What Is Genocide?

This is a brief article providing a contextual background for understanding the issues Operation Broken Silence works on. It is part of our resource list for students, teachers, and the curious and was last updated November 2023. For more information about what's happening in Sudan and our work, please sign up for our email list.

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Genocide is an internationally recognized crime where acts are committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. These acts fall into five categories:

1. Killing members of the group

2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group

3. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part

4. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group

5. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

Photo: Raphael Lemkin (Wikimedia Commons)

Origin of the Term

In 1944, Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin created the term genocide. He formed the word by combining geno-, from the Greek word for race or tribe, with -cide, from the Latin word for killing. He included the term in his book that documented Nazi policies of the systematic destruction of national and ethnic groups, notably the mass murder of European Jews.

Lemkin defined genocide as "a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves."

In 1945, the International Military Tribunal — held at Nuremberg, Germany — charged top Nazi officials with crimes against humanity. Lemkin’s term genocide was included in the indictments, but only as a descriptive term, not a legal one.

On December 9, 1948, the United Nations approved the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This codified the term genocide in international law, defining it in Article II of the Convention as outlined above.

Further Development of the Term & Research

From an academic and legal perspective, the development of the term genocide is usually placed into two historical periods:

• 1944-1948: the coining of the term through its acceptance as international law

• 1991-1998: the establishment of international criminal tribunals created to prosecute the crime of genocide

Throughout history, there have been many cases of targeted violence against various groups of people. Many of these were committed before the term genocide was created and codified into international law. In his work, Lemkin thoughtfully wrote that the term genocide did not create a new phenomenon, but rather was "an old practice in its modern development."

Many scholars have pointed back to campaigns of mass killings that were committed before the 1940s as historical examples of genocide, despite a reputable court of law or tribunal not ruling that genocide was committed. After additional research and recognitions by various governing bodies, some of these pre-1940s campaigns are now widely accepted to have been genocides. One of the most notable example was the systematic mass murder and expulsion of ethnic Armenians committed by the Ottoman government during World War I. Lemkin pointed to the crimes committed against ethnic Armenians as an example of what he meant by the term genocide.

Since the crime of genocide was codified into international law in 1948, various governments and civil and international institutions have researched how and why genocides are committed, as well as how they can be prevented and brought to an end. Perhaps the most well-known result of this critical work is The 10 Stages of Genocide, a processual model that aims to demonstrate how genocides progress. It is widely accepted as a helpful tool for understanding the mechanics of past genocides, as well as providing early warning signs that can be used to prevent future genocides and other mass atrocities. It also provides preventive measures that can be used to prevent, slow, or stop the process.

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From Learning To Action

Operation Broken Silence is building a global movement to empower Sudanese genocide survivors in the war-torn periphery regions of Sudan, including teachers in Yida Refugee Camp. Teachers just like Chana.

The Endure Primary and Renewal Secondary Schools we sponsor in Yida are run entirely by Sudanese teachers. Your gift will help pay educator salaries, deliver school supplies and more.

If you can’t donate right now, we encourage you start a fundraising page and ask friends and family to give!

We are a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization. Your donation is tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law.

Yida Refugee Camp

Photo: A young boy rides his family’s donkey toward the market in Yida Refugee Camp. (Operation Broken Silence)

This historical overview provides a contextual background for understanding the issues Operation Broken Silence works on. It is part of our resource list for students, teachers, and the curious and was last updated November 2023. For more information about what's happening in Sudan and our work, please sign up for our email list.

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Introduction

Yida Refugee Camp in northern South Sudan came into existence in 2011, when the second war and attempted genocide in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan began. We encourage you to read our historical background piece on the Nuba Mountains before continuing here.

A chronological examination of Yida can be broken out into three main periods:

• Pre-Existence To Founding : 2010-2011

• Camp Growth & Humanitarian Challenges: 2011-2014

• International Tension, Stability, & Population Decline: 2015-2019

Since Operation Broken Silence’s primary Sudanese partners work in the Nuba Mountains and Yida Refugee Camp, a summary of the current situation is provided at the end as well.

Map: Location of Yida Refugee Camp. (Operation Broken Silence)

Pre-Existence To Founding: 1992-2011

The history of Yida Refugee Camp in northern South Sudan is intricately connected to the Nuba Mountains just across the border in Sudan. Yida sits roughly 17 miles away from the international border dividing the two countries. This demarcation is illustrative of the historical religious and ethnic grievances the Nuba Mountains and South Sudan have suffered underneath national military regimes in Khartoum.

The locality was depopulated of its native African tribal populations in the 1990s during the Second Sudanese Civil War. The Nuba Mountains of Sudan north of the area now known as Yida are inhabited by roughly 100 African tribes who have been referred to collectively as Nuba for centuries. Estimations vary wildly; however, it is generally thought that roughly 45% of the Nuba people are Christian, making the mountains home to the largest community of Christians in Sudan. Other religious affiliations include 45% of the population identifying as Muslim, with the remaining 10% following local tribal regions or identifying with no religion at all.

