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Sudan
Bombs hit relief agencies
More human-rights violations
Warplanes of Sudan’s Islamic government bombed civilian relief agencies in southern Sudan on October 17, killing several people and injuring 32, rebels said.
Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) spokesman George Garang said the government had broken a cease-fire called to allow UNICEF to carry out a polio vaccination program. He said the bombing raids had targeted two relief centers run by international aid organizations at Tali and Terekeka in the southern region of Eastern Equatoria.
The attacks came as a UN investigator accused Sudan’s government of violating human rights by bombing civilians as part of its war on mainly Christian rebels in the south. Leonardo Franco, in his report to the UN General Assembly, said he was “profoundly shocked” by bombings that have killed an estimated 45 people and injured some 230 this year. He rejected the government’s explanation that pilots had a standing order not to bomb civilian targets. The explanation was “inconsistent with the number and frequency of the aerial attacks against civilian and humanitarian targets,” he said, noting that at least 33 bombing incidents were reported in July, and that relief agencies had been targeted in August.
While Franco had more criticism for the Sudanese government, he also blamed the SPLA for kidnapping and rape of women, forced recruitment of children, and planting of mines. Sudan’s 17-year-old civil war pits the Islamic government in Khartoum against rebels in the largely Christian south.
Just days after Franco’s report became public, relief agencies working in southern Sudan issued a fresh complaint that government bombers had attacked a rebel-held southern town, destroying a child-care center and several homes.
Dan Eiffe of Norwegian People’s Aid said 23 bombs were dropped on the town of Nimule in two separate attacks, but there were no casualties. “It was a direct hit on the nursery but the children weren’t there because it was Sunday,” Eiffe said. “The building was destroyed and so were some homes. But the people had heard the planes coming and had dived into their shelters.”
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