Recent bombing attacks in two towns resulted in reports of unusual adverse effects on people and animals in the area. While information remains sketchy, these reports are extremely troubling. All this occurs while Khartoum imposes a ban on all other flights, including humanitarian, to pockets of Sudan that are desperate for relief. The government is not alone in committing atrocities. Crimes against civilians have also been perpetrated by the Sudan People's Liberation Army, the largest rebel movement, albeit on a much smaller scale.
Grain is taken from starving citizens as a form of tax to help feed soldiers in the south.
This amplifies the civil war and has triggered a humanitarian catastrophe that overwhelms the often hampered efforts of aid groups that comprise the UN-led Operation Lifeline Sudan. Efforts have been made to help bring an end to the horror. A peace process conducted by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, a grouping of East African nations, is attempting resolve the conflict. If the Khartoum government were serious about fulfilling its expressed commitments, it could demonstrate as much by taking a number of steps. It could begin by negotiating seriously in the peace process, which it has consistently acted to undermine thus far.