the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army- North (SPLA-N) and government forces.
The Nuba community living in this stunning mountain range, mostly share the Islamic religion of the Khartoum government but say they have more in common with their brothers in South Sudan
Citing marginalisation by Khartoum, members of many Nuba tribes, fought alongside the south during its two-decade civil war against the north. A peace deal in 2005 led to a referendum in which in which southerners voted for a split from Sudan with secession completed in July.
HUMANITARIAN EMERGENCY
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's government has not held a so-called "popular consultation" in South Kordofan (where the Nuba Mountains is located) on its future, as agreed under the 2005 peace deal. Instead, Khartoum demanded the disarmament of the rebels, which comprises Nuba forces who fought alongside the South Sudanese rebels.
Last month SPLA-N rebels accused Khartoum of using food as a weapon against the Nuba community, which the Sudanese government denied, saying the rebels had closed roads and prevented aid from reaching people.
The United Nations in its latest update, said it had received reports of continued aerial bombardment on Sept. 26 and 27, adding that humanitarian organisations were still not permitted to enter areas of conflict.
As a result many Nuba are fending for themselves.
"We need a humanitarian corridor for aid to get into the Nuba Mountains," said health worker Ibrahim Basha. "We need desperately medicine. Especially children are at risk. Respiratory diseases, diarrheoa and malaria become deadly. And a lot of children suffer from skin diseases."
He said in recent years hospitals and health centres had been built in the region, and staff trained.
"But now most facilities are closed here in the western part of the Nuba Mountains because there are no drugs," he added.
ABANDONED?
Most worrying of all, the food situation is getting precarious.
The valleys in South Kordofan are fertile and five months of good rains normally produce a bumper harvest.
The start of the conflict coincided though with the planting season. Farmers sowed less because they fear venturing into their fields because of the bombing by Antonov aircraft.
The food being consumed now is last year’s yield. The next harvest will come from the fields in November and it will not be enough. Many people already reduced from two to one meal a day.
A survey of a local NGO, the Nuba Relief, Rehabilitation and Development organization (NRRDO), shows that 220,000 people live in the western part of the mountains. There are some 70,000 internally displaced.
A local official, Commissioner Tia Tutu of Lagawa County has nothing for the IDPs in his area. "The only thing we can offer is shelter in schools," he said.
In the town of Tulushi, the primary school is filled with mainly displaced women and children. They occupy corners of the class rooms or share small houses of the staff.
"We get one meal a day from the population here. They also have not much but what they have, they share it with us," says Miriam Samir holding her baby on her arm. The little boy is covered in crusts and wounds from a skin disease. He cries all day and refuses to eat.
The Nuba say they feel abandoned by the international community.
"Since June, you are the first white face we have seen. It’s easier to access the eastern part and people there get international attention. Here we feel forgotten," complained Hassan Abdallah of the NRRDO in Julud.
His organization gathers people together to explain what to do during an air attack or shelling. They are taught where to find wild fruit and how to prepare them. Herbalists travel on bicycles from village to village to explain what the bush has on offer as alternative medicine.
"We are experienced in surviving. Most of us remember our struggle from the last war," Abdallah said. "Also then we were forgotten for a long time until the hunger almost made us Nuba extinct."
(Editing by Katie Nguyen)
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