On August 4, 2012 the Tripartite Humanitarian agreement was signed
with the African Union, League of Arab States, and the United Nations
in conjunction with the Sudan Government and the SPLM-N which outlined
the system to supply much needed aid to the civilians living in the
conflict zones in South Kordofan and Blue Nile States of Sudan.

There are three directives stated in the agreement that directly
affect the people in the SPLM-N controlled areas within South
Kordofan. This update states the directives from the agreement and
explains what is being seen on the ground:

Statements from the Tripartite Agreement

1. “The Tripartite team will immediately deploy to make an assessment
of the size and needs of the civilian population affected by the war
within a maximum of two weeks starting from the date of signing of
this memorandum.”

2. “The government of Sudan agrees to a cessation of hostilities
during the process of assessment and distribution of humanitarian
assistance.”

3. “The Government of Sudan and the tripartite partners, that is the
African Union, the League of Arab States and the United Nations
hereafter referred to as the two parties, agree on this Memorandum Of
Understanding for assessment and delivery of humanitarian assistance
to the war-affected civilians in South Kordofan and Blue Nile States”

What are the results of these statements on the ground

1. Assessment Team in Two weeks: Since the agreement was signed on
August 4, 2012 no assessment team has arrived in the SPLA-N controlled
areas of South Kordofan as stated in the agreement. Only 4 days after
the agreement was signed the civilians in the region started to clear
the Kauda airstrip in anticipation of an assessment team arriving to
ultimately deliver much needed aid to the region. It has now been over
a month since the agreement was signed and no assessment team has
arrived and no assessment has been completed.

2. Cessation of Hostilities: Despite the Sudan Government agreeing to
a cessation of hostilities here is a list of attacks carried out by
the Sudan government within the SPLA-N controlled areas in South
Kordofan:

August 12, 2012

- 5 bombs dropped in Jegaba Village

- 17 bombs dropped in Tongoli Village

August 14, 2012

- 5 bombs dropped in Farandalla Village

- 2 bombs dropped in Kamulalla Village

August 20, 2012

- 6 Bombs dropped in Tabanya Village

August 23, 2012

- SAF shelled the village of El Morieb with 120mm mortars wounding civilians

August 24, 2012

- 10 Bombs dropped in Calcutta Village

- SAF attacked SPLA-N near El Morieb Village (Fighting continued for 3 days)

September 5, 2012

- 2 large rockets hit near Calcutta Village

All of the bombings and rocket attacks that took place since August
4th were in villages that are not near any front line and deep within
the SPLA-N controlled areas. SPLA-N made one hit and run ground attack
on Aug 29th in Rashad town in retaliation for the burning of villages
around the region by SAF a few days earlier. All reports of bombings
and ground attacks are only what my team and I have witnessed or
confirmed. There was reports that other bombings took place in Tabanya
and near Gardud Badry but we have not confirmed these reports.

Just considering the confirmed and witnessed reports listed above, SAF
have dropped a total of 45 bombs in 6 different villages, launched 2
rockets, shelling of a village and one ground offensive in South
Kordofan since the agreement was signed that states the cessation of
hostilities. These numbers are only from the war zone in South
Kordofan and do not include Blue Nile.

My team was in the region of El Morieb prior to the attack from SAF in
El Morieb on Aug 23rd and took photos of the village with a GPS tagger
that embeds the photo with the GPS coordinates and the time and date
the photos were taken. My team was only able to access the village
prior to SAF’s attack of the region because it was controlled by
SPLA-N. My team only has the ability to access the region that is
controlled by the SPLA-N. SAF claims that they controlled El Morieb
before the 23rd and that SPLA-N attacked them but this would be
impossible if my team was able to access the region before the 23rd.
If you require our photos from the region with the GPS coordinates and
Time/Date of the photos please feel free to contact me.

3. Delivery of Aid to the War-Affected civilians: Since the Tripartite
Humanitarian agreement was signed no aid has reached the war-affected
in the SPLA-N controlled areas of South Kordofan.

