(Updated 17 Apr 00:29 am) The civil administration of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) says it holds the international community and the African Union responsible for the humanitarian disaster currently taking place in war-torn South Kordofan.
The spokesman for the Nuba Mountains region, Jatigo Amoga Delman, explained to Radio Dabanga that the children in the areas controlled by the SPLM-N have not received any vaccinations since the outbreak of the war in June 2011. “Their health is deteriorating rapidly. An entire generation may face extinction because of the intransigence of the Al Bashir regime.”
Delman and harshly criticised the international community for failing to put pressure on Khartoum to allow the delivery of medicines and food to more than 1.2 million people.
“President Al Bashir has arranged for new massacres in the area, mobilising large forces of militias backed by air support to terrorise the citizens of Rashad locality. They are forced to move to government-controlled areas.”
Delman cited “the Islamo-Arabic scheme and its manipulative dimension”, and called on “the sons and daughters of Sudan from enlightened organisations, youth, and students to expose the scheme of political Islamisation which seeks the demise of what is left of Sudan".
Speaking through the pro-government Sudanese News Agency (Suna), the spokesman for the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), Col. El Sawarmi Khaled Saad, announced that over the last two days, “the SAF has liberated 12 areas at the Eastern Mountains' area in South Kordofan, and inflicted heavy losses in lives and ammunition of the outlaws”.
Col. Saad stated that “these victories came in preparation for the Armed Forces for the second stage of the crucial summer operations to secure the area from the Eastern Mountains in South Kordofan until the border with South Sudan”.
The areas the SAF claim to have ‘liberated’ are El Mansour, Tommy, Tangalo, Kaloba, El Hota, El Manzala, El Bierra, Jebel Bermil, Jebel Katrmo, Jebel Omdurman and Tarawa.
File photo: A nurse prepares a vaccination against meningitis (Albert Gonzand#225;lez Farran / Unamid)