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Since November 10, over 4,500 Black African civilians (of the Dinka tribe) have fled pogrom-like conditions in the Northern Sudanese town of Meiram, in Kordofan, near the border of Darfur and Southern Sudan. The displaced are now struggling to survive, without adequate food, water, shelter, clothing and medicines in the Southern Sudanese settlement of Majok Yienh Thiou, Aweil East County.
Refugees report that Arab Muslim supremacists threatened them, and committed acts of violence, including murder, rape, robbery and arson. According to a UN/NGO inter-agency report, survivors also claimed Black African children were tortured and beaten to death, with bodies thrown into wells,. Many of the displaced arrived wounded in Southern Sudan.
The anti-Black African violence was incited, according to survivors, by Islamist Mujahadeen units, led by Masalam Mustaf, Dawud Harpas, Bakit Al Nil, Hamid Moammed Musa, and Hussien Jabir, with support from the Sudanese security organs. There were, however, local Arab Muslims who risked their lives to help the victims, including the tribal elders Abduljalil Bakar and Ireka Osman and a transportation company owner Hysam Maki. Bakar was reportedly arrested by Sudanese government security officers for help their fleeing Black African neighbors.
The violence in Meiram was sparked on the 9th of November as a result of armed conflict between two factions of militia led by the Islamized Southern Sudanese chief Abdelbagi Ayii. One faction is loyal to the Islamist-dominated Government of Sudan, while the other declared loyalty to the Black African-dominated autonomous Government of Southern Sudan.
Meiram and the surrounding area have been generally peaceful since the signing in January 2005 of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. Unless the violence in Meiram is contained, it can expand and merge with the conflict in neighboring Darfur, only a few miles away.
CSI is responding to this emergency by providing basic medicines and survival kits, including plastic sheeting, a mosquito net, a water container, fishing hooks, a sickle, a cooking pot and a blanket. $40 will help purchase and deliver a survival kit.
CSI aid workers are now in the area. Please help save the lives of the survivors by sending donations to: Christian Solidarity International, 870 Hampshire Road, Suite T, Westlake Village, CA 91361. http://www.csi-int.org. Donations to CSI are tax deductable. |
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