SPLM-N El Hilu: ‘Over three million people face famine in southern Sudan, aid obstructed’
People seek refuge in the hills near Dalami against SPLM-N attacks on the town, occupied by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), January 27 (Photo: Abdelrahim Kunda)
The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North led by Abdelaziz El Hilu (SPLM-N El Hilu) in South Kordofan and Blue Nile state, reported the death of more than 400 people due to hunger within a month. Over 50,000 children are severely malnourished. The movement accused the Sudanese authorities of obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid to these areas.
The SPLM-N El Hilu in mid-August announced a famine in the areas under its control in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan and the New Funj area in Blue Nile state. The movement’s Civil Authority stated at the time that 20 per cent of the households in these areas suffered from food shortages and about 30 per cent of the children was malnourished.
On Friday, Arno Ngutulu Lodi, first secretary of the Civil Authority, in a press statement accused the Sudanese authorities of obstructing humanitarian aid to more than three million people facing famine in South Kordofan and Blue Nile state.
He reported the death of 416 people due to hunger between August 14 and September 20, while 52,479 children have reached a state of severe malnutrition.
“Despite our declaration of famine [..] and the Sudanese Relief and Rehabilitation Agency’s calls to all humanitarian organisations and concerned United Nations agencies, the obstacles placed by the government in Port Sudan have prevented humanitarian organisations from carrying out their duties,” Lodi stated.
He said that the delay in aid delivery could endanger more than three million people, including the 768,306 displaced who sought refuge in the Nuba Mountains after the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted more than 17 months ago, and noted the extremely dire humanitarian situation in Blue Nile state.
The Civil Authority renewed its appeal to the United Nations and aid organisations “to expedite their response and intervene urgently to save the lives of millions”, and called on local, regional and international press agencies “to exert maximum media pressure: on the de facto Sudanese government in the Red Sea capital of Port Sudan.
Radio Dabanga reported in early September that the number of people in the Nuba Mountains dying from hunger was rapidly growing – while Sudan’s Acting Minister of Agriculture denied any signs of famine in the country, refuting reports by UN and other international organisations that at least a third of the Sudanese population is facing severe food shortages.
Long war
Following the eruption of the SAF-RSF war in mid-April last year, the SPLM-N El Hilu launched several attacks against SAF bases in South Kordofan and Blue Nile state. In December, rebel fighters clashed with RSF paramilitaries in the vicinity of Delling.
After the Sudanese Air force bombed a school bombed a school in Dalami, South Kordofan, in March this year, Ammar Daldoum, secretary-general of the movement, accused the SAF, which he deems to be “non-Sudanese”, 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.”
and then