April 29, 2002 MSF Report Blames War Tactics for Massive Civilian Mortality in Western Upper Nile
Nairobi/New York, April 29, 2002 — In a report released
today, the international medical organization Doctors Without Borderes/Médecins
Sans Frontières (MSF) charged warring parties in Sudan's western Upper
Nile (WUN) region with responsibility for appalling civilian mortality from
infectious diseases and violence.
Drawing on 14 years of MSF experience in the region and individual testimonies,
the report describes how all parties to the conflict use violence against
civilians—including rape, murder and assault—and denial of access
to humanitarian aid as tactics of war that have resulted in enormous civilian
mortality rates. Rich in oil resources, western Upper Nile has in the past
four years become a focal point of the Sudanese civil war—a 19-year
old war whose victims are overwhelmingly civilians decimated by disease and
violence.
The organization urged the Sudanese government, the SPLA, and associated
militia groups to stop targeting civilians, medical personnel, and medical
facilities. MSF also called for an immediate lifting of a recently issued
flight ban and demanded access to areas where civilians are in desperate
need of protection and assistance.
"Thousands of people have died from diseases that can be treated, even during
conflict. It is the way the war is waged that limits access to medical services," said
Arjan Hehenkamp, Operational Director of MSF. "The needs are massive, but
there is virtually no humanitarian presence in the area and attacks on health
workers and facilities deprive patients of any care."
One concrete example is kala azar (visceral leishmaniasis), a parasitic
disease that is fatal if left untreated. MSF estimates that at its peak in
the late-1980s, the disease killed at least 100,000 people in WUN—at
least one third of the population of the area. The disease continues to affect
hundreds every year, and every time MSF is forced to evacuate it means that
patients infected with the deadly disease are left untreated.
In the past three months alone, MSF teams have been forced to evacuate three
locations due to insecurity. Currently there are reports of increased fighting,
and there is virtually no humanitarian presence in the area, except for in
the government-held town of Bentiu.
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