Nuba Education Update - December 2023

In 2015, Operation Broken Silence began funding four Sudanese teachers in Yida Refugee Camp. They were giving lessons underneath a tree with a broken chalkboard. They had no textbooks, paper, pencils…nothing.

With your support, their small but brave effort has blossomed into the Endure Primary and Renewal Secondary Schools. 24 Nuba teachers and a headmaster work here every day. They run the show, not us, and serve 1,157 students in their classrooms every week. Endure Primary is the top performing elementary school in the region and a treasured possession of the Nuba community. Renewal Secondary is the only fully-functioning high school in Yida. More than 10,000 children have been served by the school to date.

Operation Broken Silence is the only organization in the world supporting childhood education in Yida Refugee Camp. Beyond these schools, we support Yida’s only other secondary school, a national exam preparation program for all primary students in Yida, and deliver a limited amount of classroom supplies to the eight other schools in the camp.

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Nasrah’s Story

Nasrah was born in the Nuba Mountains. Her family arrived in Yida almost 9 years ago after the Sudanese government attacked their village. She barely remembers her home, saying:

“We did not have clean water or a school near to us at home. When the Antonov (regime plane) came and dropped bombs on us we ran and my mother brought us here to Yida.”

Humanitarian conditions in Yida were rapidly improving when they arrived. Nasrah’s mom was surprised to find clean water easily accessible and multiple schools for Nasrah and her brother.

“My mother still talks about how strange it is that life is usually easier here than it was for us at home. I know she wants to go back to our land, but she does not feel secure now that there is another war.”

Like most families in Yida, they hope to return one day to their homes in the Nuba Mountains. Until then Nasrah is enrolled at the Renewal Secondary School, which is funded entirely by people just like you. Her teachers and friends provide a sense of hope in this time of great upheaval in Sudan. She says:

“Yida is home because my people and family are here. My mother and her friends talk about how much Sudan needs new leaders who care about us. At school my teachers tell us we are the future leaders and that we can end the wars one day. I have learned to read and write from them and have good grades, but having teachers and people on the other side of the world who believe in me is what I will always carry with me from this place. Thank you for joining my people’s struggles. I don’t know what would have happened to us without our teachers and all of you who hear my voice.”

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Recent Updates

Schools In Yida. It’s been a bittersweet year as refugee families once again begin trickling into Yida. Children displaced by the new war in Sudan have been warmly welcomed at the schools, but the reality of the world’s most dangerous armed conflict and worst humanitarian catastrophe weighs heavy on the hearts of everyone.

Thankfully, the teachers you support are uniquely positioned to help. Attendance at Endure Primary has climbed from almost 500 students daily before the war up to 720. Daily attendance has surged nearly 70% to 437 students at Renewal Secondary. Families continue trickling into Yida and are seeking to enroll their children at both schools. The teachers have informed us they still have some breathing room; but, if education needs keep climbing as we expect, both schools will likely be at maximum capacity by Summer 2024.

Photo: Renewal Secondary students celebrate their school achieving first place in national exams. (Operation Broken Silence)

Another round of national exams were conducted in August. Endure Primary and Renewal Secondary remained the top-performing schools in the region just as they have the past several years. And a record 43 out of the 45 students who took the Grade 8 national exam passed and are now enrolling at Renewal Secondary! A perfect score is 400 points and the five top-performing students were Yesmin Khamis Hassan (368.2), Makabula Peter Abdu (354.3), Amin Luke Nadir (353.4), Emmanuel Abdu Abdurahaman (352.5), and Sabri Andraws Junub (350). Congratulations!

Earlier this year, repairs and infrastructure upgrades were completed in most classrooms at both schools. This included more weatherproofing, new roofs and over 4,500 new bricks for replacement walls. Additional materials and backup tarps are also in storage for future repairs. This was made possible with some extra giving from our donors and is already paying dividends. With costs of most supplies skyrocketing from the war, these completed upgrades have kept classrooms in good shape at a time when extra financial support for this type of critical work is difficult to come by.

Photo: Children playing in Yida Refugee Camp at the end of a school day. (Operation Broken Silence)

Broader Education Support In Yida. Endure Primary School continues serving as the central national exam preparation facility for primary students in Yida. The camp’s eight other primary schools receive support and resources annually from our teachers for student test prep. This ancillary program positively impacted 1,458 additional students this year!

Vision Secondary, the only other high school in Yida, remains afloat with help from our teachers. The school was founded several years ago with pledges of support from outside nonprofits and churches, none of which materialized. This is one chapter in a long history of unfulfilled promises to the Nuba people that our education partner is having to mitigate. The teachers at Vision are all untrained, so a handful of the teachers at Renewal Secondary have stepped in to help teach science and provide guidance and crash course training.

Our Nuba education partner continues delivering a limited amount of basic supplies to Yida’s other primary schools, most of which operate with little to no outside support. Chalk, paper, pencils and notebooks remain the most requested items. These deliveries are critical to sustaining Yida’s already fragile education system, but are becoming more difficult to pull off due to rising prices brought on by the war.

We’re working with these incredible teachers to carry the mission forward, but we need your help.

How You Can Help

2023 has been a difficult and remarkable year in Sudan. Difficult in that the regime’s civil war has inflicted unprecedented death and destruction on the Sudanese people. Remarkable in that we’ve seen more bravery, love and grit in our Sudanese partners than ever before.

Funding for the schools remains an uphill battle due to rising costs from the war. The teachers are also receiving fewer donations due to internationally-minded donors moving their focus to the wars in Ukraine and Israel/Palestine, despite the humanitarian crisis in Sudan being the worst in the world. The result is that our Nuba education partner is running on roughly 60% of the funding they need to provide a more holistic education experience for Sudan’s next generation of leaders.

The good news is that you can help them overcome these challenges. Your generosity will help our teachers and students make progress against the odds:

$2,200: Fund an entire classroom at Endure Primary for one semester.

$1,000: Support one teacher for an entire semester.

$750: Deliver three new chalkboards to classrooms.

$500: Give additional materials and extra pay to teachers who are working with students to prepare them for national exams.

