[ 2011-07-17 ]

In Sudan border state, Nuba fighters ready for war
KAUDA, Sudan (AFP) - High up in Sudan's Nuba
mountains, hundreds of men train to join fighters
aligned to the ex-rebel army of the south, the
SPLA, jogging along mountain paths singing its
battle songs.

The Sudanese government has vowed to crush the
first "rebellion" within its redrawn borders, in
South Kordofan, as the Arab-Islamic regime seeks
to assert its authority over the truncated
country, following the secession of the south.

But despite the army's relentless bombing campaign
over the past six weeks, the insurgency shows no
sign of weakening, with the SPLA claiming to
control much of the ethnically divided state and
the new recruits swelling its ranks.

Some are young, but many are older, like Abdullah,
a middle-aged travel agent from Kadugli who
volunteered after fleeing the heavy fighting in
the state capital last month, along with 10
friends, four of whom were killed along the way.

"I lost so many in Kadugli. First, one of us was
gunned down by a Dushka (anti-aircraft machine
gun). Then, when we were carrying him, two more
were killed by an aerial bomb. Another was killed
on the way here," he says.

Others tell similar stories.

Aut Maliga was a farmer in the Nuba town of
Kurchi, southeast of Kadugli, where five bombs
were dropped on a market on 26 June.

"I joined the SPLA because I lost so many friends
in the bombing, my best friends," he says.

Numerous local sources have confirmed that the air
strikes on Kurchi destroyed the market and killed
at least 16 civilians, including eight women and
children. Another 32 people were hospitalised.

War is not new to the Nuba mountains, the
heartland of South Kordofan's indigenous Nuba
peoples, and the latest fighting seems to have
strikingly familiar causes.

Many Nuba joined the Sudan People's Liberation
Army's decades-long conflict with Khartoum in the
early 1990s, when the new government of President
Omar al-Bashir attempted to "Arabise" the region
and impose sharia, or Islamic law.

Under a towering tree, 73-year-old Brigadier Saed,
the South Kordofan SPLA's third in command, a
seasoned fighter who has spent decades battling
government forces, leads the new recruits in a
chant.

"SPLA oyee! SPLA is inside of us! SPLA oyee!" they
sing, shaking hand-carved wooden replicas of AK-47
assault rifles that they hope to soon replace with
the real thing.

Saed says he is happy about the independence of
the south, but like many Nuba, he still believes
in the late SPLA leader John Garang's vision of a
new, federal, democratic and united Sudan.

"I want freedom for the mountains and to help all
marginalised people in Sudan, from Darfur to Blue
Nile. They will join us. Already the SPLA in the
Blue Nile have taken to the bush. They will fight
too. We are ready to go to Khartoum to finish
this," he says.

His words echo a warning by Malik Agar, the
governor of Blue Nile state, which also has a
large number of SPLA supporters, that there was a
"very high" chance of the war spreading to his
state if the South Kordofan conflict drags on.
That now looks more than likely.

The army's attempt to eliminate the SPLA within
its new borders has certainly taken its toll on
the civilian population -- more than 73,000 people
have fled their homes since the fighting erupted,
according to UN estimates.

An internal UN report seen by AFP said the army's
systematic attacks on Nuba civilians in South
Kordofan, strongly denied by the government, could
amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

But two weeks spent behind SPLA lines revealed a
confident and well-armed force, further evidence
that Khartoum has seriously underestimated the
fighting capacity of the Nuba, who say they now
control more than five counties in the state.

Source - AFP

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