‘Govt. represses Darfuris in Jebel Marra’: Sudan opposition

Sudan's opposition parties criticise the Sudanese government for disregarding the unilateral ceasefire it recently announced, by leading the major offensive in Darfur's Jebel Marra in the past week.

The Sudan Human Rights Monitor has called for a stop of the war in Jebel Marra, expressing surprise at the continuing military operations and bombing in spite of the government’s declaration of a cessation of hostilities.

On the occasion of Sudan’s Independence Day on 31 December, President Al Bashir announced the extension of a unilateral ceasefire, although lacking an agreement with the armed rebel movements. The head of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) mocked the decision, saying: “The Sudanese Air Force never stopped bombing Jebel Marra, the Blue Nile, and the Nuba Mountains [in South Kordofan].” 

The head of the human rights monitor, Nabeel Adeeb, said in an interview with Radio Dabanga that the declaration of a ceasefire by only one of the warring parties, is a mistake. “The attack on civilians and their displacement violates international law. Abide by the law of war and do not bomb civilians, and treat war prisoners with decency,” Adeeb told the warring parties. 

The Sudanese Communist Party has considered the military operations in Jebel Marra as “escalated”, and aimed at “repressing the Sudanese people by using the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces”. Siddig Yousif, member of the party's central committee, accused the government of not being serious in achieving peace.

“The National Intelligence and Security Service director, Mohamed Atta El Moula Abbas, has stated that the government will bring peace to Sudan by crushing the Sudan Revolutionary Front combatants in South Kordofan and Darfur,” Yousif said. “The government's speech about a ceasefire is meant to gain time.”

“Condemn the scorched-earth policy of the regime and provide relief to those who have fled high in the Jebel Marra massif.”

Rebels call for uprising

The rebel movement fighting the government forces in Jebel Marra, the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Abdel Wahid El Nur (SLM-AW), appealed to the Sudanese people to go out on the streets starting tomorrow until Monday, “to march in solidarity with the victims of the ongoing genocide and rape taking place in Jebel Marra, Nuba Mountains, and Blue Nile”.

“One of the objectives of the government in the last assault on the Jebel Marra is to gain control of the vast fertile land, in addition to the displacement of civilians,” El Nur claimed in an interview with Radio Dabanga. He reported that about 15,000 civilians have fled from villages in the mountains to Kaguro.

As for the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), the rebel umbrella in Sudan, it looks at the “indiscriminate bombing, killing, displacement, and burning of villages not as an isolated event”. In its press statement, the movement claims that the government creates a social demography in Darfur in this way, one that ensures loyalty to the regime of President Omar Al Bashir.

Spokesman Tom Hajo for the SRF called upon the international community to “condemn the scorched-earth project currently being implemented in Jebel Marra […] to provide relief to those who have resorted to the reef of mountains”.