Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 134 | Wed 16 Nov 2011
SUDAN: REFUGEES BOMBED; 'OIL WAR' LOOMING
By Elizabeth Kendal
Religious Liberty Monitoring noted in its 14 May 2010 posting, 'SPLM-NCP alliance: a "covenant with death" (Isaiah 28:15)': 'There will be a massive war for control of the oil fields presently situated on the southern side of the North-South border.' It appears that the predicted 'oil-war' is looming.
When South Sudan seceded from the north in July, the Republic of Sudan lost about 25 percent of its land mass, 80 percent of its forests and 75 percent of its oil. Consequently, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was never popular in Khartoum, especially amongst Islamists and the regime's military elite. Compounding the situation, Sudan's remaining oil fields were located in the region of Abyei and the state of South Kordofan, whilst the bulk of its hydroelectric power emanated from Blue Nile. Long politically marginalised and violently persecuted on racial and religious grounds, the mostly Christian and non-Arab peoples of this 'new south' have long supported the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM). So that it might cement its control over the resource-rich 'new south', Khartoum has been ethnically cleansing the region. In May, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) surged into Abyei. On 5 June the regime unleashed genocidal jihad on South Kordofan and extended this to Blue Nile on 1 September. Untold thousands of mostly Christian non-Arabs have been slaughtered and many hundreds of thousands displaced. To hasten the genocide, Khartoum has sealed the region off to humanitarian aid, condemning the displaced to death by mass starvation. For some shameful reason, Western media do not seem to regard this as newsworthy.
President Omar el-Bashir was in Blue Nile recently to celebrate the 'liberation' (conquest and ethnic cleansing) of Kurmuk, a highly strategic Blue Nile town on the border with Ethiopia and formerly the main bastion of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N). Addressing a rally in the Blue Nile capital Al-Damazin on Sunday 6 November, el-Bashir declared that Khartoum was ready to return to war with the South where it would repeat 'the lessons of Abyei, Kadugli [South Kordofan] and Al-Damazin [Blue Nile]'. Doubtless the regime intends to use the military to seize as much as possible of South Sudan's oil-rich territory, re-drawing the North-South border to 'recover' at least some of what was 'lost' through the CPA.
On 8 & 9 November Antonov bombers from the SAF airbase in El Obeid, North Kordofan, attacked two locations inside South Sudan. The remote region of Guffa in Upper Nile state, where Oxfam is caring for some 50,000 refugees from Blue Nile, came under aerial attack on 8 November. Oxfam workers reported that the four-hour-long bombing and heavy artillery fire destroyed several structures while killing seven people and wounding many more. The next day Yida refugee camp in Unity State was bombed. Run by the Christian charity Samaritan's Purse, Yida is home to more than 23,000 mostly Nuba registered refugees from South Kordofan. The attack left 12 dead and some 20 wounded, but it could have been much worse. A bomb that landed outside a school building where over 200 students were in classes failed to detonate. Praise God and persevere in prayer!
Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP) has confirmed that the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) has been upgrading airbases recently captured from the SPLA-N in Blue Nile's border regions. The airstrip in Al-Damazin has been lengthened. Helipads are being developed at Kurmuk for helicopter gunships and the runway re-laid for Russian-built Antonov bombers. With an operating radius of some 1100km, Antonovs from Kurmuk would be able to reach Juba, the capital of South Sudan. On Friday 11 November, 18 died and 73 were wounded when a Khartoum-backed militia launched a daring cross-border raid into Kuek, Upper Nile State, South Sudan, attacking the SPLA military base. SPLA colonel, Philip Aguer, reports that the militias are massing along the border in preparation for an attack on the oil-producing regions of Upper Nile. 'This is an oil war now,' he said.
For full background on Sudan see Religious Liberty Monitoring, label: Sudan
Map of Sudan & Southern Oil Concessions (sudanreeves.org: best source on Sudan)
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT --
* God will be a 'refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble' for all Sudanese Christians -- in the North and in the South -- who will faithfully trust HIM through these tumultuous times (Psalm 46:1-3); may they find peace and comfort in the assurance that their sovereign LORD is with them (vv4-7) and that HE will be exalted in the earth (vv8-11).
* the LORD's fearsome anger might be roused (Psalm 76:7), that he might rise to 'establish judgement' and save the humble (vv8,9). May Sudan's 'men of war' and its leadership be hamstrung, reduced and made subject to HIM (vv5,6,10-12).
SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
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SUDAN: REFUGEES BOMBED; 'OIL WAR' LOOMING
The Republic of Sudan Arab-Islamist regime has been waging genocidal jihad against the mostly Christian non-Arabs of the 'new south': Abyei, South Kordofan and Blue Nile. The regime has now escalated its attacks inside South Sudan. On 8 & 9 November it bombed refugees from South Kordofan and Blue Nile as they sheltered in South Sudan's Unity and Upper Nile States. On 11 November a Khartoum-backed militia attacked a Southern military base in Kuek, Upper Nile, South Sudan. Many have been killed and wounded. Satellite images reveal that Khartoum is establishing and supplying forward bases and massing militias along the border ready for a full-scale 'oil war'. Please pray for Sudan's Christians, in the North and in the South. May God be their fortress, deliverer and peace.
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Showing posts with label starvation. Show all posts
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Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
113. Sudan: genocidal regime targets Nuba again
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 113 | Wed 22 Jun 2011
SUDAN: GENOCIDAL REGIME TARGETS NUBA AGAIN
By Elizabeth Kendal
North Sudan's South Kordofan State is defined by the Nuba Mountains. Whilst the plains of South Kordofan are populated by pro-Khartoum Arab Misseriya Baggara nomads, the Nuba Mountains are populated by some 50 non-Arab, predominantly non-Muslim African tribes collectively known as Nuba. Long isolated, the Nuba are famous for their unique culture. In 1968 when the Government of Sudan (GoS) based in Khartoum started acquiring large tracts of land for mechanised farming, the Baggara began grazing their cattle on Nuba land, destroying crops and taking over wells in the process. Tensions soared, exacerbated through the 1970s by drought. By 1983 the Baggara were raiding the Nuba at will and with impunity.
Meanwhile, Dr John Garang had united South Sudan's various rebel forces to form the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). In June 1983 the SPLM published its Manifesto calling for a united, secular, democratic Sudan with equality and rights for all Sudan's diverse peoples. Khartoum responded instead by imposing Sharia Law. The South would not submit. The war was on. In 1984 senior Nuba leaders likewise wanting an end to Islamisation joined the SPLM/A.
In 1985 a local SPLA taskforce chased a band of Misseriya Baggara raiders to the outskirts of the Nuba Mts, killing 60. Khartoum responded by training and arming Baggara militias, known as Murahaliin, for use in a proxy jihad against the Nuba. When in 1986 an SPLA taskforce came seeking recruits, young Nuba men flocked to enlist. At that point the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) entered the fray, purging Nuba villages of anyone they suspected of SPLA sympathies. After Omar al-Bashir seized power in Khartoum in a military coup in 1989, he brought the Baggara Murahaliin under government control, re-branding them as the Popular Defence Force (PDF). Commissioned to carry out genocide in the Nuba Mts, the SAF and PDF murdered the Nuba elite, razed Nuba villages, burnt crops and shut schools and medical clinics. The areas that survived under SPLA control were then blockaded against all trade and humanitarian aid. Amidst this, the GoS established so-called 'Peace Camps' (concentration camps) where submission to the regime and conversion to Islam would win a family GoS food aid. Hundreds of thousands of Nuba perished in the GoS-engineered famine of 1990-93, rather than submit. Had it not been for Arab smugglers the Nuba civilisation would have been annihilated.
Despite Dr Garang's best efforts, when negotiating the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) he had not been able to get the GoS to agree to a referendum on self-determination for the Nuba. However, Garang assured the Nuba that if the CPA were implemented then the racist, Islamist regime would be finished and a 'New Sudan' would emerge. So the Nuba signed the CPA despite their immense dissatisfaction at the lack of a referendum on Nuba self-determination.
John Garang, the leading advocate of the 'New Sudan' vision, died in a helicopter crash in July 2005 and subsequently the GoS has not implemented the CPA. Now the South is due to secede on 9 July, leaving numerous SPLA allies -- including the Nuba -- stranded in the North. South Kordofan is the only state in the North with oil and it appears that Khartoum has begun ethnically cleansing the Nuba Mts -- again. This is the regime that ethnically cleansed the Dinka-Ngok (Southerners) out of Abyei in March-April 2011 and annexed the contested border region.
