‘Blue Nile residents transferred by force by Sudan’s army’: organisation

The Sudan Armed Forces has carried out a transfer of civilians from their homes in Blue Nile state's Ingessana Mountains. The transfer was forced upon them, according to a humanitarian organisation. Their numbers are difficult to verify, a coordination unit in the state said, as the Sudanese government does not allow humanitarian agents there.

In a new development in the continued wave of displacement in the state, people living in Derenk area in Bau locality were forced into fifteen military trucks and transferred to a camp south of Ed Damazin. The camp for displaced people is called '(Alashid) Afandi'.

The Sudanese humanitarian organisation Vaida has condemned the forced transfer of civilians in a press statement, and considered this a crime against humanity.

A Member of Parliament from Bau, Komendan Godan, accused the Sudanese government for what he called the deportation from Derenk. He demanded the formation of an inquiry commission to look into the matter.

'Between 150-250 families deported'

Fighting between government forces and the rebel SPLM-N took place on Wednesday, prior to the deportation of residents of Derenk and Musfa villages, according to the South Kordofan Blue Nile (SKBN) Coordination Unit. It believes that between 150 and 250 families arrived in the Alashid Afandi camp.

"Local actors confirmed that more people were relocated from Naurania and Moreg villages in Bau, to El Madina, in El Roseires locality, but numbers were not provided. Local
informants reported that due to harsh weather conditions, with heavy rains and wind, the situation of the displaced is unacceptable, as people are left without shelter," the SKBN reported in a press statement on Friday.

Unable to provide any figures of the deportation from Bau, owing to the area restrictions, the coordination unit confirmed that "re-locations are happening and in big numbers".

Wave of displacement

An estimated 8,600 people fled their homes in Blue Nile, because of fighting in the Wed Abuk area, Bau locality, according to a mission of the Sudanese Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) on 14 June. Many of them were re-located in Bau locality; they are in need of food, water and emergency household supplies, the UN humanitarian office (OCHA) reported this week. 3,600 of them fled to Gulli in El Tadamoon locality.

According to HAC and the Sudanese Red Crescent Society, the security situation is returning to normal in Wed Abuk, and displaced people have started to return to their home villages. Recommendations from the mission now include assisting the displaced people with the return home.

Air raids in Bau in May and June

On 10 May, Makanza was destroyed by fire, and along with Bagis and Abugarin, was bombed and “emptied of their population”, according to the Fayda Organisation operating in Blue Nile, and the Arab Coalition for Sudan, on 20 May. “The population has been displaced and fled to El Roseires,” an official of the rebel SPLM-N in the area told Radio Dabanga last week.

The SPLM-N also reported that a wave of displacement followed air raids by the Sudanese Air Force in Wed Abuk on 11 June.