Concern over Bahr al-Ghazal fighting

The outbreak of serious fighting in Bahr al-Ghazal - with a large-scale Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) offensive, its reported seizure of the strategic town of town of Raga and the consequent resumption of bombings by the government since 2 June - had given rise to serious concerns about the humanitarian situation there, UN sources told IRIN on Thursday. The government had announced on 24 May that it would cease bombing targets in southern Sudan and the Nubah Mountains the following day. In addition to concerns about population displacement and its human consequences, and the worry that civilians might be directly affected by the fighting and/or bombings, relief workers were concerned about the issue of access to vulnerable populations in such a worrying situation, according to humanitarian sources. Drought and insecurity have driven many families from their land and prevented crop cultivation, and, overall, Bahr al-Ghazal is expected to face a food deficit of some 40 percent this year. The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) on Wednesday accused government forces of killing two civilian women in a bombing raid on the town of Baraut, Bahr el-Ghazal, AFP news agency reported. The government plane also dropped several bombs on Akol and Turaley in northern Bahr al-Ghazal, not near the front lines in Sudan’s civil war, it quoted SPLM/A spokesman Samson Kwaje as saying. Kwaje said the rebels had captured the towns of Abulu and Khawr al-Gana on Wednesday, and were now only 19 km from the provincial capital Wau - a major strategic target. In May, there were 13 reported bomb attacks by the government on civilian targets in southern Sudan, according to sources in close contact with the situation on the ground. During May, there were bomb attacks on Bahr al-Ghazal, Equatoria, Southern Blue Nile, Southern Kordofan and Upper Nile, they said. In three separate instances, bombs had been dropped near an NGO compound in Akuem and a dispensary in Tonj, and had damaged a health centre in Acumcum, all in Bahr al-Ghazal, they added.