Sudan
Sudanese Army attacks UN refugee camps staff

afrol.com, 10 November - The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today reports that its camp and staff in Kassala, Sudan, had come under artillery fire yesterday and that army officers had raided the UNHCR office, detained staff and seized equipment.

The UNHCR already has relocated virtually all its local and international staff (62) from the Sudanese town of Kassala near the border with Eritrea, to Showak, further inland, after Kassala came under artillery fire before dawn on Wednesday, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski today informed in a press conference.

- Shells exploded in the immediate vicinity of the UNHCR office and heavy small arms fire could be heard but the building was not hit, he told the press. The Sudanese Government claims that rebels were behind the attack. New documentation, however shows that the Sudanese Government military itself has bombed civilian and humanitarian targets in Sudan at least 113 times this year, mostly blaming its own deeds on the rebels.

During the attack, plainclothes Sudanese Army officers raided the UNHCR office in Kassala, detained two local staff and seized communications equipment. "One of our colleagues was released the same day but the other one was freed only on Thursday, after UNHCR protested to the Government in Khartoum," Kris Janowski described the dramatical situation. 

Offering an honourable retreat possibility for the Sudanese Government, he continued: "We welcome the Government’s prompt intervention with the military on the ground. We also expect an immediate return of the radio equipment." 

- It was not immediately clear why our staff were detained, Kris Janowski said. There are an estimated 27,000 Eritrean refugees in the Kassala area. UNHCR had an unusually large number of staff in Kassala (62) at the time of the incident since we were in the middle of registration of Eritrean refugees, which are heading back to Eritrea. There are an estimated total of 147,000 camp-based Eritrean refugees in Sudan and another 195,000 urban refugees from Eritrea. 

Genocide
Last week, Rabbi Irving Greenberg of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in an interview with the Washington Post warned about a "genocide" in Sudan. "One does not lightly invoke the spectre of genocide," the rabbi said, "but the horror that afflicts Sudan is staggering: some 2 million dead; another 4-5 million driven from their homes; government toleration of the enslavement of women and children; mass starvation used as a weapon of war; churches and mosques destroyed; hospitals and clinics bombed; widespread discrimination and persecution on account of race, ethnicity and religion." He continued: "Primary responsibility for this devastation belongs to the Sudanese government."

The UN has been heavily criticized for its compliance to the Sudanese Government by international aid organisations working locally.

Source: Based on UNHCR and US Committee for Refugees

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