As Genocide Passes One-Year Mark in Sudan's Nuba Mountains, IRD Urges Pressure on U.S. Government

Nuba Mountain People of Sudan

WASHINGTON, June 4, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of renewed attacks upon the Nuba Mountain people of Sudan. Victims of brutal genocide in the 1980s-90s, the Nuba are again under attack by Sudan's National Congress Party (NCP) government, based in the capital of Khartoum. Hundreds of thousands have been killed and displaced since Khartoum began attacks on the region on June 5, 2011. Currently 500,000 people are at risk of starvation, cut off from aid by Khartoum.

Sudanese forces continually have bombed Nuba Mountain villages and burned homes, schools, and churches. The regime's Islamist militia, the "Popular Defense Force" staged a house-by-house purge of black, African Nuba. Church leaders particularly were targeted. Tens of thousands have fled to refugee camps, others are hiding in caves.

IRD is urging church members to press the Obama Administration into action. Cross border aid from South Sudan must be delivered before the rainy season cuts off access. The northern Islamist regime also has violated the international sovereignty of South Sudan, as well as continuing attacks on disputed border regions and Sudan's other marginalized people groups.

IRD Religious Liberty Program Director Faith J.H. McDonnell commented:

"Sunday, June 5, 2011 an e-mail informed me that war had begun in the Nuba Mountains. Sudan Armed Forces and militias deployed troops using heavy weapons, tanks, and a military air base. 'We need quick action from the USA and the international community before another genocide occurs in the Nuba Mountains,' it warned. It is a moral outrage that the United States and the world have ignored this cry for help for an entire year.

"One week after demonstrations started in Cairo's Tahrir Square, President Obama urged President Mubarak to step down. Why have the brutality and genocide by Sudan's President al-Bashir not caused Obama to make the same call on Sudan?

"The Arab uprising in Libya began February 17, 2011. By the 26th, the U.N. condemned Gadhafi's crackdown on the rebels as a violation of international law. By March 17, the U.N. had created the kind of no-fly zone for which the Nuba people have been pleading for a year. Not long after, the U.S. was using Tomahawk cruise missiles on the Gadhafi regime.

"The double standard is breathtaking, particularly since Egypt is now in the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists."

www.TheIRD.org