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_WORLD WATCH______________________________
________________Sudan_______________
Striking at aid workers
Bombing, floods imperil millions
The Islamic government in Khartoum continues to use air strikes against civilian villages as a regular part of its strategy to defeat rebels operating out of the predominantly Christian south of Sudan. In one such attack, late in August, the bombers hit a refugee camp in Ngaluma, near the border of Uganda, on Sunday morning, when many residents were attending church services. Then the planes continued on to Ikotos, attacking a town where several relief agencies maintained their headquarters.
Church officials and relief workers charge that the Khartoum government has deliberately aimed air strikes to target civilians and disrupt efforts to bring food and medical supplies to the beleaguered population. Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has indirectly confirmed those charges, by saying that foreign relief groups are encouraging sedition and rebellion in the civil war-torn African country. “We are suffering a lot from what these organizations have done,” he said. “They came to our country in the name of charity, but many of them are working to plant sedition and encourage subversive activities which have been undertaken by some quarters.”
The famine that has claimed thousands of victims in Sudan every year during the past decade threatened to spread still further this year, when heavy rains in the northern Blue Nile basin—following two consecutive years of severe drought—caused heavy flooding, destroying crops and driving families from their homes. The situation is aggravated by the large numbers of refugees from the continuing warfare in the south.
Back to Catholic World Report October 2001 Table of Contents