South Sudan | GlobalPost

George Clooney has done it again.

The Hollywood actor and director has once again used his high wattage star power to shine light on the unsexy but critical situation in Sudan.

And Sudan President Omar al-Bashir doesn't like being in the glare of Clooney's limelight.

In case you haven't read enough about Clooney, the Los Angeles Times has published a profile of the Hollywood star that concentrates on the star's activism for the people of Sudan.

His continued engagement with Africa is, of course, why we are interested in Clooney. His sustained interest in Sudan — in Darfur, in South Sudan, in the border states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan — has helped to keep the general public's attention on those troubled areas.

And Clooney's Satellite Sentinel Project has achieved a great deal by exposing the abuses and military transgressions committed by Sudan President Omar al-Bashir's regime. The satellite images have shown illegal border incursions in Abyei. High altitude photos captured by Clooney's satellite project have shown disturbing proof of mass graves in Sudan's South Kordofan province.

The satellite images are now being used by human rights groups like the Enough Project to make a case against the Bashir regime. In fact 62 members of Congress have recently signed a letter to US President Barack Obama, citing the Satellite Sentinel Project's work in providing evidence of mass graves in 8 locations in South Kordofan province.

More from GlobalPost: Sudan battles rebels in Blue Nile state

The Sudan government shot back by criticizing those Congressmen and women for their letter and for listening to Clooney. "It does not reflect well on the U.S. government when its officials have to rely on activists and movie stars like George Clooney to provide the 'facts,' " said the statement issued by the Sudan Embassy in Washington.

The facts are piling up against the Bashir government. The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor has just requested an arrest warrant for Sudan's defence minister for alleged crimes in Darfur. ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein is suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in 2003-04.

The Hague-based ICC has already indicted Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir on genocide charges in Darfur. A senior Sudanese official dismissed the new warrant for the defence ministerf as "ridiculous."

In another development, Kenya and Sudan have resolved their diplomatic row triggered by a Kenyan court issuing its own warrant for Bashir after he was allowed to visit Nairobi in August in defiance of the ICC request. After the Kenyan court issued a warrant for Mr Bashir's arrest on Nov. 28, Sudan ordered the expulsion of Kenya's ambassador in Khartoum, and threatened to expel Kenyan peacekeepers from Sudan and not to allow planes flying to Kenya to go through Sudanese airspace.

Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula made an emergency trip to Khartoum on Dec. 2 and on his return said that relations with Sudan are now "back to normal" and that no diplomats would be expelled. He said that while the Kenyan government respected the court, he said he would guarantee that Bashir will not be arrested on Kenyan territory.

Sudan can be confusing. There are the abuses by Bashir's horseback Janjaweed militias in Sudan's western Darfur province, where thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced. There is the violence by Bashir's forces along the border between Sudan and South Sudan in which whole villages have been razed. There is the violence against Sudanese opposition groups in the border states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

Maybe it's not so confusing at all. Bashir and his henchman do not flinch at using violence against those in Sudan who oppose his rule, especially those who are black Africans and Christians.

Thanks go to George Clooney for helping the public understand what's going on in Sudan.

More from GlobalPost: Clooney's group makes new charges of mass graves

The British humanitarian agency Oxfam has withdrawn its staff from the border of Sudan and South Sudan because of growing violence in the area, according to Reuters.

Violence has surged along the tense border since Juba seceded in July under a 2005 peace deal aimed at ending a decades long civil war.

“New bombing raids and a buildup of troops along the border of Sudan and South Sudan over the past few days threaten to escalate what is already a significant humanitarian crisis in the newest country in the world,” Oxfam said in a statement, according to The New York Times.

The group had been providing clean water to 64,000 people in the area, and the agency said it had noticed a build-up of South Sudan troops near the border. Reuters reported that tens of thousands of people have fled into South Sudan this year because of fighting.

The Khartoum government in Sudan was criticized last week by South Sudan, the United States and the United Nations for bombing sites in South Sudan, including a refugee camp. Sudan believes South Sudan is arming rebels in the border states of Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, The New York Times reported.

According to Voice of America, four major Sudanese rebel groups — the Justice and Equality Movement, the two branches of the Sudan Liberation Army and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North — have joined together to topple the government in Sudan. The group calls itself the Sudan Revolutionary Front.

The attacks and increased tension along the new border have some afraid that the conflict could widen into another civil war.

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Sudan President Omar al-Bashir just won't give up.

He's already indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Sudan's western Darfur province. Bashir is also accused of aggression in South Sudan's troubled Abyei border region.

Now there are new, disturbing reports of Bashir using the Sudan Armed Forces against the civilian population in the Nuba Mountain region of Sudan's South Kordofan province.

Bashir says he has ordered an offensive in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan to capture Abdel Aziz Adam Al-Hilu, the leader of the main opposition group Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement. Hilu had been the deputy governor of South Kordofan province but he refused to concede defeat in elections to Bashir's candidate, charging that the voting was rigged. Bashir claims that Hilu is waging a violent campaign against the Sudan government. Bashir is ordering his troops to capture Hilu and subdue the SPLM forces.

But many accounts accuse Bashir's troops of killing civilians and trying to purge the Nuba Mountains of the Nuba people because they voted strongly in favor of independence for South Sudan in the January referendum, according to mounting evidence. There had been a peace agreement to stop fighting in South Kordofan, but Bashir's troops are not honoring the ceasefire.

Bashir has barred the United Nations and other humanitarian groups from South Kordofan, preventing full reporting of the alleged atrocities being committed.

The Satellite Sentinel Project has identified an apparent convoy of Sudan Armed Forces vehicles and towed artillery, stretching more than a mile in length. The convoy looks like an infantry unit of at least regiment size — about 1,000 troops — in Kadugli, capital of Sudan's conflict-ridden border region of South Kordofan.

The apparent convoy is pointed north, although its origin, destination and total length remain unknown.

Harvard Humanitarian Initiative's analysis of DigitalGlobe satellite imagery captured on July 4 identifies three SAF aircraft at the Kadugli airfield, including an Antonov — a Russian-built plane used by the the Sudan forces in bombing campaigns — and two Hind helicopter gunships. The presence of the helicopter gunships corroborates reports that the Sudan forces have used helicopters to hunt the Nuba people in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan. Also visible at the Kadugli airfield is an Ilyushin Il-76, a Russian-built cargo plane of a type used to transport heavy equipment.

"Less than a week after signing yet another agreement, the Sudanese regime appears to be ignoring its commitment, holding to form, and positioning military assets for intensified offensive operations," said Enough Project co-founder John Prendergast. "This cycle will continue to be played out with increasingly destructive results for Sudanese civilians until the international community stiffens its spine and imposes swift and severe repercussions for the endless cycle of violence the Khartoum regime continues to fuel."

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