Eric Reeves is a professor at Smith College. He has published
extensively on Sudan, nationally and internationally, for more
than a decade. He is author of A Long Day's Dying: Critical
Moments in the Darfur Genocide. The opinions expressed are his
own. The northern Sudanese border states of Blue Nile and South
Kordofan are on the verge of catastrophic human destruction.
This should not come as a surprise. For many months now warnings
of famine, and diseases consequent upon malnutrition, have
become increasingly urgent. The devastating effects of bombing
attacks during the planting season in the Nuba Mountains quickly
became apparent last spring: following the June 5 outbreak of
hostilities between Khartoum's Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the
indigenous northern rebel group, the Sudan People's Liberation
Movement/Army-North (SPLM/A-N), aerial assaults on villages,
fields, and livestock became relentless. A terrible reprise of
these attacks on civilian livelihoods began in Blue Nile on
September 1. Some 150,000