Fears in Sudan's troubled Nuba Mountains

2009-11-04

Former Nuba rebels who fought alongside southerners fear being deserted by Sudan south.

NUBA MOUNTAINS - The Nuba Mountains -- once a key enclave of rebels battling the government in Khartoum -- saw some of the heaviest fighting of Sudan’s 22-year civil war between north and south.

"Peace was signed five years ago, but we worry of trouble ahead," said Younan Albaroud, a guerrilla fighter turned politician, speaking in Kauda, the former rebel headquarters for the Nuba region.

A 2005 peace deal ended Africa's longest-running civil war, fought by southern rebels against the government.

The peace deal saw the south win regional autonomy under the former rebel leadership -- the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) -- with a referendum on its potential full independence slated for January 2011.

But that vote will exclude the Nuba.

The mountains -- some 48,000 square kilometers (19,000 square miles) of scattered green peaks and rain-fed farmland rising from the arid plains of South Kordofan state -- are isolated pockets of southern support within the north.

"We are not part of the referendum under the peace deal," said Albaroud, the SPLM chairman for Kauda, one of several zones still controlled by the former fighters.

"But the SPLM still runs this region."

Instead, the future of the Nuba -- and the other contested area of Blue Nile state -- will be decided by "popular consultations".

"We are frightened we will be abandoned," said Bashir Kuku, a farmer drinking a bowl of home-brewed sorghum beer beneath a tree at Kauda's weekly market.

"If the south splits in the referendum, we will be left alone to face the north.

"In the war, we in the Nuba fought for equality in a unified Sudan -- we call it the ‘New Sudan’ -- but the south now wants independence alone."

Historically the highlands provided refuge for those fleeing slave raids.

The International Crisis Group think tank warned last year the state could spiral into the "next Darfur," with people "polarized and fragmented along political and tribal lines."

On the ground there is little optimism.

"Some of us are Christians, some are Muslims, and some follow our African beliefs -- but we live as one," said Ezekial Elamin, another farmer.

"They would prefer that the country remain united, but this option appears less and less realistic," said s Peter Moszynski, a Sudan analyst.

It is an issue many fear makes the region -- already awash with automatic weapons -- a likely future flashpoint.

Many Nuba fighters joined the southern army, and it is not clear where their loyalties would lie if the south separates.

"Many of the ordinary people are not yet aware that they do not have a referendum, which may be a further source of conflict when they do finally find out," wrote analyst John Ashworth in a September report from the Pax Christi advocacy group.

Security is already a problem in the underdeveloped region, where rule is complicated by a parallel system run by the former rebels.

"There is no development, no security, no happiness, because people see the peace implementation has not been going well," said Kamal al-Nur, a former rebel colonel, and now commissioner of the SPLM-controlled Heiban county.

Tensions are mounting ahead of elections due in April 2010, with reports of the reorganization or rearming of civil war-era militias on both sides.

At the end of a wooded valley dotted with thatched huts and small farms, around 80 SPLM members cram into a rare solid brick building -- the party’s Political Leadership Training Institute for the region.

"We are preparing the party for the coming elections," said Ibrahim Khatib, who is running a series of 35-day courses for supporters across South Kordofan.

"We provide information on voting and campaigning -- as well as lessons on the equality of religion, the importance of human rights, and the history of the oppression this region has suffered."

Some were enthusiastic that the vote would create a better future.

"The elections are our chance to elect a leadership that reflects the people of Sudan," said Nugud Yusuf, leader of a women’s group.

But others in the Nuba were more cynical.

"Perhaps we can solve things through the elections," said trader Adam Arnab. "But I sadly believe the time for the gun will come again."

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=35483.