Villages along the new Bentiu-Adok main road

Late December 2002 – February 2003

As the ICG reports, “(t)he offensive from late December until the beginning of February was an extension of the government’s long-time strategy of depopulating oil-rich areas through indiscriminate attacks on civilians in order to clear the way for further development of infrastructure. Eyewitness accounts confirm that the tactics included the abduction of women and children, gang rapes, ground assaults supported by helicopter gunships, destruction of humanitarian relief sites and burning of villages.”

Perpetrator: GoS
Reference: Commission on Human Rights, April 2003, Statement by Mr. Gerhart Baum, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the situation of human rights in the Sudan,  https://paxvoorvrede.nl/media/download/statementbythespecialrapporteurbaum2003.pdf