Other Issues

- Airdrops: It is currently the rainy season in South Kordofan and
there is no road access in the region. Roads are thick with mud that
make it very difficult for an empty tractor to move let alone a truck
full of food. The only way to get food to the needy in a short amount
of time would be by air or by road after November 2012. As a result
the Sudan government, Humanitarian Commissioner, Suleiman Abdel
Rahman, said, “the government strongly rejected proposals regarding
airdrops . . .” and has suggested launching delivery of humanitarian
aid through SAF controlled areas of North Kordofan and Blue Nile.

- The Need: Currently in the German Emergency Doctors’ Hospital in
Lewere and the Mother of Mercy Hospital in Gidel are seeing the
highest number of malnourished children since the war started. I
visited both hospitals last week and talked to the international
medical staff there. Many of these children are coming from specific
areas in Heiban county. People from other counties would not be able
to access these two hospitals if they had malnourished children. Both
Dr. Tom from the US and Medical technician Rapheal from Germany told
me that they believe there are many more malnourished children in the
surrounding villages but the parents don’t associate the hospitals as
places to receive food and the parents are only bringing the children
to the hospitals after they have developed other sicknesses as a
result of being malnourished. If you would like contacts for these two
individuals I could provide them as needed.

My Thoughts

As I look at the current situation with 10 years experience in the
region and an extensive knowledge of the history of the region from
the last war up until the present I do believe that the Sudan
Government has a plan to delay and ultimatly reroute the aid to use
for manipulating populations into displacement camps where they can be
controlled. In the last war we have see the establishment of “Peace
Camps” in South Kordofan. These camps are where the highest number of
rapes, unlawful arrests, torture and killings took place. I know many
people who were trapped in these peace camps in the last war in the
villages of Mendi, Umdorain and Delami and the story is always the
same. People were either captured from their villages by SAF and PDF
during attacks or drawn into these villages with food and other aid
provided by international governments and used by the government of
Sudan. Once people reached these camps they were not allowed to leave.
Many women were raped and men arrested in these camps.

I do believe that this is the plan of the Sudan government as history
repeats it self. They will try to convince the international
community, through the Tripartite agreement, to “preposition” food aid
in SAF controlled areas in South Kordofan, Blue Nile and North
Kordofan with the promise to deliver aid into the SPLA-N controlled
regions. But there will be obstructions made for international NGOs to
deliever the aid and there will be no way to control the aid once it
is prepositioned far from Khartoum where most NGOs will be stuck. Then
the food will be used to draw people out of their villages into the
SAF controlled towns where they can be controlled, questioned,
exploited, and where they cannot support their family members in the
SPLA-N. There are villages in SK that are pro government and there are
villages that are pro SPLM-N. These villages are known by everyone in
the region. So I am sure the government will show some families
receiving aid that support the government and they will not show the
lack of aid and the atrocities taking place to the communities in the
SAF controlled areas that support the SPLM-N This is already happening
now in Kadugali, Al Abassiya and Delami. We have received several
reports of woman leaving their villages in SPLA-N controlled areas and
crossing over into Delami village and being rapped as soon as they
entered the town. We are trying to confirm these reports but they are
consistent with confirmed reports from the last war.

At some point, some people in the SPLA-N controlled areas look at
their children deteriorating trying to decided if they should cross
the line or not in order to get food for their children. The battle
must go on in their minds if crossing the line is worth the risk of
being beaten, raped, arrested or even killed.

It should be with great care if aid is provided to the region as not
to expose venerable populations to more atrocities by their own
government.

Thank you,

Ryan Boyette
CEO-Eyes and Ears Nuba

http://gretawire.foxnewsinsider.com/2012/09/08/note-from-american-rya...

END1

2. Sudanese flee conflict to grim life in South Sudan camps

2012-09-12 13:20
by Hannah McNeish

YIDA, South Sudan, Sept 12, 2012 (AFP) - In a hospital bed in a South
Sudan refugee camp, even the tiniest movement causes four-year-old
Daniel to cry out in pain.

Cracked skin from the swelling that comes with severe malnutrition
covers most of his small, fragile body.

