Photo credit: Ann Curry
By Ann Curry
NBC News anchor
Climbing into Sudan's Nuba Mountains I turned and saw her standing above me, in a dress so clean and white it seemed out of place with her surroundings.
Something about her seemed at once strong, even heroic and yet achingly vulnerable. She didn't move as I raised my camera to take a picture of her and the sleeping baby she carried: two children among thousands, and perhaps tens of thousands living in caves to survive the relentless bombing.
Photo credit: Ann Curry
Photo credit: Ann Curry
Even small children know to run at the sound of the government's Antonov warplanes. Our news team had just sat down in at the mouth of a cave when the plane's "Whoooo woooooh" sound grew very loud. Suddenly children and adults started scrambling inside, tripping and falling on top of each other in a silent fear. It is odd, I realized, how quiet children are here, uttering not a word even at this moment.
All we heard was 89-year-old Cooli Kafi Darbar praying. Cooli is a former school teacher, who has been credited with translating the Bible into Kronga, the language of the Nuba people.
His quiet prayer translated, "The God of Isaac and Abraham, thank you for everything, for suffering and for blessings."
Hearing this, his 64-year-old daughter Hanna began to stare, seemingly at some memory, before she started to cry. Then she parted her lips and sang, "Why can't I find any comfort in this world," tears rolling down her left cheek and dropping off her chin.
It is a good question.
Photo credit: Ann Curry
The Nuba are being bombed nearly every day now by their own government that seems intent on clearing them from these mountains.
When the people of South Sudan fought for independence from the government of President Omar al-Bashir (the same President Bashir who the International Criminal Court has accused of genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur), the Nuba fought with them. But when territorial lines were drawn, the Nuba were left on what they considered the wrong side of the border.
Photo credit: Ann Curry
Sudan's government says it is fighting an insurgency. We met Nuba rebels who showed us the artillery they said they'd confiscated from government troops, but they insisted their people were attacked first.
People say government military units called the "Abu Tiera," led by Ahmed Harun (also accused by the ICC of crimes against humanity in Darfur), went door to door, targeting only Nuba homes with systematic rape, murder and kidnappings while leaving Arabs untouched.
There are no accurate numbers of how many people may have disappeared, but some experts say satellite images are consistent with reports of mass graves.
Brigadier General Nimori Morat told us, "We are fighting just to live."
Photo credit: Ann Curry
The United Nations estimates that in the Nuba Mountains, and in the neighboring states that have also been attacked in the wake of South Sudan’s independence, 585,000 people have been displaced.
This seems to be a war over territory and, in one area, over oil, but it appears to have also unleashed ethnic cleansing.
"They say our skin is like charcoal," the elderly Cooli told us. Another woman who survived an attack said, ”They called us dogs and said we are the only people because we are Arabs and you are Nuba."
Photo credit: Ann Curry
Photo credit: Ann Curry
How could a war such as this be largely unknown to the rest of the world?
Journalists are not allowed into the Nuba Mountains. It was only because we snuck across the border that we reached the caves, and even then, we were wary of bombs and Sudan military units a few kilometers away. Ultimately we had to leave the same night because it was unsafe, we were told, to stay.
Sure enough, some of the places where we had been were attacked at sunrise and there appeared to be an effort to cut off the road into the Nuba Mountains completely. How will the people in the mountains survive this war, and soon, the potential famine that will result from being unable to plant their crops? Humanitarian aid has also been cut off from the mountains.
Photo credit: Ann Curry
While the international community wonders what, if anything, can be done, we saw a boy in a refugee camp wearing, of all things, an Obama t-shirt.
And we heard several people, including children, thank us for taking their picture. If they are going to suffer, and even die, they at least want the world to know what is happening here.
