Images show Sudan ‘mass graves’

Satellite images show mass graves following recent fighting in Sudan, a campaign group set up by Hollywood star George Clooney says.

The Satellite Sentinel project says the apparent massacre took place in the town of Kadugli, in South Kordofan.

Fighting began in the state last month, between rebels from the Nuba mountains and the Sudanese armed forces.

A Sudanese military spokesman denied allegations that civilians had been killed.

South Kordofan borders South Sudan, which last week became an independent state.

Some 70,000 people have fled the recent fighting there.

The Satellite Sentinel project says the satellite images are consistent with allegations the Sudanese armed forces and government-aligned militias have targeted civilians.

A recent UN report said bombing and fighting was continuing in South Kordofan despite a peace deal.

The BBC’s James Copnall in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, reports that it is extremely difficult to get accurate information, as journalists and diplomats are barred from the region and the UN faces restrictions on its movement.

The images released by the Satellite Sentinel Project show three apparent mass graves, it says.

Eye witnesses

The organisation also says it has spoken to a number of witnesses who allege forces aligned with Khartoum are systematically killing civilians believed to be opposed to the government.

The US President Barack Obama has already expressed his concern at reports of attacks in South Kordofan based on ethnicity.

Khartoum denies the allegations, and says it is fighting a legitimate war of self-defence against insurgents.

Many residents of the Nuba mountains fought with southern rebels during the two decade north-south war but now find themselves in the north.

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir said he would work with Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir to ensure their rights were respected.

Mr Bashir has recognised South Sudan but says peace with Sudan’s new neighbour was conditional on mutual respect of borders and non-interference in each other’s affairs.

The two sides agreed last month, in a deal brokered by the African Union, to integrate the Nuba fighters into the national army or disarm them voluntarily.

‘Expulsions’

An official in Khartoum’s ruling party, Qutbi al-Mahdi, has accused aid agencies of giving logistical support to the rebels, the pro-government Sudanese Media Centre (SMC) reports.

He warned the agencies that they risked “legal penalties” and expulsion, SMC said.

In 2009, Sudan expelled 10 humanitarian organisations from the western region Darfur, accusing them of collaborating with the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Mr Bashir for alleged genocide and crimes against humanity during Darfur’s eight-year conflict.

There is also an arrest warrant for Ahmed Haroun, a former Darfur governor who is now South Kordofan’s governor.

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Sudan: A country divided

The great divide across Sudan is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. South Sudan is covered by green swathes of grassland, swamps and tropical forest.

Sudan’s arid north is mainly home to Arabic-speaking Muslims. But in South Sudan there is no dominant culture. The Dinkas and the Nuers are the largest of more than 200 ethnic groups, each with its own languages and traditional beliefs, alongside Christianity and Islam.

The health inequalities in Sudan are illustrated by infant mortality rates. In South Sudan, one in 10 children die before their first birthday. Whereas in the more developed northern states, such as Gezira and White Nile, half of those children would be expected to survive.

The gulf in water resources between north and south is stark. In Khartoum, River Nile, and Gezira states, two-thirds of people have access to piped drinking water and pit latrines. In the south, boreholes and unprotected wells are the main drinking sources. More than 80% of southerners have no toilet facilities whatsoever.

Throughout Sudan, access to primary school education is strongly linked to household earnings. In the poorest parts of the south, less than 1% of children finish primary school. Whereas in the wealthier north, up to 50% of children complete primary level education.

Conflict and poverty are the main causes of food insecurity in Sudan. The residents of war-affected Darfur and South Sudan are still greatly dependent on food aid. Far more than in northern states, which tend to be wealthier, more urbanised and less reliant on agriculture.

Sudan exports billions of dollars of oil per year. Southern states produce more than 80% of it, but receive only 50% of the revenue. The pipelines run north but the two sides have still not agreed how to share the oil wealth in the future.

The spokesman for the Sudanese Armed Forces, Colonel Khalid Sawarmi, told the BBC this was not true, and civilians hadn’t been killed inside Kadugli.