Photo: A girl who survived an aerial bombing in the Nuba Mountains. Her mother brought them to Yida Refugee Camp in 2015. (Operation Broken Silence)

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the Bashir regime of Sudan attempted to Islamize and Arabize the Nuba Mountains through war and genocide. This caused high levels of death and destruction on Nuba communities but ultimately strengthened the Nuba identity and armed resistance to the Bashir regime. The situation in the Nuba Mountains stabilized from 2003-2009 as the peace agreement that ended the Second Sudanese Civil War came into effect.

Some people resettled the area now known as Yida after the war ended in 2005, but it remained only sparsely inhabited by South Sudanese throughout the 2000s. By 2010, the area’s largest community was a small Dinka farming village of roughly 400 people. During the rainy season, the landscape transforms from being visually semi-arid into a lush, green wetland.

As southern Sudan prepared for an independence referendum in 2010, several soon-to-be international border areas between Sudan and southern Sudan witnessed rising tensions. The area that would become Yida Refugee Camp remained relatively quiet as it was shielded to north by the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement-North (SPLM-N) in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan and southern Sudan’s own military.

That began to change in 2011. From January-May, the Bashir regime of Sudan escalated militia attacks on isolated frontline communities in the Nuba Mountains. With southern Sudan on the verge becoming an independent country, it was clear that a new war was coming to the Nuba Mountains.

The return to war came early on the morning of June 6, 2011. Regime forces invaded the state capital of Kadugli and began massacring Nuba civilians. Survivors witnessed army soldiers and regime intelligence agents dragging Nuba people from their homes and executing them in the streets. Additional agents hunted through the city for Nuba leaders and intellectuals to kill, a step of the 10 Stages of Genocide.

Over a three-day period, the Bashir regime oversaw the systematic mass killing of thousands of Nuba civilians in Kadugli and began a widespread aerial bombing campaign on communities across the Nuba Mountains. Large numbers of Sudanese army forces and regime paramilitaries began to advance on the outskirts of the Nuba Mountains. Heavy fighting broke out across the frontlines. Nuba civilians fled for the safety of mountains or toward the South Sudan border.

Most of the initial refugees who arrived in Yida were survivors of the Kadugli massacre. They brought with them firsthand accounts of the killings. Along the way they had no sustainable food sources or clean water. The small farming village welcomed the new arrivals, offering food and land for them to farm. Yida Refugee Camp was born.

Rapid Camp Growth & Humanitarian/Security Challenges: 2011-2014

The ebb and flow of Nuba refugees into Yida since the outbreak of the war has matched the severity of armed conflict in the Nuba Mountains. During particularly intense stretches of regime aerial bombings and ground offenses, the population of Yida Refugee Camp has swelled. The first three years of the war witnessed major assaults on frontline communities and widespread aerial bombing against schools, markets, and places of worship. Yida Refugee Camp grew rapidly as a result, even with the critical road from the Nuba Mountains to Yida in South Sudan under constant threat by regime forces.

Over 30,000 refugees fled into Yida during the first year of the war. The regime responded by sending a warplane across the border to bomb the fledgling refugee camp in November 2011. This war crime caused considerable international outcry, making the regime decide not to launch such a brazen cross border attack again.

By July 2012, local aid workers were reporting over 600 new arrivals a day and growing humanitarian needs. Children were showing up malnourished and parents reported having to scavenge for leaves, roots, and tree sap to eat to sustain their journey to Yida. The World Food Program quickly scaled an emergency food distribution program to 21,000 people, but struggled to keep up with the growing population.

Three months later in October, Yida had more than doubled in size to roughly 65,000 people, with over 1,000 new arrivals flowing in on peak days. Driving the influx were Sudanese government warplanes, which had increased the frequency of bombing runs and begun using cluster munitions on Nuba villages.

As humanitarian conditions worsened in the camp, crime and basic security began to deteriorate as well. With no signs of a ceasefire or peace agreement on the horizon and humanitarian support lacking, community leaders in Yida Refugee Camp and local South Sudanese government officials began to push for more structure and services to address basic needs. A South Sudanese police force entered the camp and arrangements were made for refugees to begin farming the areas around Yida. An on again-off again effort to collect and remove small arms from the camp also picked up pace.

By January 2013, Yida’s population had swelled to over 70,000 people and little progress had been made on the camp’s humanitarian and security challenges. Relationships with nearby South Sudanese Dinka villages had also deteriorated. Local South Sudanese accused the Nuba refugees of harvesting their resources –including fish, wood, honey, and tall grass— to turn a profit at the growing market in Yida Refugee Camp. The Nuba refugees reported being robbed by members of nearby villages and being forced to pay taxes without any sort of documentation provided.

These tensions exploded into violence in March 2013. South Sudanese police and a Nuba militia —primarily made up of members from the Angolo tribe in Nuba— opened fire on each other. Armed Dinka militias entered parts of Yida and began looting homes and shops with police participation. More than 7,000 Nuba refugees fled north to the town of Jau, which sits on the Sudan-South Sudan border. The violence was finally quelled when a heavily-armed South Sudanese army force entered the camp to restore order.