Photo credit: Ann Curry
Leave a Comment:
#George Richards, God works through his people, his body. But he also allows people to exercise their free will. We've seen where that leads. People like Ryan and many others I have personally met are making a difference, doing something, in obedience to a God that calls us to action. It's easy to say God does nothing when we sit and wait for what? For God to send bolts of lightning? God clearly commands us to love, to act, to bring change. He empowers us to do it if we chose to obey. I wish you could see the difference that many obedient faithful are making in the Nuba Mountains and elsewhere. True, simple and sincere faith in action. It would blow you away. What are we, on the other side of the world, doing to help them? How are we obeying God's clear call to love mercy, act justly and walk humbly?
#Amunaka: seeing is believing right? If you saw what I have seen, if you met the people I have met, perhaps it would change your perspective. When you have nothing but God to rely on and he delivers, one's skepticism can only be shattered. I hope you get to hear some of these stories. Peace.
The fear and hardship these people are going through is terrible. I hate feeling helpless with a chronic illnes and unable to help others who need help from other people so desperately. Although not the best shelter, I'm glad these people do have the caves to dwell in; but they're so threatened and it's terrible. We think other nations and the way they treat their brethren are terrible, but so many areas in Africa have been in turmoil for so long now. Whether it was Rwanda, Darfur, now the Sudan and other areas; how can this change for these people? It's enough killing and starvation already, they have just as much right to live a free life; as the monsters who are constantly after them! If we cannot intervene as private citizens, it would be a good idea for I/we; to keep them in our prayers and thoughts that this will somehow turn around for them.
NBC of course want's to hide the fact that these African natives are being slaughtered Arab Muslims because they are Christian. In fact Christians are being burned alive and slaughtered in their churchs, on the street and in their homes throughout the Muslim World. SOS Hillary Clinton conspired against US at the UN promoting Global laws that will make it illegal for anyone to criticize Islam and for the global banning of small arms while she and the Obama-Soros Marxist cartel allow Islam to conquere the worlld. Israel is in great danger and so are true Christians. Thanks for being Obama's campaign head quarters NBC- are you happy with the results?
ann, thanks for a great report. bob would be so proud of your efforts
As many comment on this as a Muslim Christian conflict it would be good to read the history of religion and Africa. Conflicts are happening in all parts of the world for different reasons. Ryan and his wife are more like Solomon and Sheba as religion isn't as important as God and love. Few bother to even understand but rather argue over religion. Africa has been in conflict for so long and as long as greed is power it will continue. The United Nations should step up and do their job and help the victims of Nuba. The people first need to be moved to safety. We see how US Law Makers are busy playing doctor with women's bodies and working on a George Washington holiday after spending a year naming Post Offices. Hillary is working alone as she handles the Middle East and fines peace with North Korea. The Republican chairwomen Ros-Lehtinen who is head of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs has turned a blind eye to this horror but busy trying to get the US to invade Iran for Israel. Again people call for President Obama to do Congresses job and help the people of Nuba. Ann did a great job in her report and Ryan should bring this to the attention of the UN and the State Department because other Law Makers aren't interested.
if Ann Curry is talking about it, I'm not listening.
absolute blech.
I like Ann Curry even if her politics are not mine but I would venture to say her motives for going there are not entirely to save people. Journalists are infamous for wanting that "big story" and this is one of those. I echo other comments that with her money and that of other VERY rich TV "liberal" journalists she could do alot for those people. Unfortunately throwing money at such problems normally does very little as the culture overshadows the financial help. We here are lucky (for now) that our European culture has dictated more of a respect for life than the cultures of the third world. Until that changes very little can be done for this type of behavior.
Ann, thank you for an accurate report of the genocide taking place in the Nuba Mountains. I just returned in January from a medical mission trip to the areas of Werkok and Bor in South Sudan. It was in this area of South Sudan where the vast majority of The Lost Boys & Girls of Sudan fled their villages due to the same attacks of rape and murder from the Arabs in northern Sudan during the Sudanese Civil War.
