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UN Human Rights Council
19th Regular Session
(27 February - 23 March 2012)
Geneva, 08 March 2012
The Humanitarian Coordination Office (Blue Nile State) and Darfur Relief and Documentation Centre (DRDC) wish to express their deep concern about the deteriorating human rights and humanitarian situation in the Blue Nile State. The situation in this armed conflict-ridden area is aggravating in a disturbing manner. There is urgent need for immediate intervention to put an end to the massive violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the region. The situation of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Ingessana Hills in the southern parts of the State as well as along the international borders with the Federal Republic of Ethiopia and the Republic of South Sudan is especially alarming.
According to recent reports of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, hundreds of people have been fleeing from the Blue Nile State to Upper Nile State in the Republic of South Sudan and into the western regions of Ethiopia to escape renewed fighting. Between 27 February and 4 March 2012, UNHCR registered 2,287 new arrivals in the Doro and Jammam refugee camps in Upper Nile State. This recent influx brought the total number of registered refugees from the Blue Nile State in South Sudan to more than 80,000. In Ethiopia, the capacity of UNHCR refugee camps has reached its limits and the organization is planning to build additional refugee camps in western Ethiopia in order to be able to cater to the steadily increasing inflow of new arrivals from Blue Nile state. Western Ethiopia has so far registered more than 30,000 refugees, mainly from the Blue Nile. The war-affected communities and IDPs in the conflict-affected areas and in other parts of the Blue Nile State are facing imminent risks to their lives, safety and well-being due to the serious shortage of life-saving daily necessities such as food, medicine and shelter. The situation is complicated by the government refusal to allow international relief agencies including the UN agencies to access the needy people and provide them with the necessary relief material.
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Evidence of Human Rights Violations in the Nuba Mountains
Geneva, 08 March 2012
DRDC wishes to draw the attention of the 19th regular session of the Human Rights Council to the deteriorating human rights and humanitarian situation in the Nuba Mountains in Southern Kodrdofan State (Sudan). In introducing her annual report to the Council (A/HRC/19/21) on 3rd March 2012, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed her concern that: “In Sudan, Areas of South Kordofan, Blue Nile and also Darfur continue to see heavy fighting and related human rights violations, while South Sudan is struggling to contain deadly intercommunal violence in Jonglei, Warrap and Unity states.” She stressed that: “These developments underscore the need to resolve the causes of violence and the urgency of addressing widespread impunity.”
The situation in the Nuba Mountains has aggravated manifold in recent weeks due to the massive military operations that are taking place in the area. Large numbers of civilians, including women and children, are deliberately deprived of life-saving daily necessities such as food, medicine and shelter because the government of Sudan continues to deny independent international humanitarian organizations and UN relief agencies access to the war-affected areas. As such thousands of the internally displaced persons and war-affected communities live in precarious humanitarian conditions and their situation could deteriorate further in the absence of any external efforts to provide them with the minimum needs especially food, medicine and shelter.
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High-level Consultative Workshop on Civil Society Advocacy Options on Sudan
Recommendations
The High-level Consultative Workshop of Civil Society groups from Sudan and South Sudan convened in Addis Ababa on the 24th and 25th of January, 2012. Represented in the meetings were civil society groups in conflict affected areas in Sudan and along the border of Sudan and South Sudan. The participants discussed the situations in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile State as well as in Abyei, Darfur, and areas in north Sudan affected by the building of dams. Discussions dealt with the overall governance crisis in Sudan which is at the root of all of the conflicts and human rights violations occurring in the affected areas.
Six months ago the Comprehensive Peace Agreement concluded and still the people of Sudan are yet to enjoy peace and stability. The current government led by the National Congress Party failed so far to provide interim political and economic policies to foster peace in Sudan and a peaceful co-existence with South Sudan. Instead, the government has taken a security approach to resolving the contradictions that persist in the country resulting in grave violations of human rights, humanitarian crises, and fragmentation of Sudanese society.
Sudan is at risk of a destructive war with itself and with the Republic of South Sudan that would destabilize the African sub-region and endanger peace and stability in the rest of the continent.
President T. Mbeki
“The roots of Darfur’s crisis lie in a history of neglect of the Sudanese peripheries, dating from colonial times and continuing during the years of Sudan’s independence. The crisis in Darfur is a manifestation of Sudan’s inequitable distribution of wealth and power”
Ms Mandela-Machel
“The government doesn’t have an understanding of what it means when women say repeatedly to different people: ‘We are being raped. We are being beaten. We are being brutalized. We are fearful.’ I do not think the people we talked to tonight understand. Ms. Graça Mandela-Machel, Concluding Press Conference, Khartoum, 4”th October 2007
Prof Jody Williams
“Many of the people that we met with in Chad are giving up hope in the belief that the responsibility to protect doesn’t seem to have any meaning or relevance in their lives and in addressing the situation in Darfur.” Professor Jody Williams, 1997 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, comments on her Mission Report on Darfur,16 March 2007
Mr. Kofi Annan
“This report demonstrates, beyond all doubt, that the last two years have been little short of hell on earth for our fellow human beings in Darfur. And despite the attention the Council has paid to this crisis, that hell continues today.”
Dr Mukesh Kapila
"This is ethnic cleansing, this is the world's greatest humanitarian crisis, and I don't know why the world isn't doing more about it."
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