On Wednesday afternoon, a government warplane bombed a leading primary school in Kauda, Sudan, wounding a Kenyan teacher. A Sudanese Sukhoi jet dropped two parachute bombs into the compound of the St. Vincent Primary School, damaging classrooms and library.
“I don’t feel safe, it’s inhuman,” said a shocked sister Cinta Mutisya, a principal at the school from Kenya. Sponsored by Catholic churches in the US, several international staff from East Africa and Australia work at the school. This is not the first time the school had been attacked – jets had previously bombed the site in May last year.
“We just thank God that the children were not in the primary school because these metal pieces would have probably killed them,” Australian Education Coordinator Cathy Solano said. Only teachers were present since it was a correction day for exams.
Over the past month, Sudan has significantly increased aerial attacks on civilians in the rebel-controlled Heiban County, South Kordofan state –where Kauda is located. According to Nuba Reports, Sudan has dropped 68 bombs in Heiban County over the past month. On May 1, one bomb killed six children, aged 4 – 13 and wounded another civilian, sparking a national outcry protesting the incident. During the memorial service of the six children on May 23, another Sudanese jet dropped two bombs in the same area, wounding four more children and killing a 6-month old baby.
Civilians, especially children, have been routinely targeted in Sudan’s five-year civil war with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N) rebels in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, killing thousands and displacing nearly 400,000 people.
“Despite all the challenges, despite the hunger, despite the drought, despite the war, despite so many problems of poverty and yet they want to go to school,” Solana added. “They don’t deserve this, what have they done wrong? They have done nothing wrong.”
This article is republished with the kind permission of Nuba Reports