$250: Provide for maintenance needs in classrooms.

$100: Give pencils, notebooks and other supplies to 16 students in Yida Refugee Camp.

$50: Give soccer balls and other sporting equipment to students.

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

Other Ways To Give

Checks - Personal checks and grants from DAFs can be make payable to Operation Broken Silence and mailed to PO Box 770900 Memphis, TN 38177-0900.

Stocks and Mutual Funds - Use this giving form to donate stock. To give from a mutual fund, download our Investment Fund Transfer Form and follow the instructions. Please note that all stock and mutual fund donations are nonrefundable.

Cryptocurrency - Use this giving form to donate crypto. Please note that all crypto donations are nonrefundable.

Fundraise - Start a fundraising page and ask friends and family to give! These last few days of the year are the perfect time to fundraise.

Give Monthly - The Renewal is our passionate family of monthly givers supporting Sudanese heroes. Sign up here.

Darfur Escape Support & Relief Update - December 2023

Over the last six months, one of our private Sudanese partners has been assisting survivors as they flee the campaign of war crimes and genocide by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) against ethnic African minorities in Darfur. This has been some of the most intense work we’ve seen over the last 12 years of laboring alongside Sudanese heroes. We are incredibly proud of the brave people who have worked around the clock —often at great personal risk— to help some of the most vulnerable escape safely into South Sudan.

We’d like to provide you with an important situation and programming update concerning this emergency work. Let’s start with the current situation in Darfur as a lot has shifted on the ground the past several weeks.

Situation Update

Sudan’s military regime disintegrated on April 15, 2023. The army and paramilitary RSF, the two primary groups in the regime, went to war with each for control of Sudan. Fighting has spread across the country, with millions of Sudanese caught in the crossfire and ethnic minorities facing famine, war crimes, and even genocide.

The long-oppressed western Darfur region has been hit hardest by this senseless conflict. A full-blown genocide of the Masalit ethnic minority in West Darfur by the RSF appears to be underway, with tribal leaders confirming that more than 12,000 of their people having already been exterminated. The death toll in West Darfur is actually far higher as thousands more remain missing and stories of massacres continue trickling out with the stream of traumatized survivors.

Over the past few months, the catastrophe in West Darfur has extended more fully to the rest of Darfur as the RSF and their local Arab allies fight to establish dominance over all of western Sudan. The army was focused on defending their bases in Darfur’s provincial capital cities, allowing the RSF to sweep through smaller towns and rural areas that —at best— only have poorly-armed local militias and oppressive police forces to defend them. Throughout the entirety of this war, the army has shown no interest in protecting civilians, even in areas of Darfur it controlled.

A multi-week, brutal offensive by the RSF against most army positions in Darfur concluded in late October with the state capitals of Nyala and Zalingei being overrun. Since then, tens of thousands of terrified citizens across Darfur have fled as the army withdrew its remaining forces from the region. Only North Darfur and the city of El Fasher remain under the control of the army. A major RSF offensive there seems inevitable.

The RSF’s soldiers have brought chaos and destruction with them into southern Darfur, where our Sudanese partner has been working around the clock to help people flee safely into South Sudan. Like most areas of RSF-controlled Sudan, security has collapsed in southern Darfur over the last several weeks.

Photo: Armed Salamat militia ride toward Habaniya territory. (Social Media)

The RSF, which is more or less a terrorist organization, has proven to be incapable of governing. This reality can be seen easily throughout southern Darfur. The paramilitary force’s targeted killings and threats of violence have led to tens of thousands of new refugees. RSF soldiers have pillaged markets and homes, arms trafficking and other illicit industries are flourishing, and complex local conflicts have again reignited as certain ethnic groups use the fog of war to settle old scores, sometimes with backing from the RSF.

To provide just one example of the latter, in mid-November our Sudanese partner reported that hundreds of armed militiamen belonging to the Salamat and Habaniya tribes were fighting each other near the South Sudan border. Local tribal disputes, including many peaceful ones, are common in Darfur; but, what caught their attention is that this specific armed conflict was between two Arab tribes. Tensions have run high for years between the Salamat and Habaniya —mostly over land— but this round of fighting began after army forces withdrew from the area a week earlier and the RSF took over.

A video taken by a Salamat fighter and posted to social media confirms the fighting, showing members of his tribe riding on horseback toward Habaniya villages as he says “The Habaniya will be annihilated. Go, go, readiness!” Go, go, readiness is a battle cry sometimes used by the RSF, suggesting the Salamat militia has ties to the paramilitary force.

The ethnic dimensions of the RSF’s war to control Darfur are harrowing enough —as is readily apparent in the West Darfur massacres— but the group’s willingness to take sides in Arab-Arab local conflicts is a grim reminder that no one is safe as long as the RSF exists. Where the RSF goes, death and destruction follows.

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Tariq’s Story *

Tariq is from Zalingei in Darfur. The city’s displacement camps were home to people who belong to African ethnic groups targeted by the RSF. “Zalingei was my home even though it was not always easy. I was arrested once before and beaten by police,” he describes.

Tariq and two of his friends fled Zalingei when the war made staying impossible. “The janjaweed stole all of our belongings but we managed to escape,” he says. Janjaweed is a term used to describe the RSF and their Arab militia allies. They left the city on foot.

Their harrowing journey through the war toward the South Sudan border took 16 days. Tariq and his friends say the army did nothing to protect anyone.

Our Sudanese partner provided them ground transport in southern Darfur and helped them cross safely into South Sudan, giving them food when they arrived. Tariq and his friends are now safe in Juba. They do not plan on returning anytime soon since the RSF now control Zalingei.

“I hope to go home one day, but we cannot go back with the janjaweed breathing threats against us,” he says. “My friends are grateful to those who helped us get out. We would be dead without them. Please tell people everywhere to give so we can help more people. We can still save many lives but it takes money to do it.”

*Tariq’s name has been changed to protect his identity.

