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Civilian targets
An end in sight?
In February, the government of Sudan stepped up its bombing campaign against targets in the south of the country, where rebel groups are strongest. A spokesman for the US State Department said that American officials were “outraged by the government of Sudan’s aerial strike against civilian targets,” adding that the “horrific and senseless attack indicates that the pattern of deliberately targeting civilians and humanitarian operations continues.”

The pattern of the air strikes lent strength to the American protest. On at least two occasions, government planes bombed and strafed airfields immediately after planes from the World Food Program had dropped off humanitarian relief supplies. The attacks caught hundreds of civilians who had gathered to collect food packages, and at least 20 civilians were killed.

Early in March, however, the US government announced that the Khartoum regime was near agreement on a plan to halt attacks on civilian targets. The regime’s foreign minister, Mustafa Osma Ismail, issued a formal apology for the bombing raids, and said that in the future the government would require military commanders to clear all bomb targets with the central administration in Khartoum. The Sudan government also agreed to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid to rebel strongholds in the Nuba Mountains, and promised efforts to stop the practices of kidnapping and enslavement of the children of rebel families.