CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY INTERNATIONAL April 21, 2001

New Sudanese Government Military Offensive Over 20,000 Black, Non-Muslims Displaced

(Alek, S. Sudan/Zurich/Los Angeles, April 21, 2002) Yesterday, the armed forces of the Government of Sudan (GOS) launched a major offensive to capture the strategically important town of Gogrial, northern Bahr El Ghazal, Southern Sudan. Two brigades emanating from the GOS garrison at Wau, under the command of Brig. Gen. Mahmoud Abdel Tahir, are currently 19 miles southeast of Gogrial, with three helicopter gunships and two Antonov bombers assaulting civilian targets, according to the SPLM/A Civil Commissioner of Gogrial County, James Lual.

Speaking today to CSI, Lual reported that over 20,000 civilians have already been displaced, with the number expected to increase dramatically as the battle for Gogrial intensifies. The civilian population of Gogrial town was evacuated yesterday. The local civil administration is moving the displaced population to more secure areas. The number of dead and wounded is still unknown.

Commissioner Lual urged the UN and Western governments to commence an immediate airlift of emergency humanitarian aid to the displaced thousands of Bahr El Ghazal and western Upper Nile, and called for the suspension of U.S. peace talks with Khartoum as long it violates its US-brokered undertaking to protect civilians.

Last week, the Sudanese Army set the stage for its current offensive in Bahr El Ghazal. On Friday, April 12, government troops attacked and burned the villages of Loolthou and Tharkueng, a short distance from Wau. On Thursday, April 18, aid workers reported serious fighting between government forces and the SPLA in the vicinity of Wau. (IRIN, April 19, 2002)

The strategic objective of the Sudanese Government is to establish a direct supply line from Wau to its forces operating in the oil fields of western Upper Nile, and cut off supplies to the SPLA in Upper Nile from neighboring Bahr El Ghazal, according to informed sources in Khartoum. The establishment of a garrison at Gogrial would provide the government Army with a springboard from Bahr El Ghazal into Upper Nile. In recent days there has been heavy ground fighting and bombardment of villages in western Upper Nile, especially around Koch, Bieh and Rier. (IRIN, April 19, 2002)

The current Sudanese Government offensive takes place while the United States is pressing ahead with a peace initiative, headed by former Senator John Danforth. The State Department suspended peace talks in mid-February in response to the killing and wounding of scores of civilians in government bombings of humanitarian relief operations in Bahr El Ghazal and western Upper Nile. Spokesman Richard Boucher called the attacks “senseless and brutal”, and said they raised questions about Sudan’s commitment to peace. (AP, February 21, 2001.) However, three weeks later, the U.S. resumed the Danforth peace process after the GOS signed an agreement for “civilian protection from all types of military operations”. (Reuters, March 10, 2002)

This month, the Government of Sudan banned the UN and UN-related humanitarian agencies from delivering aid to over 40 locations in Southern Sudan, mainly in western Upper Nile and in the vicinity of Wau and Gogrial. In response, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Kenzo Oshima condemned the move, and urged the Sudanese government to rescind its decision, noting that this denial of aid would have serious repercussions on the entire populations of Upper Nile and Bahr al-Ghazal. (IRIN, April 17, 2002)

On Friday, April 18, the UN Commission on Human Rights passed by one vote a resolution calling on the GOS “to cease immediately all indiscriminate aerial bombardments and attacks against the civilian population”. (UN Commission on Human Rights, E/CN.4/2002/L.27)

The Government of Sudan has declared a jihad against the Black, non-Muslim population of Southern Sudan that continues to resist Islamization and Arabization. Since 1983, an estimated two million Southern Sudanese have died as a result of this civil war. (end)