Sudan SPLM-N El Hilu leader: ‘We will defend our people and let the army know’

According to the secretary-general of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North under the leadership of Abdelaziz El Hilu (SPLM-N El Hilu), the aerial targeting of villagers in the area of Dalami a week ago “was surprising, but we have since long stopped to wonder what the government is doing”. Justice Africa Sudan called on the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) “to ensure protection of civilians according to their commitments under the 1949 Geneva Convention”.

Ammar Amoun Daldoum, secretary-general of the SPLM-N El Hilu, which is based in Kauda in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan, yesterday told Radio Dabanga yesterday that the Antonov of the Sudanese Air Force bombed the school in El Hadra village on March 14 “in the early morning, when the students were at school, and killed 11 children and two teachers instantly. At least 45 others were injured, most of them also students and their relatives”.

The Antonov also bombed the area of El Geniziya in the north of Dalami that day, killing 15 people and wounding three others. The bombing also included Habila town and Kargal village. At least 2,000 people fled their homes and searched refuge in safer areas, Daldoum said.

He went on to say that the air raid “was surprising, but we have since long stopped to wonder what the government is doing” and referred “for instance to the bombing of a hospital that was ran by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) eight years ago”.  

The Nuba rebel leader accused the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), which he called “non-Sudanese” several times during the interview, of “waging a brutal war devouring the green and the dry for 69 years.

“Such a long war against a foreign territory has never been recorded. And the enemy was always the Sudanese people. This was the case in southern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains, and the Blue Nile state since 1955, and much later, in Darfur and areas in the far east and far north of the country.

“The Sudanese army always had difficulty with ruling by the Constitution,” he said. “For 69 years, the rulers have governed the country through the violence of the army against the Sudanese living in the periphery.”

Consequences

On behalf of the SPLM-N El Hilu, which launched several attacks against SAF bases in South Kordofan and Blue Nile region after the war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) broke out in April last year, the rebel leader warned of “the consequences of continued targeting of civilians and young children which the army believes leads victories against the SPLM-N in particular and against the people in the peripheries in general”.

Daldoum stressed that the SPLM-N El Hilu “has a moral responsibility towards the people in the areas it controls. We will not stand idly when people civilian institutions like schools, hospitals, and places of worship are attacked. We will defend our people and our civil institutions, and let the army know that.”

Justice Africa Sudan

The Sudanese human rights organisation Justice Africa Sudan last week demanded the formation of an independent investigation into the aerial attacks on Habila town and villages in Dalami.

In a statement on Sunday, the NGO included lists of people, mostly killed in an airstrike, on El Hadra village last week.

It reminded the warring factions “to ensure protection of civilians according to their commitments under Geneva Conventions 1949 and its four protocols”.

Part of the list of 45 people, most of them children, injured during an air raid on the El Hadra village school in Dalami, South Kordofan, on March 14 (List composed by Justice Africa Sudan)

The organisation stated: “Almost all the districts of the Nuba Mountains are under siege since the start of the ongoing war that erupted on 15 April 2023. The RSF and its allied militias are blocking the main road between North and South Kordofan, hindering the movement of people and goods to these areas.

“At the same time, the SPLM-N is blocking the road between Delling and Kadugli, capital of South Kordofan, which has very serious impacts on the cost of living as the price of a [10kg] sack of sorghum reached SDG 100,000 in Kadugli and a famine is .

“We urge RSF and SPLM-A to immediately end the blockage of the roads and to ensure safe passage of good and humanitarian assistance,” the statement concludes.