The violence forced refugee leaders, local South Sudanese officials, and humanitarian organizations to focus on permanently improving conditions in the camp, even as the United Nations moved forward with opening additional camps in less secure areas. Throughout 2014 and over the next few years, more clean water wells would be dug, shelter supplies and food provided, schools opened, and limited medical services launched. A major effort to reduce the proliferation of weapons in the camp took on a more concrete form as well, leading to a reduction of Nuba militias and soldiers and more lightly armed South Sudanese police units.

In January 2014, regime forces launched a major offensive to capture the critical route connecting the Nuba Mountains to Yida Refugee Camp. After briefly losing control of a handful of key towns, the Nuba SPLM-N managed to defeat the attack and drive regime forces out of the area, permanently securing the road for refugees and trade flows in the area.

Cultural Sustainment, International Tension, & Population Decline: 2015-2019

By 2015, Yida Refugee Camp had grown to be the largest Nuba community despite being outside of the mountains and in another country. The camp’s sheer size and improving humanitarian and security conditions made it a cultural and trading hub of the Nuba people.

The camp’s residential landscape was increasingly dotted with boon shops —a traditional Nuba coffee infused with ginger, cardamom and cinnamon— tea stalls, churches, schools, and community gathering and laundry sites. Community leaders created a process to handle local disputes peacefully. Nuba wrestling matches —a famous, historic sport in the mountains— brought in crowds to watch. Barbed wire that had been put up to help secure the camp’s perimeter was taken down and repurposed as clotheslines.

Yida’s expanding market and improved farming access also allowed for refugees to improve their own humanitarian conditions, as well as become a trading hub between the Nuba Mountains and South Sudan and nearby local communities. The camp was beginning to look more like a permanent city and economic engine in the region. Nuba teachers at most schools in the camp were underpaid and not well-resourced, but more and more children —one of the largest demographics in Yida— had access to a classroom, sometimes for the first time ever.

Photo: A Nuba woman waits for water to boil at her boon and tea shop in Yida’s market. (Operation Broken Silence)

Challenges in Yida persisted despite improving conditions. In 2016, three churches were burned to the ground. International groups focused on Christian persecution reported that agents sent by the Sudanese government were responsible, but one of the church’s pastors informed Operation Broken Silence that they had no evidence of that being the reason. The congregations chose to forgive the perpetrators and rebuild.

Most notably, the relationship between the refugee community and United Nations (UN) became a source of growing anxiety in 2016. The UN had long referred to Yida as a “temporary” settlement and as the agency opened other less secure camps in South Sudan had begun calling Yida a “transit” area.

Photo: Torched logs from one of the churches burned down in Yida. The rebuilt church sits in the background. (Operation Broken Silence)

The reasoning provided for the UN’s growing discomfort with Yida has left much to be desired. Over the years, UN workers have claimed that the camp is too close to the border, plagued by armed actors, and that overpopulation was occurring. Nuba refugee leaders have asked for evidence of the latter two and partnership time and time again and received less and less in response.

The solutions offered by the UN fell even further short than the arguments. Efforts to replace Yida with other camps over the years have seen mostly negative results. A new UN camp called Nyeli flooded so frequently it had to be closed. While Yida is less than the 50-kilometers minimum distance from the border set by UN guidelines, the new UN camp Ajuong Thok did not meet the UN’s distance guidelines either. To make matters worse, the camp is near a section of the border that has historically been controlled by Sudanese regime forces, and residents felt it wasn’t safe to leave the camp after being threatened by local communities. Ajuong Thok was also nearing capacity by mid-2016 when the UN intensified efforts to close Yida, and another camp at Pamir wasn’t even built before the UN tried to move Nuba refugees there.

Many Yida residents thus refused to leave for new UN camps, even as the UN slowly reduced humanitarian operations from 2016 onward. However, Yida’s population began to decline in 2017 after the first ceasefire in the Nuba Mountains was signed. With the end of regime aerial bombing and major ground offensives, as well as slowly deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Yida, families began returning to their villages in the Nuba Mountains to rebuild.

Yida Refugee Camp Today (2019-Present)

In 2019, a civilian revolution swept across Sudan, leading to dictator Omar al-Bashir being overthrown by his own generals in April of that year. Following a horrific massacre of peaceful protesters in Khartoum in June, renewed protests surged across Sudan and forced the regime to the negotiating table. A transitional government that was supposed to move the country toward free elections, democracy, and protection of basic human rights was implemented.

The transitional government was overthrown by surviving regime forces in October 2021. Leading the coup were the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), two uneasy allies whose generals never saw eye-to-eye. Military leaders in both organizations desired to see themselves as Sudan’s new ruling junta, with other armed regime groups beneath them.

Photo: A mother checks on her baby while cooking outdoors in Yida. (Operation Broken Silence)

From the time of the coup to early 2023, conditions in Sudan deteriorated on almost fronts. Inflation surged, peaceful protests resumed, humanitarian needs spread, and the web of oppression that transitional civilian leaders had been lifting was reinforced.

