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Christian village was attacked during a HART visit in Abyei

Abyei, South Sudan

A summary of a visit report published by HART (Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust) in Abyei, Sudan and South Sudan from January 2020.

Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART) is an NGO that exists to support those who are suffering conflict and persecution in places with no international media attention. We have already inspected one of their reports in the past. In this article, we present another report from January 2020 by HART about the situation in Abyei, Sudan and South Sudan.

Abyei

While the members of HART were visiting the region (located on the border between South Sudan and Sudan), they got the devastating news that Nomadic Islamist Misseriya herders had just attacked a nearby Christian Dinka village of Kolomin. The HART team visited the village just after the attack. They saw that many buildings were still burning with burnt bodies inside. The survivors revealed that they wanted to flee to the bush for safety just before the attack. Still, they were urged by UNISFA (the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei) not to take this course of action. However, while the UNISFA is mandated to protect the civilians in Abyei, it seems that the local people can only count on themselves.

The crisis facing civilians in Abyei is complex and delicate. The local population has experienced years of suffering caused by armed conflicts, political challenges and devastating floods.

Sudan and South Sudan

In Sudan, the HART team visited a destroyed Teachers Training Centre and a mosque, among others. After three decades of civil war, access to health care and education in the region is extremely limited or non-existent, claims the report.

The civil war in South Sudan has resulted in thousands of civilian deaths and forced millions to flee their homes. According to the UN, 1.5 million are internally displaced. In Maban, the HART members visited a refugee camp, which is home to around 150.000 refugees.

They called on the UK government to make representations to Sudan’s interim government to provide urgently needed food, health care, and education.

Featured image: Survivors of the massacre in Kolom, Abyei on Wednesday 22 January. Source: Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART)

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