I went to South Sudan representing the mission groups Cutting Edge Foundation and Partners in Compassionate care as an amateur photojournalist. While shooting and documenting stories I was told by my South Sudanese translator that the reason the people allow for their photos to be taken is because they believe we (Americans) will send help. That cut me to my core! Ann, please use your influence to send help. Thank you for a great story.
Pray for the country of Sudan, and pray for those who are here in the USA that have less faith than those who are in Sudan and continues to believe that God is good in spite of the suffering they are going through.
Thank you Ann for this incredible story and for having the courage and determination to bring it to us. Bless you and all the people in Sudan
Finally, the media is picking up this story. Bashir has killed so many more innocent civilians than Sadam Hussein, Kadaffi, and Syria's Al-Assad combined, and yet it's rarely mentioned in the news and receives little, if any, notice from our politicians or leaders in the UN. I've done some volunteer work for an organization called The Persecution Project, which has worked for years to help the people of Darfur, South Sudan and now the Nuba people. If ever there was a need for intervention, this is it. One quick sortie into North Sudan to bomb their airfields and thousands of lives would be saved in Nuba. Bashir is a racist of the worst order and a danger to the people in the region. I don't generally support military involvement in other's business and wouldn't support a protracted involvement, but we have a chance to use a little of the military strength that we have to do some good here.
This piece is EXACTLY like the NYT story/video, except Nicholas Kristof turned into Ann Curry. There is a god after all!
The Arab/Moslem dictatorship controlling Sudan is waging a genocidal war against the African resident's of Sudan to drive them out of their home country and to steal their lands. The criminal Arab/ Moslem regime consists of descendents of the invasion forces who conquered Sudan, and still oppress the descendents of the original population. The Arab/Moslems are guilty of forced conversions, mass murder, violent repression, wholesale kidnapping, ethnic cleansing, and slavery.
Now what? The country now knows innocent people are being slaughtered. Do we have to wait until they strike oil in the Nuba Mountains before we help these people?
Don't recall getting any oil from iraq or kuwait. What's with the oil thing with you people. The chinese and europe get oil from there and they don't have to send their taxes and young men there to die and still get it and we don't. Also they don't have to watch their leader suck everyone's azz.
Everyone posting should view the "The Lost Boys of Sudan". A documentary about how Christian Sudanese children carried out a vast exodus out of Sudan so as not be butchered as their relatives were by invading Muslim terrorists. The U.S. admitted a number of them to allow them to pursue citizenship but most were left behind in UN refugee camps. The story of Christian refugees has been largely under reported.
there is always a solution, several solutions. it is more an issue of how much one is willing to pay. what incentive would the only countires with a moral backbone have to do what is right, what would have been right decades ago? it would be propagandized as a war for oil, a war against muslims, a war against black people, etc. many of these voices would be from within.when there is soemthing about the holocuast and somebody says¨never again¨, i think how idiotic that person is.
Well the only further middle eatern people we should take are beleaguered Christians ,otherwise,we don't need anymore anything but oil.
Here's the scoop. The arabs are in the northern part of sudan and they kill the blacks in the southern part. Or they get black tribes to kill other blacks. They do it with mostly russian weapons. That's the way the ruskies fight the new cold war. They support the killers and then hope good old naive America will get embroiled in a no win situation like afhganistan and viet nam. It's a horrible world and it won't get fixed as this is the human condition from the beginning of man. If not them, then it will be someone else. Can't keep throwing our kids and money into the world's meat grinder.
I am so sick of reading the comments on here about how this is a religious war. This is not a religious war, it is racial/tribal. People can be ignorant. Talking their opinions on here shows clearly their lack of education and compassion. If you'd ever take the time to look in to the Islam religion it is not evil. In every single religion there are people who take it to a darkside or extreme. There is terrorist that are not Muslims we shouldn't blame all muslims and group them all as a whole. Wish people would just wake up and actually learn about something before talking a bunch of crap.
