The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have dropped over 1800 bombs on South Kordofan and Blue Nile states this year in a bombing campaign that threatens to cause a humanitarian disaster, said the Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Agency (SRRA).
In a new report released this week, the SRRA, which is the humanitarian wing of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), said that 1808 bombings on homes, schools, and hospitals killed 79 civilians and injured 91 between January and June of this year.
The release said the violence has placed civilians “on the brink of catastrophe.”
“Nearly one million civilians in South Kordofan and around 100,000 in Blue Nile states have fled from the areas of conflict,” the SRRA said. “A further 400,000 people in South Kordofan are now internally displaced.”
“Attacked from the air and from the ground, women and children have been forced to cower in caves. Fields have been left untilled and cattle uncared for,” read a press release accompanying the report.
The group said that food and medicine are running out and there is little access to water.
It is impossible to verify the report’s claims due to issues of access by independent observers in the affected areas.
The SRRA called on the international community to pressure the Sudan government to stop attacking civilian targets and to allow humanitarian access.
The SPLM-N has been fighting Khartoum since 2011 after it separated from the main SPLM in Juba at South Sudan’s independence.
Khartoum stepped up its counterinsurgency during the dry season beginning at the start of this year.