These kids remind me of 21st century Anne Franks. They are hiding out from the savagery of war and getting almost no help from world powers. When a bomber appears ahead, they bolt into caves infested with bombs. To document these crimes against humanity in Sudan, I sneaked into Sudan’s Nuba Mountains with a video journalist. The only way is to cross illegally through rebel lines. There are no taxis, cell phones and only rumours of roads.
There’s only trace of certainty on a daily basis, Sudan’s government kills its own people here, targeting schools, hospitals and ordinary people who live in grass huts. It’s the worst ethnic cleansing you’ve never heard of that’s been going on for 4 years. It’s so outrageous and overlooked that I return here for the fourth time. I witnessed this in 2012, and suddenly everyone is scrambling. There is an Antonov circle overhead, and everyone is taking cover in these caves. Sadly, little has changed since my last visit. These women are getting ready to run.
I like a bomb hole (Foxhole) that’s a bit bigger and away from everything else. My tour guide is Ryan Boyyat an American missionary who has lived here for 13 years and is married to a Nubian. His organisation employees courageous Nubians who document the conflict via video footage. The war has been raging for years and just this war we have seen more bombs dropped off than we’ve seen at the beginning of the war. The Nuba Mountains are in the Southern part of Sudan but controlled by 10’s of thousands of Nubian rebels. Sudan wants to depopulate area and crush the popular rebellion. The government keeps out food, medicine and aid groups.
The man driving this misery is Omer Al Bashir, he is the only sitting president indicted on charges of genocide and he is careful not to visit countries that will hand him over to the international criminal court.
President Bashir has decimated families especially those across the front line, that’s where we went to Osman and Sadia, parents of 5 children. They had never turned a light switch or spoken on the phone. They encountered the modern world only in February when a bomb sparked a fire inside the foxhole in which the kids were hiding. One Child immediately burned to death, I just saw the fire on the children, at first the were screaming and then they just became quiet. The 4 other 4 4 were put into a vehicle, the first car ride of their lives and fours later they arrived at this hospital to meet Doctor Tom Catana.
The only doctor station for over 500,000million people.
