Volume 5, No 1, June 1999
The Nuba people, ninety-nine black African tribes living in the Nuba Mountains situated in the Sudanese province of South Kordofan, have been besieged by the regular Sudanese Army for fifteen years. The genocide perpetrated on the Nuba people, obviously the result of the world powers’ struggle over Sudanese natural riches, remains concealed from the world public: no observers, reporters or even members of humanitarian organisations are allowed into the Nuba Mountains, the most inaccessible place on the planet. In the besieged Nuba Mountains there is no electricity, no petrol, not a single shop or restaurant, no waste ... the mountains are the least consumer-oriented spot on the globe. The Nuba Mountains are the heart of solid stone darkness, in the safety of which persist the last of the fighters for the right to be a Nuba. The Nuba Mountains are the black hole of the planet Earth, and yet one of the rare examples of primordial human sensibility and the symbiotic relationship between Man and Nature, a people that has managed to survive the twilight of the ancient gods.
Volume 5, No 1, June 1999
There is no doubt that the concept of peaceful co-existence among people has always been a desirable goal for every individual on earth throughout human history at all levels. It is exactly because peace is God's given virtue to the human being, whom he created in his own image, that it should become a necessary tool for obtaining and maintaining peaceful regulations and laws which govern human relations. In fact, all the major world religions do preach the need for peaceful co-existence among nations; to live first in peace with their creator, and then with each other as Children of God.
Volume 5, No 2, August 1999
It is now become a daily routine exercise for the Antonov to fly from el-Obeid to South Kordofan to bomb innocent civilians. On 17 July the Antonov flew in the early morning as usual to the area and droped several bombs on the villagers who were working on a nafir (collective farming) for one of the farmers, and killed 12 innocent civilians including a newly-born baby.
The search for peace for Sudan is becoming a strenuous and an arduous task.
Following the failure of the second round peace talks in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria in May 1993, the leaders of the countries in the Horn of Africa known as Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD) at their summit meeting in Kampala in November 1993 decided to be involved in Sudan’s conflict and to seek a peaceful solution to the war in the Sudan. During that meeting IGAD mediation committee was set up, which comprises of four African heads of states, namely President Daniel arap Moi of Kenya, President Museveni of Uganda, President Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia and President Isayas Afewerki of Eritrea. President Daniel arap Moi was chosen to be the Chairman of the Committee. It was hoped that the IGAD committee would be able to bring about a peace settlement because the majority of the IGAD Committee has experience with the Sudan’s conflict and are interested in a peace settlement. This is one of the prime reason that an initiative by these countries is of significant importance. In addition three in the IGAD mediation Committee have recently emerged from war of liberation.
Volume 5, No 2, August 1999
On 21 June this year, ten years after Khartoum agreed that the United Nations could carry relief to all "war-affected populations" of Sudan, the UN's Operation Lifeline Sudan finally took its first steps in the Nuba Mountains. The ground-breaking visit by a five-man delegation came as Nuba patience was wearing thin, 13 long months after Khartoum promised UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that it would permit OLS to assess the need in the SPLA-controlled regions of the Nuba mountains that have been denied official aid for the last decade.