The RSF used this time to double down on becoming a self-sustaining force in Sudan. RSF generals fully secured their own weapons supply lines, launched international diplomatic efforts, entrenched themselves further in Sudan’s gold-mining sector, and began recruiting more fighters, both within Sudan and from other countries across the Sahel region. These actions almost always came at the expense of ordinary Sudanese, who faced increasing attacks by RSF soldiers and dwindling economic opportunities.

It also deteriorated the RSF’s tenuous relationship with the more dominant army, to the point of collapse. With a long-promised peace agreement elusive and coming fracturing of the regime all but sure, Nuba leaders had begun preparing for a new war shortly after the October 2021 coup. Meanwhile, in Yida Refugee Camp, clean water sites had begun falling into disrepair and schools struggled to gain access to basic supplies.

The new war came on April 15, 2023. The RSF launched multiple attacks on army bases across Sudan and attempted to seize government buildings in Khartoum. The lightening strike failed to knock the army out of power, with army units across the country putting up stiff resistance and bombing civilian areas RSF units attacked from. Both sides have engaged in large-scale war crimes, with the RSF using the fog of war to double down on their genocide of ethnic African minorities in Darfur.

Photo: A Nuba woman walks home from a clean water well in Yida. The well she used has since fallen into disrepair and closed. (Operation Broken Silence)

At first, the Nuba Mountains were seen as a safe haven, with roughly 200,000 people from Khartoum and other areas fleeing into Nuba SPLM-N controlled areas and even into Yida Refugee Camp.

Fighting reached the western Nuba Mountains in June 2023. Small skirmishes between the army and SPLM-N devolved into major fighting around Kadugli and spread north to Dilling. The RSF entered the fray as well, attacking army forces from the west and north. While some Nuba communities near the frontlines have been forced to evacuate and prices of basic goods have soared, life goes on as usual in much of the rest of the Nuba Mountains and Yida Refugee Camp. There has been no widespread aerial bombings of villages as in previous wars, but the situation remains tense. It is believed that if the RSF makes serious gains in the region, more frontline communities will be at-risk, which would likely lead to new refugees entering Yida once more.

The army-RSF war continues today, as does fighting on the western frontlines of the Nuba Mountains. For more up to date information on the situation in the Nuba Mountains, Yida Refugee Camp, and across Sudan, please visit our blog and sign up for our email list.

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From Learning To Action

Operation Broken Silence is building a global movement to empower Sudanese heroes in the war-torn periphery regions of Sudan, including Nuba teachers in Yida Refugee Camp. Teachers just like Chana.

The Endure Primary and Renewal Secondary Schools we sponsor in Yida are run entirely by Sudanese teachers. Your gift will help pay educator salaries, deliver school supplies and more.

If you can’t donate right now, we encourage you start a fundraising page and ask friends and family to give!

We are a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization. Your donation is tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law.

Sudan’s Independence to Partition With South Sudan

Photo: Children of South Sudan practice their dance routine for the performance at the football match between South Sudan and Kenya during the independence celebrations of South Sudan on July 9, 2011. (UN Photo/Paul Banks)

This historical overview provides a contextual background for understanding the issues Operation Broken Silence works on. It is part of our resource list for students, teachers, and the curious and was last updated November 2023. For more information about what's happening in Sudan and our work, please sign up for our email list.

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Map: Sudan and South today. (Operation Broken Silence)

Introduction

While the history of the geographic region now known as Sudan and South Sudan stretches back thousands of years, this overview focuses on the time period after Sudan’s independence in 1956.

A chronological examination of Sudan’s contemporary era can be broken out into four main periods:

• Sudan’s Independence: 1956

• First Sudanese Civil War: 1955-1972

• Second Sudanese Civil War: 1983-2005

• Peace Agreement & South Sudan Partition: 2006-2011

Since Operation Broken Silence’s mission is focused on issues in Sudan, this historical overview ends with South Sudan’s independence in 2011.

Sudan’s Independence: 1956

On January 1, 1956, Sudan gained independence from the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, the joint British and Egyptian colonial government that administrated the region. The new country came with a rich diversity of over 600 ethnic groups speaking more than 400 languages in an area roughly one-third the size of the United States. 

The region could broadly be broken into two areas: the geographic north, which was home to roughly 65% of the population and is predominately Muslim, with various ethnicities falling into the larger categories of African and Arab. The geographic south is now largely the country of South Sudan, where many individuals consider themselves Christian or animist, with their various ethnicities falling primarily under the broader category of African. While there are evident demographic differences between these two areas, the colonial government only perpetuated division further by governing the north and south separately, with most investment going to Arab-dominated regions of the north.

Sudan’s founding constitution failed to address two crucial issues. First, it was not decided if Sudan should be a secular or Islamist state. Second, the country’s system of national governance failed to include the majority of Sudanese and protect the rights of large minorities. This has been a core driver of conflict in Sudan ever since. As the years went by and national governance became dominated by elite Arab tribal groups in Khartoum, the central government failed to fulfill its promises to create a federal system that was more inclusive.

First Sudanese Civil War: 1955-1972

The consolidation of the two regions following independence caused fear across southern Sudan that centralizing political power in the north would soon rule over them.

