DRAFT REPORT

Bombs and Imminent Rain

HART visit to South Sudan’s devastated land and to destitute victims of Khartoum’s continuing aggression. April 2012

“The Antonovs and tanks are attacking us

There is no help from any other country

The Khartoum government gets its help from Iran

All we can do is dig holes so we can hide ourselves from the north”

Sung by refugees from Blue Nile in Doro Camp

The Republic of South Sudan, devastated by decades of war in which 2 million died and 4 million were displaced, is now facing imminent humanitarian catastrophe. Khartoum’s constant aerial bombardment by Antonovs, MiGs and helicopter gunships, and deployment of long range missiles, on its own people in Abyei, South Kordofan (Nuba Mountains) and Blue Nile, have caused over a quarter of a million to flee into South Sudan. Additionally, Khartoum’s threatened expulsion of all citizens it defines as ‘Southerners’ means thousands more may pour into South Sudan.

Another 400,000 civilians have been driven from their homes and villages in Southern Kordofan (Nuba Mountains) and Blue Nile by aerial bombardment and ground offensives, hiding in caves and forests in situations which will become even more dire and dangerous in the rainy season.

From 8-14 April, Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART) visited four locations: Agok, to obtain information on the continuing effects of Khartoum’s Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) forces refusing to withdraw from Abyei; Yida, to meet refugees from the Nuba Mountains; Renk, to meet those expelled from the Republic of Sudan; and Doro to meet refugees who have fled from Blue Nile into Upper Nile. In each location we obtained evidence of the suffering which had caused their displacement and to witness the conditions in which they are now forced to live.

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DRAFT REPORT | Bombs and Imminent Rain | HART visit to South Sudan’s devastated land and to destitute victims of Khartoum’s continuing aggression. April 2012