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Photo: RSF bootprints outside of a village in southern Darfur. In the final weeks of their work, team members frequently had to navigate areas that the RSF had a growing presence in. (Operation Broken Silence)

Program Update

During the past six months, our Sudanese partner’s seven person team has helped roughly 1,900 refugees fleeing RSF violence navigate parts of Central, South, and East Darfur, cross safely into South Sudan, and provided a limited amount of food and other basic necessities to those most in need.

This work has taken on a variety of creative forms, ranging from moving people on a large truck to guiding those fleeing on foot to safer routes that led to the South Sudan border. Most highways and major roads in Darfur are now overrun by the RSF and their Arab militia allies, making any travel harrowing for those belonging to targeted ethnic groups.

Many people who made contact with our rudimentary escape network said this was the only source of hope and help they had found since the war began in April. Some reported seeing RSF soldiers and their local Arab allies executing unarmed black civilians, including male babies and male children. These accounts match recent, horrifying public reporting on Arab fighters “hunting” for boys belonging to African tribal groups elsewhere in Darfur.

In November, our Sudanese partner informed us that spiraling security conditions had made continuing this program untenable. Despite often being in or near areas with a growing RSF presence, not a single member of the team was harmed or killed during this lifesaving work. The last team member crossed into South Sudan at the beginning of December, effectively bringing this escape assistance work to an end. We are now shifting to more basic humanitarian activities (food, clothing, shelter, etc.) for over 400 Darfuri refugees who have traveled all the way to Juba, South Sudan.

At their request, we aren’t releasing the names of team members or any information that can identify them. They hope to continue working in Darfur one day and their anonymity will be required to do so.

This brave and successful operation was made possible in part by the wonderful generosity of our donors, who paid for fuel, food, and other materials that were used to help people reach safety in South Sudan. Without your generous support, it is likely that some of the 1,900 people you helped would not have made it. We can’t thank you enough for your support. People are alive today because of you.

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How You Can Help

2023 has been a difficult and remarkable year in Sudan. Difficult in that the regime’s civil war has inflicted unprecedented death and destruction on the Sudanese people. Remarkable in that we’ve seen more bravery, love, and grit in our Sudanese partners than ever before.

Funding for all of our programs remains an uphill battle due to rising costs from the war. Our Sudanese partners are also receiving fewer donations as internationally-minded donors focus on the wars in Ukraine and Israel/Palestine, despite the humanitarian crisis in Sudan being the worst in the world. The result is that there are currently no funds available to help the more than 400 Darfuri refugees in Juba.

The good news is that you can help. Your generosity will bring food, medicine, clothing, and more to these people in their time of greatest need:

$1,000: Gives culturally-respective, quality clothing to women in need.

$750: Delivers most basic foodstuffs needed for communal meals during cultural celebrations.

$500: Provides a daily nutritious meal to 35 children for an entire month.

$250: Gives basic medicines to the refugee community for two months.

$100: Feeds two families for one month.

$50: Feeds a family for one month.

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

Other Ways To Give

Checks - Personal checks and grants from DAFs can be make payable to Operation Broken Silence and mailed to PO Box 770900 Memphis, TN 38177-0900.

Stocks and Mutual Funds - Use this giving form to donate stock. To give from a mutual fund, download our Investment Fund Transfer Form and follow the instructions. Please note that all stock and mutual fund donations are nonrefundable.

Cryptocurrency - Use this giving form to donate crypto. Please note that all crypto donations are nonrefundable.

Fundraise - Start a fundraising page and ask friends and family to give! These last few days of the year are the perfect time to fundraise.

Give Monthly - The Renewal is our passionate family of monthly givers supporting Sudanese heroes. Sign up here.

Make your last gift of 2023

Friends and supporters,

It has been both a difficult and remarkable year in Sudan. Difficult in that the regime’s civil war has inflicted unprecedented death and destruction on the Sudanese people. Remarkable in that we’ve seen more bravery, love, and grit in our Sudanese partners than ever before.

Giving deadlines are below, but we encourage you to make your final gift of 2023 now. We need to send another round of emergency funding to our Sudanese partners in early January. Your gift can help make that happen and is tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law.

$1,000: Support a teacher in Yida Refugee Camp for an entire semester.

$750: Provide for a nurse assistant in the Nuba Mountains for 5 months.

$500: Deliver food and clothing to Darfuri genocide survivors who have fled into South Sudan.

$250: Deliver medical supplies that can be used to serve roughly 70 patients in the Nuba Mountains.

$100: Give pencils, notebooks, and other supplies to 16 students in Yida Refugee Camp.

$50: Provide a day’s worth of medicines for a community clinic in the Nuba Mountains.

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Giving Season Deadlines

For gifts to count toward the 2023 tax year:

Online Donations - Sunday, Dec 31

Checks - Dated & postmarked by Friday, Dec 29. Make payable to Operation Broken Silence and mail to PO Box 770900 Memphis, TN 38177-0900.

Donor-Advised Funds - Ask your DAF manager for grant submission cutoff times. It usually takes several days for DAFs to process grants. We recommend submitting your donation now.

Stocks & Mutual Funds - Must be processed by close of markets on Friday, Dec 29. To give from a mutual fund, download our Investment Fund Transfer Form and follow the instructions. Please note that all stock and mutual fund donations are nonrefundable.

Cryptocurrency - Must be processed by midnight on Sunday, Dec 31. Blockchain processing times vary, so we encourage you to donate by December 30 to ensure adequate time for your gift to process. Please note that all crypto donations are nonrefundable.

Have a question before giving? Shoot us a message here and we’ll be in touch soon. With your generous support, we can help our Sudanese partners continue saving and change lives for the better.

Giving Tuesday 2023

Friends and supporters,

Your generosity on this year’s Giving Tuesday was simply incredible. Donations are still trickling in, but as of today you raised and gave $15,261 across all of our primary and private campaigns. Well done!

Next week, the support you’ve provided will be sent to the education, healthcare, and emergency response programs we assist in Sudan. The ongoing war has made the work of the Sudanese heroes we partner with even more important than it already was. You are proving that when we pool our resources together, we can help them do amazing things for the people they serve. Thank you for an incredible day of generosity!

To learn more about the Sudanese heroes we support and see the latest news from them, we encourage you to visit our programs page.