In 1955, an unorganized mutiny by southern army officers began. Sudan would never be the same again. The resulting war progressed into three stages over a roughly 17-year period.

Stage 1: Unorganized Guerrilla Warfare (1955-early 1960s)

Southern Sudanese army troops mutinied in the garrison towns of Torit, Yei, Juba, and Maridi. While revolts were quickly suppressed, many survivors fled into the countryside to begin an uncoordinated, poorly armed insurgency.

The newly formed Sudanese government and the outgoing British saw these groups and their insurgency as a mere annoyance. Regardless, the Sudanese government began rebuilding its armed forces in the south.

Map: Towns where South Sudanese troops mutinied against Khartoum. (Operation Broken Silence)

Stage 2: Anyanya Movement Forms  (early 1960s-1971)

As guerrilla leaders consolidated control over rural areas, they began to coordinate more closely together. The Anyanya emerged as a secessionist movement composed of the mutineers from 1955 and southern students.

Despite their differences and internal conflict, armed Anyanya units began expanding their control over much of rural southern Sudan. Noticing this, the central government responded by reinforcing garrison towns in the south.

The Sudanese government faced just as many internal divisions as the southern Anyanya. Successive coup attempts hampered the central government during this time. Popular protests kept Khartoum’s security forces tied up in major cities, which allowed the ever-growing southern rebellion to spread further. Marxist and non-Marxist elements in the upper military and political class jockeyed for power, further exacerbating internal crisis. A short-lived coup in 1871 against Sudanese leader Nimeiry Jaafar ended when he jumped from a window while incarcerated and his supporters rescued him.

Photo: President Jaafar Nimeiry, in office from May 25, 1969 – April 6, 1985. (US Defense Department)

Stage 3: South Sudan Liberation Movement (SSLM) Emerges (1971)

By 1969, the Anyanya Movement posed a formidable military threat to the Sudanese government in the north. Despite its own internal divisions, Anyanya fighters now had large swaths of the rural south under control.

After several internal coups and leadership changes in 1971, various Anyanya factions united under a single command structure and vision as the South Sudan Liberation Movement (SSLM).

Southern secession from Sudan and the formation of an independent state was the goal of the SSLM. Increasingly organized and with fewer divisions, SSLM forces fought the northern government’s bloody counter-insurgency campaign to a stalemate.

The war ended with the signing of the 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement between the SSLM and the northern government, granteing significant regional autonomy to southern Sudan. It also promised the Abyei area —located on the north-south geographic, ethnic, and religious fault line— the right to hold a referendum on remaining a part of northern Sudan or joining the semi-autonomous southern region. 

Photo: Anyanya soldiers near a frontline area during the First Sudanese Civil War. Small armed groups like this one joined the SSLM as part of the deal to unite South Sudanese armed groups against the Sudanese government.

Aftermath

It is estimated that the First Sudanese Civil War claimed roughly 500,000 lives, with only 20% being war-related civilian deaths or armed combatants. The Sudanese government’s violent counter-insurgency campaign left many southern Sudanese traumatized and deeply mistrustful of northern governments in Khartoum. Hundreds of thousands of southern Sudanese returned to reclaim their land; however, full reconciliation between the north and south never occurred. The seeds for the next war were planted at the end of the first, and the coming conflict would be one of the most destructive in human history.

Second Sudanese Civil War: 1983-2005

While the war and genocide in southern Sudan had racial and religious origins with roots in oppressive marginalization, the primary reason for this conflict was the system of exploitative and extremist governance in Khartoum that began to emerge in the 1970s. The Second Sudanese Civil War progressed in four stages over a 22-year period.

Stage 1: Rise of Islamic Extremism and Sudan People's Liberation Army (1983-1989)

Large quantities of oil were discovered in the south in 1978. Hungry for cash and power, Sudanese government leaders in the north violated the 1972 Addis Ababa Peace Agreement by attempting to seize control of these areas. Meanwhile, a much more terrifying force was gaining power in the shadows in Khartoum: Arab Islamic extremists.

By 1983, Arab Islamic political power had grown so much in the north that Sudanese President Nimeiry —desperate to hold onto power— declared all of Sudan an Islamic state. Under crushing pressure from the Islamists, he made the fateful decision to terminate southern autonomy. Southern leaders had been watching with great apprehension for years as the extremists consolidated power in Khartoum. Now it was clear that the violent ideology building in the north would soon be unleashed against their homeland in the southern Sudan.

The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), the successor armed rebel movement to the SSLM, began forming almost immediately. Southern soldiers mutinied across Sudanese government ranks and returned to the south to prepare for the inevitable invasion. SPLA forces seized large swaths of rural areas in southern Sudan. The speed at which the southern rebellion grew caught the Sudanese government off guard, so much so that in 1984 President Nimeiry announced the end of sharia (religious Islamic law) in the south. However, this move did little to comfort southern leaders.

