Human rights group condemns bombing

In a news release, Amnesty said the government should “immediately stop indiscriminate bombings of civilians in south Sudan” and restate its commitment to international humanitarian law under the Geneva Conventions.

In a list of bombing attacks on the south, Amnesty said bombs were dropped by warplanes on civilian villages and community centres “despite an order by President Omar al-Bashir to his armed forces on 19 April 2000 to stop all air bombing operations, except in self-defence and during military operations”. The order had followed an international outcry over bombings in February and March which hit hospitals and schoolchildren, Amnesty said. It added that the upsurge in the bombings coincided with the collapse of the Bahr el-Ghazal humanitarian ceasefire, when rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) forces captured Gogrial town, a key location in the province. The ceasefire had been agreed between the government of Sudan, the SPLA and UN and relief agencies under the humanitarian consortium Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) in order to provide food in an area where tens of thousands had died as a result of conflict-induced famine, the organisation said.