‘Al Bashir copying and pasting Darfur genocide into Blue Nile’: Yasir Arman

The Secretary-General of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), Yasir Arman, says that Sudan’s President Omar Al Bashir “is copying and pasting the Darfur genocide experience into Blue Nile”.

In a press statement issued today, Arman says that instead of ending the genocide and war crimes in Darfur committed by their militias, the Khartoum government “is borrowing heavily from his experience in Darfur to extend it into the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile, especially after they failed to recruit local militias in the Two Areas”.

Arman’s comments coincide with reports on Radio Dabanga yesterday of large contingents of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia moving into Blue Nile state to reinforce the government forces there.

“In the last three years, Al Bashir and his security and military agencies have mobilised the Janjaweed militia, which have been organised by the government into the RSF and are attached to the security and military organs of the government and are being sent in thousands to the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile.

Battlefield

“Indeed, the Nuba Mountains/South Kordofan have been the battlefield of the Janjaweed for the last three years. They have failed to achieve their objective in capturing the liberated areas of the SPLM-N and to chase the civilian population outside of the Nuba Mountains. Nevertheless, they have raped women and killed and wounded many civilians with the direct reinforcement and cover of the Sudan government air force and army, which is targeting the civilian populations. In the last month, the Sudanese Air Force committed two massacres in Heiban. The first massacre on May 1 killed six children from one family. Again on May 26th, the Sudanese Air Force bombed the St. Vincent Elementary School in Kauda, which is run by the Catholic Church.

“The objective is to exterminate the indigenous people of Blue Nile and to eliminate them from their land.”

“Now as a result of the failure of the Sudanese army and its militia to achieve any military victory in the Nuba Mountains and especially in Blue Nile on this dry season offensive, in which they underestimated the SPLA-N forces in Blue Nile, Al Bashir is transporting thousands of Janjaweed militia from Darfur to Blue Nile, which are supported by more than 500 mounted cars with artillery. The objective in Blue Nile this time is different. The objective is to exterminate the indigenous people of Blue Nile and to eliminate them from their land, which is one of the most fertile and mineral rich lands of Sudan that includes gold. Al Bashir promised the leaders of the Janjaweed an agricultural project and a gold mining project, taking by force the land from the indigenous populations and changing the demography of Blue Nile forever. Al Bashir has been promised a huge investment for agriculture in Sudan by the Yemen war coalition as he is part of it, promising that Sudan will be the bread basket of the Arab world. The NCP leaders believe that the indigenous population of Blue Nile can be exterminated and sent out of its land, especially a big chunk of Blue Nile land that they encroached and annexed to the Dinder Natural Resort.

SPLM-N leadership is very concerned

“The SPLM-N leadership is very concerned of this new genocidal project of Al Bashir in Blue Nile and would like to send three public messages. One to the indigenous populations of Blue Nile region, from non-Arab and Arab tribes, that this project is against the interest of each and every one of you and will change Blue Nile into a new Darfur. We need to face it together and for Blue Nile to be a region for all citizens on equal footing. We should face this project with all available means, especially the political means. For its military component, the SPLA-N will defeat the Janjaweed and Al Bashir’s militias and army as we have been doing for the last six years defending the civilian population’s interests. Blue Nile will remain for all its indigenous populations, non-Arabs and Arabs. They are all Sudanese.

“Blue Nile will remain for all its indigenous populations, non-Arabs and Arabs. They are all Sudanese.”

“Secondly, is our message to the Sudanese people. Allowing Al Bashir and the NCP to re-engineer the Sudanese social fabric in the interest of the corrupt business class of the NCP and its allies in the name of investment and encroaching on the land and discriminating against indigenous Sudanese tribes will lead to the demise of Sudan and will hamper its nation building. We should all stand together against the genocide and war crimes committed by the regime, and we should work to end the wars and to bring peace and democratic transformation to Sudan.

Message to Africa

“Our third message is to Africa, the Arab world and the international community. To the Africans, the silence on the political Islam project, which is anti-diversity, equal citizenship, women’s rights, peaceful social co-existence and anti-human rights, will destroy the African nation building and unity. It started with Sudan, but it is not limited to it. It is extending to the big Nigeria, Mali, Libya, Somalia and others. It is better to speak out before it is too late. To the Arab world, the African Arabs are bigger in population size than the Arabs anywhere else, and political Islam does not represent Islam or the Arabs. It is a political threat that needs to be faced by everybody in the interest of equal citizenship and respect of human rights and diversity all over Africa.

“You need to speak out on what is taking place in Sudan as it is damaging the historical relations between the diverse social fabric of African societies. For the Gulf States, investing in Sudan is only meaningful after ending wars in Sudan. We call upon you to support peace building in Sudan. For the international community, it is regrettable to indict Al Bashir and to leave him to continue what he has been indicted for, and on some occasions, to blame the victims. The civilian populations of Darfur, Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains/South Kordofan need and seek your protection in accordance with international humanitarian law. We appeal to you to reassess the humanitarian and human rights situations in Sudan,” Arman’s statement concludes.

The views expressed in this statement are those of the Secretary-General of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), Yasir Arman, and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views of Radio Dabanga.