A short-lived coup unseated Nimeiry in 1985 and led to open fighting in southern Sudan between government forces and SPLA troops. Protests swept across Sudan in 1988 as the war strained the economy. Under pressure from across Sudan, the northern government attempted to secure peace with the southern SPLA. A fragile agreement was finally reached; however, it proved to be too little too late. The Arab Islamists were nearly prepared to put their twisted vision for Sudan in motion.

Stage 2: Bashir Regime Seizes & Consolidates Power (1989-1991)

In 1989, Colonel Omar al-Bashir and the National Islamic Front seized power in a military coup. Bashir took the titles of president, chief of state, prime minister, and chief of the armed forces. Wielding a Koran and an AK-47 rifle in Khartoum, Bashir declared to soldiers that he was going to reengineer the country into one dominated by an ethnic Arab elite and ruled by oppressive sharia law.

Between 1989-1991, Bashir’s military regime consolidated control over the government by banning trade unions, political parties, and other non-religious institutions. Over 70,000 members of the army, police, and civil administration were purged.

Photo: Omar al-Bashir, pictured here, and his regime enforces Islamic codes and bans trade unions, political parties, and other ‘non-religious’ institutions who could challenge him.

In 1991, the Bashir regime instituted sharia law across all of Sudan. Alarm bells sounded across southern Sudan: the time to prepare for war was running out.

Stage 3: War & Genocide Consumes southern Sudan (1992-2001)

The full-blown war came in the summer of 1992. A massive Sudanese government offensive into southern Sudan drove the SPLA out of their rural strongholds and into the borderlands. Unarmed communities were bombed with conventional and chemical weapons. Tens of thousands of Arab Islamist militias —which the Bashir regime had built up quietly since seizing power— were unleashed on the southern population to murder, pillage, and occupy.

The rapid invasion of southern Sudan nearly crushed the SPLA and divided the rebel army into two factions that would only split further. For the next few years, SPLA factions fought each other as well as a manipulative Bashir regime, who attempted to pit SPLA groups against each other with promises of power, wealth, and ceasefires.

Southern Sudanese began fleeing into the few remaining areas underneath SPLA control. Endless streams of refugees arrived at the Ugandan and Ethiopian borders, bringing with them horrifying stories of widespread massacres and rape. Regional distrust of the Bashir regime skyrocketed. Fearful that the war would soon spill across their own borders, Uganda and Ethiopia began providing the SPLA with direct military assistance and training.

Meanwhile, the SPLA began sending arms and small units throughout southern Sudan, even as far north as the Nuba Mountains region, where war had broken out as well. Sudanese government forces soon found themselves fighting a near-invisible enemy. The guerrilla warfare strategy adapted by the SPLA began to strangle regime supply lines. Government forces regularly carried out reprisal massacres against southern Sudanese following hit and run battles with the SPLA.

Photo: Refugees poured out of southern Sudan as widespread fighting led to famine. An estimated 70,000 people die and 3 million more are negatively affected from poor humanitarian conditions in the first few years of the conflict.

Successive famines from a regime-enforced humanitarian blockade rocked southern Sudan and caused the death toll to accelerate. As horrific images poured out of southern Sudan, international efforts to end the conflict and cripple the Bashir regime increased. Half a world away in Washington D.C., a bipartisan, furious group of American leaders viewed the Bashir regime as a harbinger of international terrorism that was committing genocide in southern Sudan.

Stage 4: International Intervention (2002-2005)

By the late 1990s, the tide of the war was shifting. With arms and training from Uganda and Ethiopia, the SPLA had once again taken control of larger swaths of rural southern Sudan. Regime supply lines between government garrison towns were being strangled by the SPLA. The Bashir regime responded with more scorched-earth tactics and increased bombings on civilian areas.

In October 2002, the US government passed the Sudan Peace Act, comprehensive legislation that dramatically increased American support to the southern Sudanese cause. Underneath the Bush administration, the US government began providing direct humanitarian relief and confronting the Bashir regime on the international stage. The legislation declared that Sudanese government crimes in southern Sudan amounted to genocide.

On top of growing battlefield losses, the Bashir regime found itself fully isolated on the international stage. Crushing American sanctions and diplomatic activity had turned Bashir and other regime leaders into global pariahs. The regime’s genocide in the south had become too costly to continue.

Fighting began to recede in 2003 and 2004. Seizing on the moment, American diplomats mobilized international partners and began brokering a peace agreement that aimed to address the majority of the issues between northern and southern Sudan.

Meanwhile in the western Darfur region of Sudan, an uprising against regime oppression was beginning to be met with another brutal genocide at the hands of the Sudanese government. 

Photo: Sudan’s vice president Ali Osman Taha (left) shakes hands with southern Sudanese rebel leader John Garang (right) after signing the peace agreement that ends the war and paves the way for South Sudan to become a new country.

Peace Agreement & South Sudan Partition

On January 9, 2005, the Bashir regime and the SPLA signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). The CPA secured a referendum vote on southern independence after an interim period of autonomy and provided a wide-array of potential solutions for a slew of other issues.

The implementation of the CPA deteriorated leading up to southern Sudan's vote for independence. The vote went ahead despite concerns of a renewed conflict and intense pressure from the international community on the Bashir regime.

