Sudan violence: Farmer ‘killed for being Hausa’ in South Kordofan

A Sudanese man of Hausa origin was shot dead at his farm in Abu Jubeiha in the Nuba Mountains, South Kordofan, in mid-September.

The Sudanese Human Rights and Development Organisation (HUDO) reported on Thursday that farmer Suleiman Abdelhameed (45) was working with his son (14) on his farm in Um Beneya, about seven kilometres south-west of Abu Jubeiha town on Wednesday, September 15, when a group of about twelve men approached them.

Some of the men were riding on motorbikes and others were herding cattle, HUDO stated. They asked about his tribe. When he replied that he was of Hausa origin, one of the men shot him in the head. Abdelhameed died instantly. His son witnessed the killing from the bushes he was hiding in. 

The son ran to his grandfather, who took the body of Suleiman to the Abu Jubeiha Hospital for a post-mortem and reported the incident to the police of Abu Jubeiha – who did not act.

The HUDO Centre expressed its concerns about “the security situation and the safety of civilians in conflict areas” and called upon the Sudanese government “to urgently address the causes of insecurity” in the eastern region of South Kordofan, and dissolve the government militias and disarm people carrying firearms without being licensed.

‘Black Nuba’

In May last year, a traveller in the Nuba Mountains was killed by armed men wearing uniforms of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) near Kadugli, capital of South Kordofan, after he stated he belonged to the Nuba Reika tribe.

Earlier that month, members of the RSF raided El Berdab village, 27 km north of Kadugli. They asked the villagers about their ethnic background. Those belonging to a Nuba tribe, the majority of the villagers, were beaten. Nine people were killed. More than two hundred homes burned to the ground.

In February 2020, a bus passenger from the Nuba Mountains was insulted and briefly detained by security personnel in Kosti in White Nile state, allegedly because he was black.  He was released after pressure from fellow passengers who refused to proceed to Khartoum without him.

The skin colour of many Nuba is darker (called blue in Sudan) than the skin colour of Sudanese from the north (called green).