By Eric Reeves
February 3, 2015 (SSNA) — Dr. Tom Catena, the only surgeon working in the Nuba Mountains, has provided grim evidence of the indiscriminate bombing and artillery attacks in the Kauda area near his Mother of Mercy Hospital. Khartoum’s ground campaign to seize Kauda has stalled, and the regime’s military forces suffered a crushing defeat near Talodi (occasioning the desertion of many Rapid Support Forces, who have returned to the soft targets of Darfur). Plans for a decisive victory over the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/North (SPLA/N) have clearly stalled, and stand-off military actions are the consequence.
Dr. Catena has sent me today some of the photographs generated by the ghastly carnage of the past days, including a number from today (3 February 2015); they may be accessed at http://wp.me/p45rOG-1Al . CAUTION: These photographs are extremely graphic and difficult to view. They are, however, the face of war as Khartoum has chosen to conduct it in the Nuba. Given their continuously indiscriminate nature, and conducted with full knowledge of the likely consequences, these attacks on civilians are war crimes under the terms of the Rome Treaty that is the statutory basis for the International Criminal Court. In the end, however, these innocents are victims of the international community’s failure to end Khartoum’s sense of complete impunity.
The Nuba people have every right to believe that the world simply does not care about their suffering and destruction.
Eric Reeves’ book-length study of greater Sudan (Compromising With Evil: An archival history of greater Sudan, 2007 – 2012; www.CompromisingWithEvil.org; review commentary at: http://wp.me/p45rOG-15S)