U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 1997 - Sudan

Approximately 430,000 Sudanese were refugees in seven countries at the end of 1996: an estimated 200,000 in Uganda, about 100,000 in Zaire, some 70,000 in Ethiopia, approximately 30,000 in Kenya, about 30,000 in Central African Republic, and slightly more than 1,000 in both Egypt and Eritrea. Up to four million Sudanese were internally displaced. Large additional numbers of Sudanese were outside Sudan without formal refugee status. Sudan hosted approximately 395,000 refugees from neighboring countries: 340,000 from Eritrea, 50,000 from Ethiopia, and 5,000 from other countries. During 1996, Sudan's civil war continued in the south and spread into the north. A cycle of displacement and malnourishment among the civilian population persisted. Pre-1996 Events The immense country of Sudan has long experienced conflict between north and south because of racial, cultural, religious, and political differences. The current phase of Sudan's civil war has persisted for 13 years; for the past seven years, it has pitted the military forces of the hardline government and the National Islamic Front (NIF) and its allies against the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and its allies. The NIF is the radical Arab Islamic fundamentalist party in northern Sudan. The SPLA has drawn support primarily from black African southern Sudanese, who are mostly Christians or adherents of traditional religions. The SPLA is a participant in the National Democratic Alliance, which represents a wide range of opponents to the NIF government, including Islamic Sudanese nationalists. Civilian populations have been targeted and exploited by all sides in the war. A 1993 study by USCR concluded that 1.3 million southern Sudanese had died since 1983 due to war, war-related famine and disease, and Sudanese government policies. The government has regularly blocked or harassed humanitarian relief operations; rebels have also impeded relief efforts at times. Government planes, troops, and ethnic-based militia have attacked camps for displaced persons. Various rebel factions have exploited camp populations for food and recruitment of new soldiers. Politics and War – 1996 A military alliance solidified in 1996 between the SPLA and the National Democratic Alliance, the latter composed of northern political groups opposed to the government. The rebel alliance opened a significant military front in northeast Sudan for the first time and seized several towns. Fighting between the SPLA and pro-government forces continued in the south, particularly near the Sudan-Uganda border and near Sudan's border with Ethiopia. A rebel offensive launched in late 1995 continued in early 1996 in several areas of the southern region. Government forces continued to hold major towns but remained weak in the vast rural areas of the south. The Sudanese government, according to some estimates, spent $2 million per day on the war effort – up to 50 percent of the government's total budget. Splits among rebel factions continued to produce internecine warfare in the south, though at lower levels compared to previous years. One of the three main rebel factions, the Southern Sudan Independence Movement (SSIM), signed an accord in April that openly aligned the SSIM with the government on the battlefield. A UN committee expressed "deep concern at serious widespread and continuing human rights violations in the Sudan." The UN Security Council voted to impose diplomatic sanctions on the Sudan government and threatened to restrict flights into the country. The U.S. government withdrew most of its diplomatic staff because of concerns about safety. "Sudan has proven time and again that it is a pariah state," USCR told U.S. officials in early 1996. USCR urged the U.S. government to grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Sudanese nationals in the United States. "TPS should have been granted to Sudanese years ago," USCR stated. The United States failed to grant TPS to Sudanese before the end of the year, however. Internal Displacement Years of warfare have left up to 1.5 million Sudanese internally displaced in the south, according to some estimates. In addition, as many as 1.8 million Sudanese – many of them southerners uprooted by the war during the 1980s – have migrated to Khartoum, the capital. Hundreds of thousands more were internally displaced in central Sudan, in the Nuba Mountain region. Although some families were able to return to home areas during 1996, new population displacement occurred at other locations. Fierce fighting in the extreme southwest pushed thousands from their homes. Aerial bombings by government planes occurred regularly. In one incident, aerial bombings displaced several thousand persons near the Kenyan border, in the southeast corner of Sudan. An international human rights group charged that particularly deadly cluster bombs were used in the air assault. Several thousand persons fled fighting in central Sudan. More than 800 civilians reportedly died during attacks in the east, near the Ethiopian border. Fighting in the northeast, particularly bombing and burning of villages by government troops, forced an estimated 50,000 persons to leave their homes. Up to 90,000 displaced persons remained in southern Sudan's largest town, Juba, controlled by government forces. As many as 170,000 displaced persons lived in 16 camps scattered throughout the south. Hundreds of thousands of other uprooted people settled on their own, often in new communities they regarded as temporarily safe. In the Nuba Mountains area of central Sudan, thousands of ethnic Nuba occupied special governmentcontrolled camps – described as "concentration camps" by international human rights workers – where they have been subjected to forced labor and sexual abuse. Credible accounts of slavery continued to surface. "Slavery [is] a thriving practice in Sudan, and the government of Sudan actively encourages it," a human rights agency reported. In the Khartoum area, government officials continued a policy of forcible relocations during 1996. Authorities reportedly displaced 3,000 families to a camp outside the city, where services were inadequate. Relief workers established a supplementary feeding program to combat rising malnutrition among children in one relocation camp. Approximately three quarters of a million persons have been forcibly removed from the Khartoum area since 1992, often at gunpoint. Many of the families were southern Sudanese who had migrated to Khartoum in the 1980s to escape war in their home areas. Some families forced to leave Khartoum have filtered back and were reportedly living in abandoned buildings in the sprawling city. International