After decades of war, the people of southern Sudan voted 99% in favor of independence. On July 9, 2011, mass celebrations swept across South Sudan as it became the world's newest country. 

Noticeably left out of the CPA though were any paths forward for the Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile, and Abyei three areas that straddled the north-south fault line. Abyei remains a flashpoint between Sudan and South Sudan today. The Bashir regime launched new genocidal wars in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile during South Sudan’s independence, and successive military junta’s in Khartoum have refused to seek peace in these two areas ever since.

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From Learning To Action

Operation Broken Silence is building a global movement to empower Sudanese heroes in the war-torn periphery regions of Sudan, including Nuba teachers in Yida Refugee Camp. Teachers just like Chana.

The Endure Primary and Renewal Secondary Schools we sponsor in Yida are run entirely by Sudanese teachers. Your gift will help pay educator salaries, deliver school supplies and more.

If you can’t donate right now, we encourage you start a fundraising page and ask friends and family to give!

We are a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization. Your donation is tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law.

The 11th annual Soirée For Sudan

On October 7, our supporters came together to celebrate teachers and students in Yida Refugee Camp. This marked the eleventh year of Soirée For Sudan. Thank you to all of you who showed up!

The evening was made possible by our sponsors: Silent Events, the Clandestine Underground, Madeline Rose Photos, Shelby Monteverde Fine Art, Whitney Winkler Art, the Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee, Monogram Foods, and Novel Memphis.

We would also like to thank our promotional committee, event staff, and volunteers for working together to create such an intimate space!

• Anya Schwartz, Tiffany Frizzell-Donnell, and Jackson Donnell served on our promotional committee.

• Zack Jennings designed and served the Sudan and 1920s-themed cocktails for the evening.

• Wandering Creative and Julian Harper captured the evening on camera.

• Anya Schwartz, Stephen Hackett, Sara James, Taylor Austin, and Jacob Geyer assisted with setup and breakdown.

Download Photos

Hit the button below to download your photos, or find them and share on Facebook.

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Stay Involved

The war in Sudan continues to cast a dark shadow over the work of our Sudanese partners. You can help them each and every month by joining our monthly giving family, The Renewal.

All of our Sudanese partners are struggling with rising costs. They need 100 of us to start giving monthly to help them continue their lifesaving work.

⚡️ Your first three monthly gifts will be matched by a private donor ⚡️

All members of The Renewal receive special perks, including a membership pin and welcome letter, discounted merch, and early access to new events and campaigns.

Members who give $35+ a month also receive free event tickets to our events! Learn more about the benefits of giving monthly.

The 14th annual Eden's Run 5K

From October 28-30, our supporters celebrated fourteen years of Eden’s Run 5K, a virtual and in-person race bringing education to Sudan's next generation of leaders.

Runners across the United States took to neighborhoods, parks, and tracks throughout the weekend to complete their virtual 5Ks. Our supporters in Memphis, TN —where we are headquartered— gathered at Shelby Farms Park on Saturday, October 28 for an in-person run. It was a cloudy day, but the temperature was perfect!

Thank you to all of our runners for giving and fundraising! We set a goal of $7,500 that you shattered with $9,260 raised. Well done!

The run was made possible by our generous sponsors: Siskind Susser Immigration Lawyers, Buff City Soap, Hotworx (Edge District), Preservation Property Services, and Hive Bagel & Deli.

We would also like to thank our promotional committee, event staff, and volunteers for working together to make race weekend possible! Anya Schwartz, Tiffany Frizzell-Donnell, and Jackson Donnell served on our promotional committee. Jacob Geyer captured the event on camera. Anya Schwartz, Stephen Hackett, Sara James, Taylor Austin, Jacob Geyer, and Catherine Haag, Annabelle Haag, and Clara Haag made the in-person Memphis event happen. Thank you!

Download Photos

If you were at the Memphis run, use the button below to download your photos, or find them to share on Facebook.

GET PHOTOS

Stay Involved

The war in Sudan continues to cast a dark shadow over the work of our Sudanese partners. You can help them each and every month by joining our monthly giving family, The Renewal.

All of our Sudanese partners are struggling with rising costs. They need 100 of us to start giving monthly to help them continue their lifesaving work.

⚡️ Your first three monthly gifts will be matched by a private donor ⚡️

All members of The Renewal receive special perks, including a membership pin and welcome letter, discounted merch, and early access to new events and campaigns.

Members who give $35+ a month also receive free event tickets to Eden’s Run 5K! Learn more about the benefits of giving monthly.

Mother of Mercy Hospital Update - October 2023

Mother of Mercy Hospital in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan serves as the backbone of the healthcare system in this fragile region. The main referral facility in Gidel and the hospital’s string of community clinics serve over 150,000 patients year. The local staff perform operations, battle cancer and preventable diseases, and bring children into the world every day.

The hospital staff is pressing forward every day despite the new war in Sudan reaching the Nuba Mountains. Fighting remains isolated to the frontlines and there have been no widespread bombings of civilian areas as in previous wars. While the hospital is sheltered from the fighting for now, the war is leading to rapidly rising costs. Gasoline alone has surged up to $27/gallon. People coming in and out of the hospital for care are also worried about loved ones who live in war-affected areas. It’s a tough season in Sudan, but the critical work being done by the staff at Mother of Mercy Hospital continues.