Bullsh!t. There are a couple instances of other religion's doing dark things but the majority of the mooslums do dark things. Also when someone gets out of line the others in that religion do something about it. The other musys don't do jack. Quit talking about education as you need a reality check.
I feel sorry for those people but I don't care about them and will not send them a dime. I am too busy trying to survive like everyone else. If I ever make a couple of mil a year perhaps I'll help them. Let Anne Curry give them money. She may be the most boring woman on TV, like a robot.
I understand how you feel, and it is sad that most of us feel that way. I think we've become numb, because we've been drawn into so many unjust wars over the years, that when a genuine and justified need for intervention occurs, we shrug our shoulders and say "not again". In some ways, the women and children of Nuba are additional victims of Bush's unjust wars. I'm not a fan of Ann Curry's presentation either, but at least she is addressing a real news story, that way too many in the media are ignoring. Keep in mind that what you consider as just surviving, in this country, is so much better than these poor people will ever be able to experience. You're worrying about where the next money for your mortgage will come from. They're worrying about where the next volley of shells will be coming from. We are so fortunate in this country.
You are dead wrong james. I work with a real "Lost Boy" and Bush helped them more than any other leader in the world.
Thank you so much for airing this report.
News received this morning:
NCP Security unleashes an all out terror on Nuba
Following the recent military victory of the gallant forces of the Sudan Revolutionary Front against the Bashir's jihad army in Southern Kordofan, the NCP security has unleached brutal terror on the Nuba people in Khartoum and Northern region. Security forces took out girls as young as 10 years old in Dongola and Wadi Halfa, and also 150 university girls from the domitories. These women and girls were subjected to sexual violence and raping. The young Nuba are being lynched. T he situation is so bad that two girls are reported to have committed suicide before they were raped.
The NCP is also intensifying its military violence by bringing in more mercenaries/jihadists and more arms fro Iran. Yesterday, 50 mounted vehicles have been despatched from Khartoum to Southern Kordofan and the NCP government has asked 10 Northern states to each bring 10,000 popular defence forces to be sent to Darfur.
The regime has also levelled northern political parties that are against the war as traitors. Bashir has appointed Sadiq El Mahadi to mobilise political parties and other Islamic nations as well as the west (USA and allies). Sadiq is seen as a pro-western politician and is being brought in so as to neutralise the USA, UK and their allies not to be vocal against the genocide and human rights violation of NCP.
Sadiq is also on records as a human rights violator as he organised the Zein massacre of 1987. So, there is a unity of murderers.
Thank you so much for airing this report.
News received this morning:
NCP SECURITY UNLEASHES ALL-OUT TERROR ON NUBA
Following the recent military victory of the gallant forces of the Sudan Revolutionary Front against the Bashir's jihad army in Southern Kordofan, the NCP security has unleached brutal terror on the Nuba people in Khartoum and Northern region. Security forces took out girls as young as 10 years old in Dongola and Wadi Halfa, and also 150 university girls from the domitories. These women and girls were subjected to sexual violence and raping. The young Nuba are being lynched. T he situation is so bad that two girls are reported to have committed suicide before they were raped.
The NCP is also intensifying its military violence by bringing in more mercenaries/jihadists and more arms fro Iran. Yesterday, 50 mounted vehicles have been despatched from Khartoum to Southern Kordofan and the NCP government has asked 10 Northern states to each bring 10,000 popular defence forces to be sent to Darfur.
The regime has also levelled northern political parties that are against the war as traitors. Bashir has appointed Sadiq El Mahadi to mobilise political parties and other Islamic nations as well as the west (USA and allies). Sadiq is seen as a pro-western politician and is being brought in so as to neutralise the USA, UK and their allies not to be vocal against the genocide and human rights violation of NCP.
Sadiq is also on records as a human rights violator as he organised the Zein massacre of 1987. So, there is a unity of murderers.
In order for both North and South Sudan to leave in peace, Omar should be replace. El Bashire has become a major problem. At what stage will the world say enough is enough for this murder?
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