Ethnic cleansing, murders, rapes and the growing humanitarian crisis in the Southern Kordofan region of Sudan were described in grisly detail by witnesses testifying at a congressional hearing on Thursday.  Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04) convened the emergency hearing as chairman of the House congressional panel that oversees African issues and international human rights. 

    Calls were made for the Obama Administration and U.S. State Department, to act to stem the escalating violence.  More than 70,000 people have been displaced and an undetermined number of people killed.

    “This crisis first arose in June of this year, shortly after the military forces of the Republic of the Sudan attacked the Abyei region,” said Smith, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and chairman of its Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights.  “Whatever the numbers involved, we can be sure that the suffering of the people in Southern Kordofan, especially the Nuba people, has been catastrophic. The testimony presented today by witnesses who have seen the carnage reveal the horrific extent of this situation.” Click here to read Smith’s opening remarks.

    The hearing was carried live by CSPAN, and can be viewed on CSPAN’s video website featuring Chairman Smith’s hearing (click here).

    Smith’s panel heard from humanitarian organizations working in Sudan about aerial bombardments of civilians, killings and mass displacement of civilians. The hearing, entitled “Southern Kordofan: Ethnic Cleansing and Humanitarian Crisis in Sudan,” focused on the Government of Sudan’s attacks on the Nuba people who live in the southern area of the country, and how the crisis will negatively impact the new nation of South Sudan which declared its independence from the Republic of Sudan only last month.

    The U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development were invited to the hearing but did not participate. Smith announced he would be willing to hold a follow-up hearing to hear State Department or USAID testimony on the crisis.

    The three witnesses who spoke were (click on names to read their opening testimony): the Rt. Reverend Andudu Adam Elnail, Bishop, Anglican Diocese of Kadugli, Sudan; Bradford Phillips, President of Persecution Project, and; Dr. Luka Biong Deng, Ph.D., President, Kush Inc.

    “These are not statistics; these are real people. The only reason they are being exterminated is because they are African. We can’t sit by and watch it happen,” Phillips said. “Mr. President what are you going to do? You know it’s happening; what are you going to do?”

    Bishop Andudu said his own Anglican cathedral, offices and home in Kadugli have been ransacked and looted. A member of his congregation reported seeing mass graves less than a mile away. He called on the United States and other members of the international community to begin to “translate moral outrage into effective action” to save lives.

    “The Nuba people fear that we will be forgotten, that the world will stand idly by while mass killings continue without redress,” he said. “Our hope is that the United States will lead the international community in taking prompt, effective action to protect tens of thousands of displaced people, including an untold number of civilians being killed house-to-house and bombed by their own government.”

    Biong Deng arrived in the U.S. last week directly from South Sudan and gave his own firsthand account of the crisis unfolding in Sudan. He is a former Minister of Cabinet Affairs for the National Unity Government and Minister for Presidential Affairs for the Government of South Sudan.

    “There is no doubt what is happening in Southern Kordofan is not only ethnic cleansing but a crime against humanity, and there is a similar pattern of atrocities being committed in the entire border area,” Biong Deng said. “The world has discovered, if impunity is permitted, as evidenced by Darfur and what is now happening in the Southern Kordofan and Abyei area, we shall not have seen the last of such violence only its exportation to other areas and other victims. Given the terrain and denial of access to the affected areas, the humanitarian crisis will get even worse during the next few months. Therefore it is critical for the United States to explore creative options for getting aid to South Kordofan and Abyei.”