"Fighting in Sudan Spreads Fear Among Civilians", HRW


Fighting in Sudan Spreads Fear Among Civilians

Photo credit © 2012 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch

“I don’t know why the bombs come,” said Fadila Tia Kofi, an elderly South Kordofan woman who lost part of her left foot to a bomb. “I work. I farm. But now I crawl.”

The Sudanese government’s indiscriminate shelling has killed and injured scores of civilians over the past year in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states, on the South Sudan border. Government forces have also raided villages, deliberately burning civilian property and raping women.

The fighting between Sudan and rebels in these states has displaced hundreds of thousands of people, while more than 200,000 have fled to refugee camps.

Human Rights Watch conducted five research missions to hard-to-access rebel-held areas and refugee camps. Because Sudan blocks humanitarian aid to these areas, everyone we met was surviving on dwindling food reserves.

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