Sudanese warplanes dropped cluster bombs on civilian areas of Southern Kordofan’s Nuba Mountains in February and March 2015, Human Rights Watch announced today following a visit by human rights researchers to the area earlier this month.
Cluster munitions are a type of weapon that scatter sub-munitions or bomblets over a wide area. Some parts of a cluster bomb may explode on impact while other remnants fail to explode on impact and scatter over a wide area, hence becoming de facto landmines.
Human Rights Watch said that it documented a total of six cluster bombs. It said they appeared to be Soviet-made RBK-500 cluster bombs, containing AO-2.5 RT fragmentation submunitions.
The bombs were “apparently dropped by government aircraft on villages in Delami and Um Durein counties,” reads a press release from HRW, noting, “Witnesses said that government aircraft dropped two bombs in the village of Tongoli, in Delami county on March 6, and four others on the village of Rajeefi, in Um Durein county, in late February 2015.”
Some of the mentioned attacks destroyed homes and other civilian properties where they dropped in populated areas.
In total about 17 civilians have died in attacks by the Sudanese armed forces in the Nuba Mountains this month, according to a civilian rights monitoring group.
File photo: A child wounded in a Sudan Armed Forces shell attack on Um Serdiba village in Um Durein County, Sudan, February 2015 (Radio Tamazuj)
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