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SUDAN
Government attacks on civilians
Bishop details bombings of church targets
A Sudanese Catholic bishop told a meeting on US foreign policy in August that the Islamic government of Sudan was engaging in a campaign of attacks on civilians as part of the African country’s 17-year-long civil war between the mainly Muslim government and mainly Christian southern separatists.
Bishop Macram Max Gassis of El Obeid released new details of an attack that took place in early June. The bishop said government air and ground forces attacked a Catholic mission near the city of Gumriak, killing 32 men, women, and children. He said the attack came despite Sudan President Omar el-Bashir’s “peace overtures” and claims that the attacks on civilians had ceased.
Gumriak is part of the so-called “no-go” areas of Sudan in which the government forbids international relief agencies access to war-threatened populations in areas held by the insurgent Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). The incident marks the third time this year that Bishop Gassis’ relief projects have been targeted by government forces. Last February 8, 20 students and their teacher were killed in a Khartoum-sponsored bombing raid on a Catholic bush school established by the bishop in the Nuba Mountains. And in mid-April, government militias raided Bishop Gassis’ mission in Lumun, displacing more than 5,000 Nuba locals and kidnapping two of the bishop’s catechists along with more than 1,000 others.
Later in the month, rebel leaders said the government had begun bombing civilian targets again only days after reassuring relief agencies they were safe to operate in the area.
The Sudan People’s Liberation Army said government airplanes bombed five civilian and relief agencies. Two people were killed in a marketplace in the town of Narus, and five buildings were destroyed in an attack on Christian aid centers in Ikatos, the SPLA said.
An official at the UN-led relief effort, Operation Lifeline Sudan, confirmed the five attacks but said it did not plan to suspend flights as it had for a week after the last escalation of bombings. “Most of the attacks were where we do not have clearance to fly anyway,” said the official, who declined to be identified. “We are concerned about any bombings, but at the moment we hope it will not affect our activities.”
International agencies estimate that 2.5 million Sudanese have been killed either directly or indirectly by the decades-long war.
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