The Giving Season

There is still much work to be done in these final days of 2023. Join us by giving once or through The Renewal, our family of monthly givers:

• $200: Supports a teacher for one month.

• $150: Pays a nurse assistant’s salary for an entire month.

• $100: Provides pencils, notebooks, and other basic school supplies for 16 students.

• $50: Gives nets, balls, and more play.

Checks can be made payable to Operation Broken Silence and mailed to PO Box 770900 Memphis, TN 38177-0900. You can also donate stock or crypto.

Your donation is tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law. Please keep your email donation receipt as your official record.

Women and Conflict in Sudan

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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While violence touches everyone in conflict, women and girls face particular gendered violence on top of genocidal violence from their national, ethnic, racial, or religious identity. Historically men are more likely to be victims of direct killing acts while women face non-killing acts that can be overlooked, obscured, and erased from the historical record.

While some advances have been made for women —with the International Criminal Court recognizing women’s experiences as convictable war crimes— there is still more work to be done by both further advocating for women’s voices during war tribunals and removing stigma of gender violence, so women feel comfortable sharing about their experiences.

Because of this stigma, oftentimes few stories exist, which is the case for women in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan. Over the past few decades, specific instances of gender violence include forced marriages, forced relocation to Khartoum, and the mass rape of women. All of these examples break down the fundamental bond of the family and community in the Nuba Mountains.

Below is a list of further resources on the violence that women face in conflict and genocide as well as how we might enact change to stop it.

Women’s Experiences of Genocide

Resource from The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

SEE MORE

SUDAN - UN WOMEN

Article from the United Nations

READ MORE

RAPE IS A WEAPON OF WAR

Report from Amnesty International on sexual violence in Darfur

READ MORE

Celebrating Women’s History in Sudan

Article from Radio Dabanga

READ MORE

Ending Violence Against Women

Resource from the United Nations

SEE MORE

GENOCIDE BY ATTRITION

Book with female experiences specific to the Nuba Mountains

GET BOOK

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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 teachers in Yida Refugee Camp. Teachers just like Chana.

The Endure Primary and Renewal Secondary Schools we sponsor are run entirely by Sudanese teachers. These are two of the only Nuba schools that require half of all students be girls. 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 Nuba Mountains

Photo: Traditional homes (tukuls) during the rainy season in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan. (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

While the history of the Nuba Mountains stretches back thousands of years, this overview focuses on the time period after Sudan’s independence in 1956. A chronological examination of the Nuba region in the contemporary era can be broken out into six main periods:

• Pre-Modern & Colonial Background: 200 BCE-1956 CE

• Cultural Oppression: 1956-1972

• The Beginnings of the Second Sudanese Civil War: 1973-1988

• Nuba Face A Genocide By Attrition: 1992-2004

• Peace Agreement & South Sudan Partition: 2005-2010

• Second War & Genocide: 2011-2019

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

View fullsize

Map: Location of Nuba Mountains. (Operation Broken Silence)

Pre-Modern & Colonial Background: 200 BCE-1956 CE

The Nuba Mountains have an ancient history, with the first known mention of the African tribes living here and other nearby areas dating to around 200 BCE by Greek scholars Eratosthenes and Strabo.

Although this geographic area has been inhabited for millennia, little direct documentation of life here is known to have been recorded before the 1900s. This undocumented history may have roots in just how isolated the region has always been; even today, the Nuba Mountains remains one of the most isolated and marginalized regions of Sudan.

Photo: One of the first photographs taken of the Nuba people in eastern Kao-Nyaro in 1949. (George Rodger)

This isolation does not remove the historical causes of trouble in the region. Sitting directly on the religious, ethnic, and political border of present-day Sudan and South Sudan, this demarcation highlights the roots of historical grievances and, more recently, north-south civil wars and two attempted genocides against the Nuba people by national military regimes in Khartoum.

The Nuba Mountains are inhabited by roughly 100 African tribes who have been referred to collectively as Nuba for centuries. These tribes are likely remnants of previous, larger tribal groups of varying languages and cultures who Eratosthenes and Strabo briefly referred to. Interestingly, until contemporary times, people living in the Nuba Mountains used their tribal name and didn’t really consider themselves to be Nuba. Famous Nuba leader Yousif Kuwa Mekki (1945-2001) mentioned this in the last interview he gave before his passing:

“It is one of the funniest things: when you were in the Nuba Mountains, you just knew your own tribe. We for example were Miri. So if we were asked: ‘Who are the Nuba?’ we would try to say: ‘The other tribes - but not us.’ Only when we came out of the Nuba Mountains, to the north or south or west, we learned that we are all Nuba.”

Today, virtually all of the people living here identify with their tribe and also collectively identify as Nuba. 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.

For centuries, the Nuba Mountains have been considered a refuge for members of African tribal groups fleeing Arab slave raiders and oppression from the north. This historical reality helped cement core aspects of Nuba identity and culture that survive to this day, including tolerance, community, and an openness to the oppressed and general suspicion of non-African outsiders.

In 1899, the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium administrated Sudan as a colony. The joint British and Egyptian colonial government invested heavily in the Arab-dominated central and eastern parts of the country. Like much of the rest of Sudan, the Nuba Mountains were marginalized and ignored. British colonial troops tried to keep separate nearby Arab tribes who were hostile toward the Nuba. At various points though, the British found themselves at odds with all sides in the region.

Photo: An artistic rendering of British colonial troops fighting in Sudan, circa 1898. (Canva Pro)

Cultural Oppression & Rights Removals: 1956-1972

Following Sudan's independence from British and Egyptian colonial rule on January 1, 1956, the Nuba people began to witness growing tension with Arab-dominated governments in Khartoum. The violent ideologies of Arabization and Islamization gained stronger traction in Sudan’s powerful center. Government policies leading up to the 1970s saw the Nuba people become directly oppressed by Islamic Arab elites in Khartoum. Although successive governments pushed for an Arab-dominated country, relations between many African Nuba tribes and nearby, tolerant Arab tribes actually improved during this time period.

