Phillips, in coordination with Rev. John Sudan Gaduel of the indigenous South Sudan Operation Mercy, returned last weekend from a series of emergency crisis relief flights to two of the most devastated and neglected areas in southern Sudan's oil region. More than 51,000 pounds of food and emergency supplies were flown in by PPF for displaced Sudanese in two "Red-Insecure No-Go" areas.
"The people are so weak. There are about 50,000 people in Ruweng County and at least half are displaced, half are facing starvation," Phillips told Crosswalk.com during a phone interview. "It was so bad that people were pulling leaves off the trees and putting them in bowls and eating them. They are also eating insects and water lilies. They are resilient people, but they're just skin stretched over bones."
According to Phillips, the government of Sudan has specifically tried to starve the people into submission. To complicate matters, the United Nations has been blocking flights into the region, so, "because of security, because of convenience, because of politics, the people hadn't seen a relief plane in months."
Phillips says he still has not gotten over "the shock of seeing some of these people and just how desperate their situation was."
While in Koch, located in the Western Upper Nile region, the Persecution Project Foundation's team received first-hand testimony that confirms recently published reports by Christian Aid. These reports reveal Government of Sudan (GOS) atrocities, including the direct targeting of civilians and forced displacement of between 300,000 and 400,000 people in Western Upper Nile in Rubkoni, Mayom and Leer counties.
Fighting erupted two weeks ago south of Bentiu near Koch, displacing additional thousands of civilians. The United Nations announced a new flight ban on April 19 following the Southern People Liberation Army's defeat of GOS forces.
"It seems that there is a pattern here," says Phillips. The United Nations works hard to coordinate its flight bans in conjunction with Government of Sudan military objectives. Not only are they blocking the flow of relief to needy areas, they are helping provide cover for Government of Sudan's wanton destruction of human lives. The international donor community is supporting Sudan's 'oil-fueled' genocide, because the United Nations Operation Lifeline Sudan (UN-OLS) is coordinating everything with Khartoum," Phillips added. "That's why Persecution Project Foundation chooses to work outside the UN umbrella."
PPF sent its first crisis relief assessment team into the oil field areas of Upper Nile in September 2000. It has since delivered more than 171 metric tons (the equivalent of more than 376,200 pounds) of emergency relief including food, medicine, blankets, clothing, mosquito nets, cooking pots, fishing equipment hoes, axes, salt, soap, Bibles and other lifesaving supplies to internally displaced victims of the "oil-fueled" genocide in the most restricted access areas of Sudan's oil region.
The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) has also confirmed that a "potential humanitarian disaster is looming" in the remote Northeast Upper Nile region of Sudan. Servant's Heart, a American-based mission that partners with VOM, reports that recent attacks by the Government of Sudan have virtually destroyed the food supplies and seed stock in the region, placing the lives of at least 60,000 Sudanese civilians, many of whom are Christians, "in severe jeopardy."
Dennis Bennett, executive director of Servant's Heart said, "If the food and seed is not immediately replaced, the GOS will kill thousands of defenseless civilians in a slow and horrific manner."
With the rainy season rapidly approaching, it is feared that thousands may starve, in addition to the many who are being killed in government attacks in the region. These attacks by the Sudanese government have continued despite signing the agreement to not target civilian food supplies, hospitals or other health-related civilian targets, according to VOM.
The Voice of the Martyrs, in partnership with Servant's Heart, hopes to provide 100 metric tons of grain to the region before the rainy season starts in late May. The grain will be purchased from local farmers 100 km away from the area where the government of Sudan has been destroying the food and seed stocks, and then trucked overland to where it is needed.
According to Samaritan's Purse, the North Carolina-based international relief organization headed by Franklin Graham, an estimated 2 million southern Sudanese have been killed and some 4 million displaced due to war-related causes in the past 20 years. Samaritan's Purse has operated one of the largest hospitals in Sudan since 1997 and the only medical facility within 100 miles. The hospital has served more than 100,000 people who would otherwise have nowhere else to go for treatment.
Samaritan's Purse confirms that the Islamic terrorist regime "continues to intentionally attack civilian sites and relief projects, allow slave trade, and deny its southern citizens basic human rights."
PHOTOS courtesy of Persecution Project Foundation (c). May not be copied or reprinted.
