REDRESS, SDFG, HRW and Interights submit Communication against Sudan and request provisional measures in regards to Southern Kordofan State, Sudan
Refugees displaced by conflict in Kadugli, the capital of Southern Kordofan State. UN Photo by Paul Banks.
On 2 July 2011, REDRESS, together with the Sudan Democracy First Group (SDFG), Interights and Human Rights Watch (HRW) submitted a request for provisional measures in respect of the situation in Southern Kordofan, Sudan, to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Applicants request the Commission to adopt provisional measures requesting the Government of Sudan to put an end to the ongoing human rights violations arising from hostilities in Southern Kordofan State involving the Sudan Armed Forces and forces aligned with South Sudan’s army, the Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) in Southern Kordofan State/ Nuba Mountains. On 13 July 2011, the Applicants submitted a Communication to the African Commission in regards to the same situation.
The hostilities are reportedly marked by large scale human rights violations allegedly committed primarily by the SAF with the support of the Popular Defence Forces (PDF) and NCP security forces, predominantly against civilians in the Southern Kordofan/ Nuba Mountains State. The SAF, together with the PDF, is alleged to be responsible for widespread killings through indiscriminate bombing attacks, arbitrary arrests, torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, particularly of civilians apparently targeted because of their ethnicity, as well as wide scale destruction of property.[1] The Sudan Democracy First Group (SDFG) in a report published on 13 June 2011, documented the devastating impact that violations had within a period of 9 days on life and living conditions in the region.[2] The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated on 27 June 2011 that at least 73,000 people had been displaced in the region, resulting in a humanitarian crisis.[3]
[1] United Nations (UN), Emergency Relief Coordinator’s Key Messages on South Kordofan, Sudan, 17 June 2011, Issue Number 1, Internal Guidelines, mentions reported attacks on civilians, presence of new landmines, and confirms that “there is clearly an ethnic dimension” to the conflict and that “civilians are increasingly concerned about being targeted because of their ethnicity”; The Guardian, “Half a million displaced as Khartoum moves to crush Sudan’s Nuba people”, 18 June 2011, at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/18/sudan-khartoum-displaced-nuba; AFP, “Sudan eyewitness recall South Kordofan horror”, 17 June 2011, at http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/14459/World/Region/Sudan-eyewitness-recalls-South-Kordofan-horror.aspx
[2] SDFG report, “Ethnic Cleansing Once Again: Southern Kordofan/ Nuba Mountains” (“SDFG Report”), 13 June 2011, at http://www.sudantribune.com/Ethnic-cleansing-once-again,38972.
[3] United Nations, Security Council sets up UN security force for disputed Sudanese town of Abyei, UN News Centre, 27 June 2011, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=38858&Cr=abyei&Cr1=
- Submission to ACHPR on Provisional Measures for Southern Kordofan State, Sudan
- REDRESS, SDFG, HRW and Interights v Sudan
- Submission on Admissibility, 15 August 2012