Taken by his father fleeing civil war in Sudan's South Kordofan state
to the impoverished Yida refugee camp across the border in South
Sudan, Daniel is described as "a typical case" by aid workers here.

"He was eating, and then he began to grow a big stomach and get
diarrhoea," said his father Kamal Abulila, watching over his sickly
son in the clinic run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Conditions in this malaria-infested and swampy land are grim, a
perfect breeding ground for the clouds of flies that descend
constantly on weakened children.

Around 62,000 people are now crammed into Yida in Unity state, fleeing
bombs and hunger in Sudan's former breadbasket state, where Khartoum
has been battling rebels for over a year, as well as in Blue Nile
state, according to the United Nations.

Over 170,000 Sudanese have fled across the dangerous and volatile
border into South Sudan -- which won independence in July 2011, just a
month after the conflict erupted -- as government troops try to crush
ethnic insurgents fighting for greater autonomy.

Rains cut off access to food trucks and runways, forcing the UN's
World Food Programme (WFP) to use costly airdrops of food -- tonnes of
grain launched from cargo planes -- before stocks run out in a string
of camps along the border.

From the air, the camp is a sprawling myriad of seemingly organised
white and blue dots of plastic sheeting and straw huts.

On the ground, the stench of human waste rising in the sweltering heat
follows you wherever you go.

MSF Emergency Coordinator Foura Sassou said the main problem in the
camp was now diarrhoea and malaria which "make people malnourished,
especially the children".

Other clinics say that a gradual improvement in the health situation
had been seen since the easing of torrential rains.

'So much rain, so many mosquitoes'

As a result, the once stinking pools of water clogged with the faeces
of thousands without proper toilets had turned to dust.

Health worker Karen Daniels at a clinic run by aid agency Samaritan's
Purse said staff had been treating "horrible prolific diarrhoea all
over for about two months".

"That seemed to turn a lot of kids that were on the cusp of
malnutrition into being severely malnourished," she said.

The charity has started chlorinating water from the pumps and
containers, as well as teaching people health and hygiene.

"I think it's working," said Daniels, adding that the number of
moderately malnourished was slowly overtaking the severe cases that
once packed its stabilisation centre for children.

At MSF's clinic, "the number of deaths are decreasing because we are
increasing the number of staff and our facilities", but cases of
malaria are on the rise, Sassou says.

"We are just sleeping on the ground with nothing to lie on or cover
us," said Huwa Kua Tejni, as she hovers between beds where her
malnourished three and five-year-old daughters lie.

"There is so much rain and so many mosquitoes," she added, the hacking
cough of the youngest cutting through wails and sniffles in the tent.

In nearby beds, already tiny babies with wrinkled skin and hands --
wrapped in bandages to stop them pulling out feeding tubes -- look
enormous in foil sheets covering them to help bring down fever.

"The food is not enough," Tejni added. "We just eat these grains, with
water or salt, no sauce, and some paste cooked with leaves."

The United Nations has voiced concern about the health of refugees at
the Yida camp, and over 100,000 others in neighbouring Upper Nile
state, that fled south after the conflict spread to Sudan's Blue Nile
state last September.

At Yida camp, women like Tejni say that she and her five children use
the bush as toilets are too far away, and her husband has left to look
for work to try and help the family.

At a women's day centre run by International Rescue Committee, charity
workers say that many women are afraid to go out past dark.

"Most of the women came alone from their home areas and they lack the
protection of their men, so they always move alone and people take
advantage of them and assault them," said IRC worker Kiden Annette.

http://www.mysinchew.com/node/77535

END2
______________________
John Ashworth

Sudan, South Sudan Advisor

ashworth.j...@gmail.com

+254 725 926 297 (Kenya mobile)
+211 919 695 362 (South Sudan mobile)
+27 82 050 1235 (South Africa mobile)
+44 750 304 1790 (UK/international)
+88 216 4334 0735 (Thuraya satphone)

PO Box 52002 - 00200, Nairobi, Kenya

This is a personal e-mail address and the contents do not necessarily
reflect the views of any organisation