Violence exploded in South Kordofan's capital, Kadugli, on 5 June as SAF and SPLA troops clashed. Reportedly, SAF and Baggara Arab militias have been conducting door-to-door 'sweep' operations in the cities and towns, killing everyone they suspect of SPLA sympathies. According to Bishop Andudu Adam Elnail of the Episcopal Diocese of Kadugli, 'churches and pastors were directly targeted'. Christians have told Compass Direct News they have witnessed clergy being shot and killed by the sword before their eyes, to shouts of Allahu akbar. The Catholic, Episcopal and Church of Christ churches in Kadugli have been looted and torched. On Sunday 12 June the governor of North Kordofan declared jihad on the Nuba, most of whom are Christian. Ahmed Haroun, recently installed by Khartoum as governor of South Kordofan by a fraudulent poll, is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity committed in Darfur. Hundreds of thousands of Nuba have been displaced. Bishop Elnail requests Christians to observe Sunday 26 June as a day of prayer and fasting for an end to the violence. The Bishop laments: 'Once again we are facing the nightmare of genocide of our people in a final attempt to erase our culture and society from the face of the earth.'
Furthermore thousands of Southerners have been forced to flee GoS aerial bombardment of the oil regions of South Sudan's Unity State. The regime may well be aiming to seize as much as possible of the South's oil-rich territory before the South secedes on 9 July.
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR GOD TO --
* have mercy on Sudan's long-suffering marginalised peoples, drawing them to himself so that in faith and dependence they will call upon the sovereign and supreme Lord of Hosts and witness his deliverance.
* burst through the forces of the Islamist, genocidal regime of Omar al-Bashir (2 Samuel 5:20), so driven by racial and religious hatred that unconscionably (arrogantly; complacently; see Isaiah 37:29) it would orchestrate the genocide of all Sudan's non-Arab and non-Muslim peoples; may the Lord defend his people.
'For nothing will be impossible with God.' (Luke 1:37 ESV)
~~~~
SUMMARY TO USE IN BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
----------------------------------------------------------------------
GENOCIDAL SUDAN REGIME TARGETS NUBA
Violence exploded on 5 June in Sudan's South Kordofan State, the only North Sudan state with oil. South Kordofan's Nuba Mountains are populated by some 50 non-Arab, mostly non-Muslim Nuba tribes. Sudan Armed Forces and Arab militias have been conducting door-to-door 'sweep' operations, killing everyone they suspect opposes the Northern regime. In the capital, Kadugli, the Catholic, Episcopal and Church of Christ churches have been looted and torched. According to Episcopal Bishop Elnail, 'Churches and pastors were directly targeted.' Christians have told Compass Direct News they witnessed clergy being executed to shouts of Allahu akbar. Hundreds of thousands of predominantly Christian Nuba have been displaced. Amidst tensions elsewhere, South Sudan is due to secede on 9 July. Please pray for Sudan and its Christians.
SUDAN: GENOCIDAL REGIME TARGETS NUBA AGAIN
By Elizabeth Kendal
North Sudan's South Kordofan State is defined by the Nuba Mountains. Whilst the plains of South Kordofan are populated by pro-Khartoum Arab Misseriya Baggara nomads, the Nuba Mountains are populated by some 50 non-Arab, predominantly non-Muslim African tribes collectively known as Nuba. Long isolated, the Nuba are famous for their unique culture. In 1968 when the Government of Sudan (GoS) based in Khartoum started acquiring large tracts of land for mechanised farming, the Baggara began grazing their cattle on Nuba land, destroying crops and taking over wells in the process. Tensions soared, exacerbated through the 1970s by drought. By 1983 the Baggara were raiding the Nuba at will and with impunity.
Meanwhile, Dr John Garang had united South Sudan's various rebel forces to form the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). In June 1983 the SPLM published its Manifesto calling for a united, secular, democratic Sudan with equality and rights for all Sudan's diverse peoples. Khartoum responded instead by imposing Sharia Law. The South would not submit. The war was on. In 1984 senior Nuba leaders likewise wanting an end to Islamisation joined the SPLM/A.