The First Sudanese Civil War began in 1955. The war itself had little direct impact on the Nuba Mountains; however, as Sudanese politics in Khartoum drifted toward extremism during the war, the Nuba people began to face increasing oppression that set the stage for two devastating wars and genocides in their homeland.

While the severity of the Sudanese government’s oppression varied at the local level, there are two primary areas that played critical roles: pressure on traditional Nuba culture and land seizures. Many of these pressures on Nuba culture at this time include actions which fit into the 10 Stages of Genocide, a processual model that aims to demonstrate how the crime of genocide is committed.

Government Attempts To Erase Nuba Culture

Khartoum’s oppression of traditional Nuba culture included attempts to force name-changes (from local names to Arab ones) and replace tribal languages with Arabic. Elements of the Sudanese government and Islamic political allies in Khartoum pushed an intolerant strain of Islam onto the Nuba people.

These colonizing efforts achieved mixed results. Arabic was largely adopted as a communication language, but virtually all Nuba tribal languages remain in use. A sizable number of the Nuba people consider themselves Muslim, but Nuba Muslims and Christians live largely in harmony to this today.

Photo: Jazira lives in the eastern Kao-Nyaro region of the Nuba Mountains, which has been targeted for Islamization and Arabization by the Sudanese government for decades. She is nominally Muslim and can speak Arabic, but mostly uses her tribal language. Government-funded childhood education is largely non-existent in Kao-Nyaro which, interestingly, has helped Nuba tribes in Kao-Nyaro maintain their identity. (Operation Broken Silence)

Government & Arab Tribal-Backed Land Seizures

The Nuba Mountains and surrounding areas are home to some of the most fertile farmland in Sudan. The national government introduced mechanized farming in 1968, which degrading security in the region further.  Some Arab tribes near the Nuba Mountains who aligned more closely with Khartoum soon found their traditional grazing and watering routes blocked by large-farms built with the support of the government.

With nowhere to go, Arab tribes such as the Baggara began to use Nuba farmland —without permission— that they traditionally stayed away from. This heightened tensions between the Nuba people, Khartoum, and some Arab tribes at odds with the Nuba.

In 1970, the Sudanese government introduced the Unregistered Land Act. This law effectively abolished communal land ownership and was an attempt to destroy the centuries-long tradition of Nuba tribes considering the farming areas around the Nuba Mountains as belonging to their communities. It stipulated that all lands not privately owned and registered would automatically belong to the government in Khartoum.

Results

By the 1970s, it was clear to Nuba leaders that a systematic campaign to Arabize and Islamize their homeland was underway. Nuba tribes began to put aside the few differences they had and move toward deeper unity. Nuba political parties and social groups emerged that attempted to solve regional issues through the lens of a broader Nuba identity.

Photo: Displaced Nuba children and women follow well-worn paths deeper into the Nuba Mountains after receiving news of regime-backed, Arab paramilitary forces nearing their farmland. Mountain paths such as these have now existed for decades and are well-known to Nuba communities. (Operation Broken Silence)

The 1972 Addis Ababa Peace Agreement ended Sudan's civil war in the south. The agreement granted significant regional autonomy to southern Sudan. It also promised the Abyei area, located to the west of the Nuba Mountains, the right to hold a referendum on remaining a part of northern Sudan or joining the newly formed southern region. Little changed in the Nuba Mountains though. In the coming years, Khartoum’s oppression only intensified as Sudanese politics was pushed into extremism.

The Beginnings of the Second Sudanese Civil War: 1973-1988

In 1978, large quantities of oil were discovered in the southern Sudan. Hungry for cash and power, Sudanese government leaders swiftly attempted to seize control of these areas. This violated the 1972 Addis Ababa Peace Agreement. Meanwhile, in Khartoum, Arab-Islamic extremists were on the verge of seizing control of the central government.

By 1983, extremist political power had grown so much in the north that President Nimeiry, desperate to hold onto power, declared all of Sudan an Islamic state and made the fateful decision to terminate southern autonomy. Southern and Nuba leaders had watched with growing apprehension for years as the fundamentalists consolidated power in Khartoum. Now it was clear that the violent ideology building in the north would soon be unleashed against the Nuba Mountains and all of southern Sudan.

The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) began forming in the south almost immediately. Southern soldiers mutinied across Sudanese government ranks and returned to southern Sudan to prepare for the inevitable northern invasion. SPLA forces seized large swaths of rural areas in southern Sudan.

Photo: Sudanese political leader Jaafar Nimeiry in 1983. In his second presidential tenure, Nimeiry caved to Islamists in hopes of staying in power, paving the way to the Second Sudanese Civil War and the 1985 coup that removed him from power. (US Defense Department)

The speed of the southern rebellion caught the Sudanese government off guard, so much so that President Nimeiry ended sharia law in the south in 1984. This did little to comfort Nuba leaders, who had been preparing for a defensive war as early as 1977. Sporadic clashes with armed Arab tribes such as the Baggara accelerated on the outskirts of the Nuba Mountains as extremism grew in Khartoum throughout the 1980s.

In response to the growing military threat from Khartoum, Nuba leaders deepened their ties with SPLA generals in the south. Small groups of Nuba leaders moved south to train with the SPLA. They returned to the Nuba Mountains with small arms and other military supplies. Tensions were on the rise in nearby Blue Nile as well, where the government of Sudan had begun arming Arab militias directly. 

A coup unseated Nimeiry in 1985 and led to open fighting in southern Sudan between government forces and SPLA troops. The Second Sudanese Civil War had begun and would greatly eclipse the preceding war.

In 1986, the Sudanese army began deploying around the Nuba Mountains and arming a growing number of Arab militias. Nuba leaders responded by sending thousands of recruits to southern Sudan to train with the SPLA and return with weaponry. In 1987, a southern SPLA battalion deployed into the Nuba Mountains to strengthen Nuba defenses.

Map: Facing a common a threat from Khartoum, Nuba recruits moved to southern Sudan throughout the 1980s to train with the SPLA and bring weapons and southern reinforcements back to the Nuba Mountains. (Operation Broken Silence)

Protests swept across Sudan in 1988 as the war strained the economy. Under pressure from the economic-related protests, the government attempted to secure peace with the SPLA. A fragile agreement was finally reached; however, it was too little too late. The extremists in Khartoum were about to put their twisted vision for Sudan in motion.  