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Photo provided by Dr. Tom Catena.

Marsila’s Story

Several times a year, medical director Dr. Tom Catena shares a story of one of their patients or a member of the local staff who is leaving a lasting impact on this vibrant community:

A lot is happening here in Sudan—conflict, violence, unrest–but that hasn’t stopped the vital work you’re supporting in the Nuba Mountains.

Every day, patients like Marsila arrive at Gidel Hospital from surrounding communities requiring urgent medical care.

Marsila is 16-years-old and expecting her first child. When she entered our care, she had been in labor for hours. On top of that, Marsila’s body was in great distress—her mother by her side the entire time. Her labor complications included seizures, convulsions, and high blood pressure. Every time she tried to push, she convulsed.

Marsila experienced severe confusion and lost consciousness after hours of waiting for a referral at their local clinic. 

Upon arriving at Gidel Hospital, unconscious and in labor, we immediately rushed her to the delivery room. Our team diagnosed her with pre-eclampsia—a severe complication that increases a mother’s blood pressure and can damage vital organs. 

Due to her severe condition, our team conducted a vacuum-assisted delivery. We perform such procedures when a mother is unable to push during contractions. 

With great joy, I share with you the successful delivery of Marsila’s newborn, Kaka.

Photo provided by Dr. Tom Catena.

“If this hospital wasn’t working, I don’t know what would have happened, but I was sure that I and my baby would [not have survived],” Marsila shared with our team. “We are very grateful for all the doctors and midwives and the generous supporters who keep the doors of Gidel Hospital open. God bless you all.”

While I wish I could tell you this is uncommon, it’s not. Expectant mothers often arrive at Gidel with nowhere else to turn—sometimes after hours-long journeys in their third trimesters.

I’m thankful to be part of a team that cares so deeply for the people of Nuba; this includes you. Without your generosity, our ability to provide emergency, life-saving care for patients like Marsila would be drastically limited.

Can you make a quick donation? Mother of Mercy is one of the few open hospitals left and they need help with rising costs.

• $10 - medical supplies for 3 patients

• $20 - one week’s salary for a vaccinator

• $35 - a community nurse’s salary for one week

• $50 - helps fund building projects at the hospital

Operation Broken Silence is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Your donation is tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law.

The new battery system helping to power the hospital! Photo provided by hospital.

Recent News

The hospital staff remains busy and the hospital continues to grow! The new pediatric ward is open and the clinical school’s dormitories for are now built. Renovations of the office block and HIV testing and counseling area are almost complete. And the much-needed new battery system (seen above) that helps power the hospital is up and running.

Mother of Mercy has been growing slowly into being a teaching hospital for years and is now more or less just that. The clinical school is thriving with 20 clinical officers, 49 students and a new cohort of midwives that joined over the summer. There’s definitely a we’re in this together attitude among the students as they support each other in their studies. The Nuba Mountains region is desperately short on trained healthcare workers. The clinical school is a central component of resolving this challenge over the long haul.

The effects of the war spreading across Sudan are being felt at the hospital, and not just with rising costs. Healthcare access in Sudan has been decimated by the war, with a majority of hospital and medical facilities in the country knocked offline or running out of supplies. To provide just one example, earlier this year 8-year-old Ahmad in Talodi began having pain on the right-side of his head. He quickly lost his appetite, began vomiting, and his head started swelling. After his mother Saida took him to a dispensary near their home and then a hospital in El-Obeid with no change, she rushed him to Khartoum. The army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched their war against each other when they were there, forcing them to flee the burning capitol and return home.

Try to imagine being a mother who is trying to save her son, and not being able to easily because a war is destroying your access to quality healthcare.

Thankfully, Saida and Ahmad had one more option: Mother of Mercy Hospital. The staff quickly admitted Ahmad and put him on IV fluids for dehydration. Tests identified the cause was cancer and he began a chemotherapy treatment. His body responded immediately: the swelling subsided, his eye opened, and the pain began to ease! Because of supporters like you, Ahmed’s life was saved with only $3.00 spent, or the cost of the chemotherapy drugs.

Saida couldn’t hide her joy. “I was so afraid for my son,” she said. “I thought that I would lose him. I thank God for using Gidel Hospital and Dr. Tom to save the life of my son and many others. I don’t have anything tangible to give you, but I pray that you have long life and many blessings.”  

Ahmed after his treatment. Photo provided by hospital.

The Best Way You Can Help

The vision of a brighter future through improved healthcare is becoming a reality, but there is much work left to be done.

The war in Sudan continues to cast a shadow over the Nuba Mountains. All of our Sudanese partners are struggling with rising costs. They need 100 of us to start giving monthly to help them continue their lifesaving work.

⚡️ Your first three monthly gifts will be matched by a private donor ⚡️

Can’t give monthly? Donate once or start a fundraising page and ask friends and family to give!