In 1985 a local SPLA taskforce chased a band of Misseriya Baggara raiders to the outskirts of the Nuba Mts, killing 60. Khartoum responded by training and arming Baggara militias, known as Murahaliin, for use in a proxy jihad against the Nuba. When in 1986 an SPLA taskforce came seeking recruits, young Nuba men flocked to enlist. At that point the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) entered the fray, purging Nuba villages of anyone they suspected of SPLA sympathies. After Omar al-Bashir seized power in Khartoum in a military coup in 1989, he brought the Baggara Murahaliin under government control, re-branding them as the Popular Defence Force (PDF). Commissioned to carry out genocide in the Nuba Mts, the SAF and PDF murdered the Nuba elite, razed Nuba villages, burnt crops and shut schools and medical clinics. The areas that survived under SPLA control were then blockaded against all trade and humanitarian aid. Amidst this, the GoS established so-called 'Peace Camps' (concentration camps) where submission to the regime and conversion to Islam would win a family GoS food aid. Hundreds of thousands of Nuba perished in the GoS-engineered famine of 1990-93, rather than submit. Had it not been for Arab smugglers the Nuba civilisation would have been annihilated.
Despite Dr Garang's best efforts, when negotiating the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) he had not been able to get the GoS to agree to a referendum on self-determination for the Nuba. However, Garang assured the Nuba that if the CPA were implemented then the racist, Islamist regime would be finished and a 'New Sudan' would emerge. So the Nuba signed the CPA despite their immense dissatisfaction at the lack of a referendum on Nuba self-determination.
John Garang, the leading advocate of the 'New Sudan' vision, died in a helicopter crash in July 2005 and subsequently the GoS has not implemented the CPA. Now the South is due to secede on 9 July, leaving numerous SPLA allies -- including the Nuba -- stranded in the North. South Kordofan is the only state in the North with oil and it appears that Khartoum has begun ethnically cleansing the Nuba Mts -- again. This is the regime that ethnically cleansed the Dinka-Ngok (Southerners) out of Abyei in March-April 2011 and annexed the contested border region.
Violence exploded in South Kordofan's capital, Kadugli, on 5 June as SAF and SPLA troops clashed. Reportedly, SAF and Baggara Arab militias have been conducting door-to-door 'sweep' operations in the cities and towns, killing everyone they suspect of SPLA sympathies. According to Bishop Andudu Adam Elnail of the Episcopal Diocese of Kadugli, 'churches and pastors were directly targeted'. Christians have told Compass Direct News they have witnessed clergy being shot and killed by the sword before their eyes, to shouts of Allahu akbar. The Catholic, Episcopal and Church of Christ churches in Kadugli have been looted and torched. On Sunday 12 June the governor of North Kordofan declared jihad on the Nuba, most of whom are Christian. Ahmed Haroun, recently installed by Khartoum as governor of South Kordofan by a fraudulent poll, is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity committed in Darfur. Hundreds of thousands of Nuba have been displaced. Bishop Elnail requests Christians to observe Sunday 26 June as a day of prayer and fasting for an end to the violence. The Bishop laments: 'Once again we are facing the nightmare of genocide of our people in a final attempt to erase our culture and society from the face of the earth.'
Furthermore thousands of Southerners have been forced to flee GoS aerial bombardment of the oil regions of South Sudan's Unity State. The regime may well be aiming to seize as much as possible of the South's oil-rich territory before the South secedes on 9 July.
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR GOD TO --
* have mercy on Sudan's long-suffering marginalised peoples, drawing them to himself so that in faith and dependence they will call upon the sovereign and supreme Lord of Hosts and witness his deliverance.
* burst through the forces of the Islamist, genocidal regime of Omar al-Bashir (2 Samuel 5:20), so driven by racial and religious hatred that unconscionably (arrogantly; complacently; see Isaiah 37:29) it would orchestrate the genocide of all Sudan's non-Arab and non-Muslim peoples; may the Lord defend his people.
'For nothing will be impossible with God.' (Luke 1:37 ESV)
~~~~
SUMMARY TO USE IN BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
----------------------------------------------------------------------
GENOCIDAL SUDAN REGIME TARGETS NUBA
Violence exploded on 5 June in Sudan's South Kordofan State, the only North Sudan state with oil. South Kordofan's Nuba Mountains are populated by some 50 non-Arab, mostly non-Muslim Nuba tribes. Sudan Armed Forces and Arab militias have been conducting door-to-door 'sweep' operations, killing everyone they suspect opposes the Northern regime. In the capital, Kadugli, the Catholic, Episcopal and Church of Christ churches have been looted and torched. According to Episcopal Bishop Elnail, 'Churches and pastors were directly targeted.' Christians have told Compass Direct News they witnessed clergy being executed to shouts of Allahu akbar. Hundreds of thousands of predominantly Christian Nuba have been displaced. Amidst tensions elsewhere, South Sudan is due to secede on 9 July. Please pray for Sudan and its Christians.
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