Omar al-Bashir Seizes Power

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 Islamic law.

Between 1989-1991, the Bashir 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. This highlights yet another step in the 10 Stages of Genocide.

Photo: Omar al Bashir in front of his palace on the Nile River, shortly after he seized power in a coup.

By 1990, the Bashir regime had surrounded the Nuba Mountains with the army and Arab Islamist paramilitaries, which had been built up quietly since the junta seized power. The most notorious of these paramilitary groups was the Popular Defense Forces (PDF). The emergence of the PDF was a disturbing sign of the nature of the coming war. PDF soldiers behaved less like the armed Arab herders the Nuba people were used to seeing on their borders and more like members of a jihadist terror organization.

Skirmishes intensified in the coming months as Nuba SPLA fighters set up perimeter and fallback defenses around the Nuba Mountains. Outskirt Nuba communities were quietly evacuated for the safety of mountain caves and villages.

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

The Nuba Face A Genocide By Attrition: 1992-2004

The war came in the summer of 1992. The Bashir regime launched a massive military offensive that swept around the Nuba Mountains and pushed deep into southern Sudan. The SPLA was driven into Sudan’s southern borderlands, far away from their Nuba allies. Tens of thousands of Arab Islamist paramilitaries were unleashed on the south Sudanese civilian population to massacre, pillage, and occupy.

The plight of southern Sudan captured the world's attention, but the Nuba Mountains was completely cut off from the outside world. In the coming years, the Bashir regime systematically attempted to exterminate the Nuba people and their rich culture in what is now described as a genocide by attrition.

It is estimated that in 1992 alone, the Bashir regime mass murdered over 70,000 of the Nuba people. The regime’s Popular Defense Forces (PDF) seized surrounding farmland from unarmed Nuba civilians. The PDF offensive was only halted when they encountered Nuba fighters, who had entrenched themselves in perimeter foothill communities.

By 1993, hundreds of thousands of Nuba civilians had fled into mountains caves and villages. Those who did not escape were forced into what the Bashir regime dubbed "peace camps,” yet there was nothing peaceful about them. Nuba civilians were enslaved, tortured, raped, and starved by regime soldiers and paramilitaries. Survivors have since compared their experiences in the camps to the death and concentration camps of Nazi Germany.

Repeated attempts by southern SPLA forces to break through regime lines and open a relief corridor to their allies in the Nuba Mountains failed. The Nuba people were on their own.

Despite being outgunned and outnumbered, Nuba fighters blocked regime forces from entering the Nuba Mountains. Horrific battles lasted day and night for weeks on end. Eyewitness accounts report that combat between Nuba fighters and regime forces in some frontline areas was so intense that bullet casings were piled knee high.

Photo: A common scene in the Nuba Mountains since the early 1990s is displaced children sitting outside mountain caves. For some, a cave has been their home after their land was threatened by regime forces. For others, caves are natural bomb shelters and even a classroom. (Operation Broken Silence)

By 1994, the situation in the Nuba Mountains had reached a truly desperate state. As Nuba fighters fought off multiple ground offensives, the Bashir regime began aerial bombing places where Nuba civilians were hiding. Survivors reported that conventional and chemical weapons were dropped on communities. The Sudanese military and their PDF allies also violently enforced a humanitarian and media blockade on the area.

Entire Nuba communities were facing living conditions that went well beyond emergency humanitarian thresholds; thousands were starving to death. Preventable disease outbreaks had become more deadly than daily aerial bombings. The PDF prevented civilians from farming by repelling Nuba attempts to retake critical farming areas. These early years of the regime’s genocide against the Nuba people represent one of the darkest chapters of Sudanese history.

Despite these bleak realities, there were glimmers of hope that this was not the way Sudan had to be. Nuba leaders quietly reached out to the nearby, moderate Arab tribes that they had built good relationships with for decades, who pledged that they would not bow to the Bashir regime’s pressure to join the war against the Nuba people.

Several dozen Arab tribesmen were so horrified by the genocide that they became smugglers for the Nuba people. In the coming years, they risked their lives and secretly slipped through regime lines to deliver food, medicine, and other basic goods to their Nuba neighbors.

Photo: Systematically cut off from basic, lifesaving supplies the genocide by attrition decimated communities in the Nuba Mountains, leaving communities struggling for food. (Operation Broken Silence)

The Silence Around The Nuba Genocide Begins To Break: 1995

With every regime effort to overrun the Nuba Mountains ending in a stalemate, the Bashir regime doubled down on the genocide by attrition strategy. Smuggling attempts of resources and supplies to the Nuba people were increasingly blocked. Aerial bombings of civilian areas were drastically expanded. What little farmland the Nuba people held onto was targeted to prevent agricultural activity.

Despite the near iron-fisted blockade on the Nuba Mountains, rumors of an armed conflict there had slowly slipped out of Sudan. As early as 1992, a small number of international organizations attempted to determine what was happening to the Nuba people. Yet, those efforts largely led to more rumors and no concrete information.

In 1995, British journalist Julie Flint slipped into the Nuba Mountains and returned with a harrowing documentary film. The film did not move world leaders to action, but it did spur a growing number of private organizations to search for ways to assist the Nuba people. In the coming years, various international NGOs smuggled relief into the Nuba Mountains by dangerous, low-profile ground transports and small aircraft. Flint's film also provided the first real counterargument to the Bashir regime’s denials.

These aid efforts were relatively small and had a minimal impact on the larger crisis the Nuba people faced. Several areas remained inaccessible for the entire conflict. Parts of the Nuba Mountains that were reached with humanitarian supplies managed to slightly improve their situation though.

By 1996, the Nuba people were fighting another war: one of cultural survival. Nuba political leaders rallied their people to make personal sacrifices for the betterment of the community. Fathers and mothers led classrooms from caves, even though there were no textbooks or chalkboards. Tribal elders orally passed down their traditions, stories, and history. Community organizers kept Nuba traditions alive by setting up famed wrestling matches. Nuba children helped their parents nurture small gardens wherever arable land could be found.

