Nuba Mountains | GlobalPost

NAIROBI, Kenya — Khartoum’s policy of hoarding Sudan's power and wealth at the center to the detriment of the marginalized peripheries lies at the heart of all the country's conflicts. Such inequality and disenfranchisement predates the 23-year rule of President Omar al-Bashir who added an extremist layer of religious and racial prejudice to the existing tensions.

Bashir's Sudan was drastically diminished by the South’s secession last year yet it remains a vast and diverse territory, in race, language, religion and landscape. For many years oil revenues have allowed Bashir to spurn international sanctions and disdain his pariah status.

Under Bashir Sudan has not known peace, nor does it seem likely to get it. In the 1990s Bashir hosted Osama bin Laden and his capital was targeted by US missiles in retaliation for the 1998 bombing of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Later Bashir was accused of genocide for ordering attacks on the people of Darfur, beginning in 2003. Bashir and a handful of his most senior lieutenants were indicted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes
including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The civil war in Darfur continues. Today the Sudan Liberation Army, a Darfuri rebel group that is part of the new Sudan Revolutionary Front alliance, claimed new gains. As peace came to the South last year fighting re-ignited in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile, and has more recently resumed along the shared north-south border where the South Sudan army continues to allege aerial bombardments.

Right now Bashir looks weaker than at any time since he took power in a coup in 1989. The loss of South Sudan robbed Khartoum of 70 percent of the
country’s oil which lies below fields south of the new border. Last month South Sudan's army occupied the north’s main oil field at Heglig and although it was pushed back the assault was a black eye for Khartoum and left the oil facility in ruins.

Sporadic student protests against Bashir's rule have erupted in Khartoum since the Arab Spring of last year and although security forces have nipped them in the bud their very existence reveals an undercurrent of discontent that might bubble up at any time. Rumors of internal divisions within the ruling National Congress Party and the Sudan Armed Forces suggest Bashir’s power is not as secure or monolithic as in years past.

Rebels in the Nuba Mountains told me they will march on Khartoum and while this looks like little more than bluster at the moment, momentum does seem to be building and Bashir's days may indeed be numbered.

NAIROBI, Kenya — Working in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan was, to me, exactly what foreign reporting is all about.

The story is an important one that remains under-reported, it is a difficult story to report because you have to sneak illegally into Sudan to see what's going on and it's dangerous because you travel through rebel-held territory during an active conflict. Of course I already knew what was happening in the Nuba Mountains, but that's not the same as seeing it for yourself.

Afterward, I left feeling profoundly depressed. Yes, the ordinary folk of South Kordofan were displaying remarkable resilience — incredible, really — in the face of the daily attacks launched by Khartoum; and, yes, the rebel army fighting to defend its land and its people had seemed motivated and disciplined, and its commanders had talked the impressive talk of democracy, freedom and human rights; and, yes, the landscape was one of desiccated beauty, hills and huge
sky; and, yes, the people had been open, welcoming and tolerant of my ignorance.

More from GlobalPost: Nuba Mountains: Sudan's next Darfur?

Part 1: South Kordofan: Sudan’s latest humanitarian disaster

NUBA MOUNTAINS — Since June, daily bombings have rained down fire and death on the people of the Nuba Mountains, forcing thousands to leave their homes for the rocky hills, where countless crevices and caves offer some protection. Unable to plant crops in their fields, the civilians South Kordofan are now going hungry.

Part 2: Thousands flee to a new refugee camp in South Sudan

YIDA, South Sudan — Hundreds of hungry and desperate Sudanese arrive at this refugee camp every day. The people of Sudan's Nuba Mountains are fleeing bombing raids and the lack of food in their homeland. Meanwhile, the international community shrugs.

Part 4: Ragtag rebels vow to take South Kordofan

NUBA MOUNTAINS — The rebels in South Kordofan have notched up a string of victories on the ground and claim to control 90 percent of the countryside, although not the towns, in Sudan's South Kordofan state. But in the air the Sudan Armed Forces remains unchallenged and unhindered.

Part 3: Sudan’s rebels uniting to topple Bashir’s Islamic regime

NUBA MOUNTAINS — Deep in the mountains the Sudan Revolutionary Front is being formed to join four of Sudan's rebel forces to fight together against the Khartoum regime of Sudan President Omar al-Bashir. The SPLA-North in the Nuba Mountains is working to join forces rebels in Blue Nile state and with two rebel groups in Darfur: the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Army.

South Kordofan's rebel general explains his battle against Sudan President Omar al-Bashir

NUBA MOUNTAINS — South Kordofan's rebel General Abdulaziz Adam Al-Hilu says his fighters are battling for "regime change, for complete transformation, for writing a new constitution. We want to achieve lasting peace and justice in this country."

On Location Video: China's problem in Sudan

As a major investor in Sudanese oil, China has resisted interfering in the domestic affairs of a land embroiled in war. Now that Sudan has split in two and border hostilities have escalated, Beijing faces a quandary. It is forced to do business with both countries. Meanwhile, its workers are coming under attack, and its bombs are being used by the north to kill supporters of the south. Can Beijing possibly remain neutral?

Sudan: Pressure on Bashir builds

Few are lucky in Sudan's Nuba Mountains