Nuba mission emphasises need for sustained peace

The extension of a two-month old cease-fire in the Nuba Mountains region is essential if the Nuba people, particularly in rebel-held areas, are to move out of economic isolation, and benefit from long-term development opportunities, according to the results of a UN-led multi-agency assessment mission to the area.

"The defining constraint on virtually all agricultural and related activities, and a realisation of the potential of the region and its people, is the civil war which has endured in the area from the late 1980s," the office of the UN Coordinator for Sudan, Roger Guarda, stated in a report on the rapid-needs assessment, conducted over a three-week period in January.

The war has had the effect of restricting freedom of movement in the Nuba region of Southern Kordofan, south-central Sudan, forcing communities away from the fertile plains into more mountainous areas under the control of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), and into "economic isolation", the report said.

Complementary multi-agency and multi-sectoral assessment missions were sent to both government- and rebel-held areas of the Nuba Mountains, and included representatives from the Sudanese government's Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC), the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other relief organisations.

In the areas controlled by the rebel movement, an "emerging cycle of impoverishment" was evident, partly due to people's inability to access good agricultural land due to fear of abduction, rape or murder, according to the assessment report.

In government-controlled areas, there were an estimated 170,000 people living in what were, in effect, displaced persons camps, it said. Both access to farming land and pastoral practices (based on freedom of movement) had been significantly restricted, with people's capacity to maintain their livelihood support systems "badly eroded", it added.

About 1.13 million people live in the 80,000 square kilometres of the Nuba Mountains region. The mountains themselves, rugged granite outcrops up to 1,000m high, constitute roughly one-third of the area, rising above extensive and fertile agricultural plains, which once produced a significant food surplus for other parts of Sudan.

Representatives of the Sudanese government and SPLM/A-Nuba signed a cease-fire agreement in January, to last for an initial period of six months. A Joint Military Commission (JMC) designed to oversee the cease-fire has been established and teams of international monitors are due to be dispatched to the ground in the coming weeks.

Although the Nuba people were more than capable of producing their own food, and even a surplus, they now lack essential social support services in health, water and education, as well as agricultural and livestock extension services, according to the Nuba needs assessment.

A further, serious constraint on virtually all economic activity and social services throughout the Nuba Mountains region was the almost complete absence of adequate arterial and feeder roads, the mission report stated. Road traffic was obliged to use a network of rough dirt and sand tracks running through the plains areas and the mountains, with the latter being now virtually impassable to traffic because of the civil war and the existence of land mines.

"A fundamental priority for a cost-effective relief and rehabilitation programme will thus be immediate attention to this run-down road network, both in the short and long terms," the UN report stated. Education, health and nutrition, and water and sanitation were also all important areas for intervention, it said.

The overall situation with respect to education in the region was one of "chronic shortage in every conceivable respect", according to the assessment. School structures were generally very basic and inadequate, with the situation being worse outside the towns and in the SPLM/A-controlled areas. It was estimated that, of just over 500 schools in government-controlled areas and 92 in SPLM/A-controlled areas, at least 60 percent required rehabilitation.

"The result is a very low enrolment of children in school (especially girls), poor attendance and high drop-out rates," the report stated.

The most common diseases in the Nuba Mountains region were found to be malaria, diarrhoea, and acute respiratory infections.

Awareness of HIV/AIDS and its effects was "poor" among the general public, but also among health workers. "Little or no sensitisation or training seems to be available for health workers, with the result that they tend not to practise any preventive measures", the report said. In SPLM/A-controlled areas, there was only one doctor per 123,000 people.

Health and nutrition needs identified in the report included: the development of capacity for training health workers; rehabilitation and construction of health-care facilities; the promotion and implementation of an expanded programme of immunisation; and the provision of basic drugs, medicines and nutritional supplements.

Access to safe drinking water was also difficult in many areas, particularly in the dry season, which normally runs from November until May, according to the assessment report.

In particular, the displacement of communities away from the plains into SPLM/A-controlled areas in the hills had increased the time taken for women and girls to collect water. Some women had to walk for up to eight hours in a round-trip to collect water during the dry season, it said.

If the free movement of civilians and goods, including humanitarian assistance, could occur through the whole Nuba Mountains region, the worrying situation could turn around very quickly, the report said.

"However, it will be important to remember that for the people in the SPLM/A-controlled areas in particular, there will need to be a time of confidence-building for them to believe in peace. Only then will they feel safe enough to venture from their mountain-top homes and back onto the fertile plains," it added.