Humanitarian conditions remained abysmal, but these efforts to strengthen the Nuba identity and retain their distinct culture in the midst of the genocide were successful. Even today, many of the older generation who were part of these efforts call it “a miracle.”

The Bashir regime’s genocide against the Nuba people began faltering in 1998. Exhausted regime forces were now fighting a highly motivated, battle-hardened army of Nuba soldiers who knew the mountainous terrain by heart. Most of the civilian population was sheltered in mountain caves and knew the warning signs of impending bombings and Arab smugglers had once again found ways around the humanitarian blockade.

In 1999, regional pressure on the Bashir regime to end the broader war in southern Sudan began to have an impact in the Nuba Mountains region as well. The United Nations gained limited access to some regime-held areas around the Nuba Mountains in June; however, violence and intimidation by regime forces minimized the international presence.

Meanwhile, half a world away in Washington DC, a bipartisan group of American officials had come to view the Bashir regime as a harbinger of international terrorism that was committing genocide in southern Sudan. As the world entered a new millennium, American and international diplomatic activity concerning the crisis in Sudan ramped up.

In November 2001, over a decade after the Nuba Mountains was cut off from the outside world, the United Nations began to airlift emergency humanitarian relief directly into the Nuba Mountains. In October 2002, the United States government passed the Sudan Peace Act, comprehensive legislation that dramatically increased American support to the southern Sudanese and Nuba cause. Underneath the Bush administration, the US government began providing direct humanitarian relief and confronting the Bashir regime on the international stage. The Sudan Peace Act finally declared that regime crimes amounted to genocide.

On top of growing battlefield losses in southern Sudan and a never-ending stalemate in the Nuba Mountains, the Bashir regime found itself isolated on the international stage. Crushing American sanctions and diplomatic activity had turned Bashir and other regime leaders into global pariahs. The genocide had become too costly to continue. Fighting decreased in 2002-2004 and, 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 the north and south. Meanwhile in the western Darfur region of Sudan, an uprising against regime oppression had led to the beginning of another brutal genocide. 

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 solutions for a variety of other issues as well. A small UN peacekeeping and ceasefire monitoring force was deployed to the Nuba Mountains in June 2005. The war and genocide against the Nuba people had finally come to an end.

Peace Agreement & South Sudan Partition: 2005-2010

While the CPA dealt with a large number of issues that had plagued Sudan since 1956, undoubtedly the largest problem with the agreement is that it did not include a solution for the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile regions. Unlike southern Sudan, these two areas were not given the option to have more autonomy, declare independence, or join what was about to become the world’s newest country: South Sudan.

This was a devastating decision in the peace process. The Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile were essentially sacrificed to reach a deal that would permanently end the regime’s war in southern Sudan. Negotiators stated that the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile would be able to express what they wanted through “popular consultation votes;” however, in practice, this process was ill-defined and meaningless, creating no mechanism for either region to secure permanent peace.

Map: Despite siding with southern Sudan during the war, the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile were left on the north side of the border. (Operation Broken Silence)

Only a few short years after the CPA was signed, it was clear that peace would not last in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile. Under the agreement, the SPLA was supposed to withdraw from the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile. Regime forces were supposed to reduce their number to pre-war levels to reduce tensions. Neither side cooperated fully in this area.

As early as 2008, tensions were once again on the rise as Arab paramilitaries began attacking Nuba communities. Talk of armed resistance spread throughout the Nuba Mountains as it became clear the Bashir regime was once again arming the militias. Nuba leaders began stockpiling weapons, fuel, and food in preparation for another war.

The Second War & Attempted Genocide: 2011-2019

In January 2011 and in accordance with the CPA, a referendum vote was held in southern Sudan to determine whether the region would become an independent country or remain a part of Sudan. 99% of the southern Sudanese population voted for independence.

Meanwhile, in the Nuba Mountains, regime militia attacks on isolated Nuba communities increased throughout 2010 and 2011. Nuba leaders tacked a "N" onto SPLA for "North" and transitioned their self-defense forces into a more permanent, standing army. The Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement-North (SPLM-N) began to import and stockpile large amounts of weapons in expectation of another war and genocide.

Photo: Nuba soldiers on patrol during the rainy season near an area that would soon become the border of Sudan and South Sudan. The Nuba Mountains sit just north of the South Sudan border today. (Operation Broken Silence)

In May 2011, the Bashir regime rigged a gubernatorial election in South Kordofan, where the Nuba Mountains are located. Ahmed Haroun, an indicted war criminal and member of Bashir's inner circle, became governor instead of Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, the widely popular Nuba candidate.

On May 23, 2011, the Bashir regime sent an ultimatum to the south Sudanese SPLA. It stated that all Nuba soldiers must withdraw south of the 1956 North-South border before June 1, 2011. The SPLA responded that the Nuba soldiers were not southern Sudanese, so they had no authority to withdraw them from the Nuba Mountains. The Bashir regime responded by deploying large numbers of army and paramilitary forces around the Nuba Mountains. Regime attacks on outlying Nuba communities began to rapidly escalated.

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.

Over a three-day period, the Bashir regime oversaw the systematic mass killing of thousands of Nuba civilians in Kadugli. Survivors who could not escape the city began fleeing to the perimeter of the UN peacekeeping base in Kadugli seeking safe haven.

A small team of UN military observers who attempted to exit the base and document survivor reports of mass killings were arrested by regime army forces, stripped naked, and submitted to a mock execution by laughing soldiers. They were sent back to their base after being warned they would be killed if they ever returned.

Meanwhile, outside the UN base in Kadugli, roughly 9,000 terrified survivors of the massacre were begging the UN to protect them. The force’s lightly armed peacekeepers and unarmed military observers expanded the protective perimeter of the camp, placing a majority of the survivors under international protection, despite the UN having neither the manpower nor firepower to be a significant deterrent to regime forces.