human rights observers speculated that the government's forcible relocation program appeared to be nearing an end, having accomplished most of its objectives. Humanitarian Relief Massive humanitarian needs in Sudan, particularly in the south, overwhelmed international relief efforts in 1996, as in previous years. Some two million persons required at least partial food assistance, according to WFP. Drought-induced crop failures in some regions, and floods in other regions, exacerbated the averse humanitarian impact of war and abusive government policies. A half-million persons were "seriously hungry" in one southern province, WFP reported in mid-year. Three quarters of local grain reserves were destroyed by militia raids in some locations. Access to health care declined dramatically in some places. More than 700 persons died of cholera in southern Sudan in one three-week period, according to Médecins Sans Frontières. More than 30 international and local relief agencies provided aid to southern Sudan as part of a UN-coordinated program called Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS). Additional relief groups provided assistance independent of the UN program. OLS was able to provide only 20 percent of the relief food needed during the first half of 1996. Logistical obstacles, funding constraints, and restrictions placed on OLS by the Sudanese government – such as limiting access to civilians in select strategic locations – impeded the program's effectiveness. A UN review of OLS during 1996 urged the program to become more aggressive in gaining access to needy areas in southern Sudan. Taking note of the large displaced population in the north, the UN report stated that "a major failure of international and UN policy has occurred, particularly with regard to the crisis of internal displacement. The fundamental issue of protection for the large, internally displaced population within Sudan has remained unaddressed," the report concluded. Relief operations encountered regular dangers. Sudanese government planes bombed relief operations in the extreme south. More than 40 emergency evacuations of relief workers occurred in 1995; 12 additional evacuations occurred during the first half of 1996. Combatants held three Red Cross workers captive for five weeks. UN agencies issued a joint appeal to international donors for $107 million to finance humanitarian aid efforts. The appeal included $40 million for food, $40 million to address health and related issues, and funding for agriculture, livestock, and other programs. At the urging of USCR and other agencies, the U.S. Congress for the first time allowed for the possibility of U.S. funding for development aid to SPLA-held areas of southern Sudan, even though similar aid to government-held areas remained prohibited. Eritrean Refugees Most Eritrean refugees fled to Sudan in the 1980s or earlier to escape civil war and famine. Some have been in Sudan for 30 years. Approximately 340,000 were living in Sudan at year's end, although some estimates put the number as high as 600,000. UNHCR has acknowledged that disagreement over the actual numbers of Eritrean refugees "has generated too much controversy." Despite peace in Eritrea, organized repatriation of Eritrean refugees has proceeded slowly, and remained stalled during 1996. Approximately 150,000 Eritrean refugees are believed to have left Sudan in recent years, most of them with no international assistance. UNHCR's organized repatriation program began in late 1994 and assisted the return home of nearly 25,000 persons during 1994-95. Although no organized repatriation occurred during 1996, an estimated 11,000 Eritreans returned home from Sudan without assistance, according to Eritrean sources. Financial disputes over the scope of the repatriation program, and deteriorating relations between the governments of Sudan and Eritrea, have contributed to the slow pace of repatriation. The two countries severed diplomatic relations in 1995. Military hostilities along the border "made the repatriation land routes, and the exercise as a whole, seem risky," UNHCR reported. Sudanese authorities at the border posed an additional obstacle to repatriation by imposing taxes on the possessions of some Eritreans who were returning home. Sudanese authorities blamed the Eritrean government for the lack of repatriation. "Eritrea is selective...in determining its nominees for repatriation," a Sudanese refugee official complained in mid-1996. Charges that Sudanese officials were harassing some refugees – about 220 were expelled during the year – prompted UNHCR to seek an accelerated repatriation schedule, without success. Approximately one third of the refugee population lived in about 25 settlements in eastern Sudan. UNHCR conducted a camp census during the year. Some 210,000 others lived in Sudan's larger towns and urban areas. Although many refugee families were largely self-sufficient, they struggled to cope with land shortages and declining land productivity. About 55,000 refugee children attended school. Nine out of ten Eritrean refugees want to repatriate eventually, according to a survey published in 1996 by the Life and Peace Institute. About 85 percent of refugee households in Sudan indicated that assistance levels in Eritrea would be a major determinant in their decision whether to go home. Lack of transportation assistance was the primary impediment to repatriation for 17 percent of the refugees, according to the survey. More than half of the refugee households not living in Khartoum have sent a family member to visit Eritrea to assess conditions, the study found. Ethiopian Refugees Most Ethiopian refugees fled to Sudan in the 1980s to escape civil war and human rights abuses occurring in Ethiopia at that time. Estimates of the actual number of Ethiopian refugees in 1996 ranged from as many as 300,000 to as few as 50,000. About 15,000 lived at settlement sites and camps, while others lived on their own in urban areas. Nearly 60,000 Ethiopians have officially repatriated from Sudan in the past four years, including some 25,000 who repatriated with UNHCR assistance in 1996. Diplomatic and military tensions between the two governments conspired to slow the repatriation program during the year. Disagreements between UNHCR and Ethiopian aid officials about the appropriate level of repatriation assistance also stalled large-scale return. Ethiopian authorities charged in late 1995 that the lives of Ethiopian refugees were "under serious threat" in Sudan. Sudanese authorities expelled 20 refugees during 1996, but denied abusing those who remained in Sudan. Sources indicated that government harassment of the refugees abated, and most of those in detention were released.