On June 5, regime intelligence agents and Popular Defense Forces (PDF) militiamen began breaching the protective perimeter and dragging away men, women, and children for execution. Outnumbered and outgunned UN peacekeepers stood by as Nuba civilians were abducted. Survivors witnessed regime agents examining kill lists that named Nuba individuals to be executed, yet another step of the 10 Stages of Genocide. Several of these people were shot and killed within eyesight of UN forces and the Nuba people under their protection.

Hawa Mando, a teacher and mother who was seeking refuge inside the protective perimeter on June 5, said “They had lists of people they were looking for. Local spies would point people out and they would shoot them. In front of my eyes I saw six people shot dead. They just dragged the bodies away by their feet like slaughtered sheep. People were crying and screaming and the UN soldiers just stood and watched in their watchtowers.”

Photo: Nuba civilians protest on the outskirts of a UN monitoring base in the Nuba Mountains on June 27, 2011, begging the force commander and international community to intervene. The UN would instead shutter their peacekeeping and observation force. (Operation Broken Silence)

By mid-June, Kadugli was under the complete control of regime forces. Local army commanders approached the UN base and ordered survivors to return home or go to a local soccer field, where they would be allowed to leave Kadugli from there. Several large trucks were brought in and began shuttling thousands of people away from the UN base. Most were never heard from again.

Within days of the massacre in Kadugli, the regime had launched a widespread aerial bombing campaign on communities across the Nuba Mountains. Large numbers of Sudanese army forces and allied PDF paramilitaries began to advance on the outskirts of the Nuba Mountains. Tens of thousands of Nuba civilians fled for the safety of mountains caves as thousands of Nuba soldiers marched to the frontlines.

Several weeks later, satellite imagery combined with eyewitness testimony was released confirming the existence of multiple mass grave sites around Kadugli. It is believed that these mass graves are where the thousands of people who sought protection at the UN base in Kadugli were buried. Global outcry was brief, but world leaders quickly turned away. Once again, the Nuba people were on their own.

By the end of June, less than a month after the war began, it had became clear that the Bashir regime had severely underestimated the new strength of the SPLM-N. Nuba resistance now took the form of a much larger and more cohesive fighting force than the previous war. Nuba units were better armed and trained, more mobile, and supported by artillery fire. A rapid Nuba counter-offensive against the Sudanese army and PDF led to regime forces losing 55 of the 60 frontline positions that were attacked.

Photo: The Satellite Sentinel Project confirmed and documented mass grave sites around Kadugli. (DigitalGlobe/Maxar)

Seizing on these early gains, tens of thousands of Nuba soldiers pushed out of their mountain strongholds and took control of critical farmland they had not been able to hold during the previous war. Key Sudanese army units around Kadugli were pinned down and the SPLM-N seized control of border crossings with South Sudan, allowing Nuba refugees to flee into refugee camps and for humanitarian aid to flow into the mountains, although few humanitarian organizations expressed an interest in doing so. Specialized Nuba units launched hit and run strikes on regime supply lines.

Already high Nuba civilian support for the SPLM-N soared to unprecedented levels. As survivors of the Kadugli massacre began testifying to what they witnessed to communities across the mountains, the Nuba people came to accept the grim reality that the Bashir regime was determined to erase their communities and culture from existence. Similar to the previous war and genocide, volunteers surged into the ranks of the SPLM-N. Women were allowed to fight for the first time. Teachers and tribal elders doubled down on their sharing of Nuba history and culture in their communities.

Asked to speak to the state of the war at the end of 2011, Nuba leader Abdel Aziz al Hilu said “This is the not Sudan army I know—and we are not the SPLA we were. In 1987, we attacked a 10-man police post with a 100-man company and fought all day to defeat them; on July 1 this year, we routed two SAF (army) brigades in 35 minutes.” Advancing Nuba SPLM-N forces began capturing heavy weapons from retreating regime forces. Tanks, vehicles, artillery, and anti-aircraft weapons were incorporated into the SPLM-N's growing arsenal and turned back against regime troops.

The Bashir regime’s ground war floundered. In response to growing battlefield losses, the regime leaned hard into the genocide by attrition strategy that had been so effective in the previous war and subsequent genocide. Aerial bombings of civilian areas accelerated and a humanitarian blockade order was issued.

Throughout 2012 and in the coming years, food shortages became common in the Nuba Mountains and access to basic medical care was limited to a single hospital. The bombing campaign suppressed trade, farming, and schooling, generating a new humanitarian crisis. However, conditions were not nearly as dire as they were in the 1990s, with some localized exceptions.

By 2016, it was clear that the Bashir regime’s second attempted genocide of the Nuba people was a failure.

Khartoum’s plans for a new military offensive went off the rails when SPLM-N leaders caught wind of the attack early. Nuba soldiers ambushed regime supply lines and used hit-and-run tactics to curb the military buildup. This preemptive Nuba strike largely worked: regime forces repeatedly delayed their offensive for months, and their final attack was far weaker than expected.

Against the backdrop of the regime’s war against the Nuba Mountains, Sudan’s economy was growing increasingly unstable. Small protests had begun breaking out in major cities over rising costs of basic commodities, and the war being lost in the Nuba Mountains was draining government resources. Begrudgingly, Bashir and his generals began looking for a way to reduce the scale of the conflict while not losing any additional territory around the Nuba Mountains.

The first ceasefire was announced in 2016 and successive ceasefires largely held until 2023. There was little large-scale fighting in this time; however, regime paramilitary groups such as the new Rapid Support Forces, which were born out of the Janjaweed militias in Darfur, and Popular Defense Forces sporadically attacked frontline communities.

Photo: A home smolders in the Nuba Mountains after being bombed by a regime warplane. Although much safer from ground attacks than the previous war, aerial bombings terrorized Nuba communities from 2011-2016. (Operation Broken Silence)

The Nuba Mountains 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 Nuba mother and her daughter doing laundry in Yida Refugee Camp, the primary camp for Nuba refugees who still cannot go home. (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.

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: SPLM-N soldiers in the Nuba Mountains stronghold of Kauda in January 2020. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

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.

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. 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.

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 and across Sudan, please visit our blog and sign up for our email list.

Map: Reported fighting in June 2023. Click or tap to zoom. (Operation Broken Silence)

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