28/02/2025 (Nuba Mountains)
Catholic schools in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains region of South Kordofan are running but under difficult situations.
Saints Peter & Paul Primary School head-teacher Joseph Daud, said that the previous war in the region has made them to be defiant and that schools should run despite bombings.
In the past conflict in 2011, schools were targeted in aerial bombings where bombs felt just behind the school’s fence.
Mr Daud said that they dug foxholes around the school compound for the learners and teachers to shelter when there’s bombing. He emphasized that schools cannot stop operating because the Sudanese fighting is not coming to an end soon.
The head-teacher explained that learners do not have meals at school. “So classes start at 7:00 AM and close at 1:00 PM in order for learners to go back homes to take lunch” he stated.
The current civil war has led to loss of many lives through aerial bombardments by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), caused human sufferings, huge displacements of people into refugee camps and internally displaced persons (IDPs), hunger and starvation, malnutrition of children, lack of medical care, destruction of homes and property.
The civil war has forced many children into orphanage as their parents have been killed in the war.
Also, fighting and insecurity did not allow people to do farming last year. Because of this factor the food has not been enough.
Famine was officially declared in parts of the Nuba Mountains in December 2024, months after Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) said mass starvation was threatening its people, including the estimated 700,000 who have fled to the mountains since the war began.
The headteacher confirms that all schools under the Catholic Church are operational but do not have funding for teachers’ incentives and feeding programmes for pupils and students as it used to be in the past.
The learners do not have uniforms and scholastic materials, he adds.
Sudan’s Nuba Mountains’ region is experiencing bombing in Kadugli, capital of South Kordofan, Delling, Habila and many areas in the country.
On Tuesday this week many people were hit by aerial bombing in Dibibat market leaving several people dead, including women, children and elderly.
People have been warned of renewed aerial bombardments and long range missile attacks in the heart of Nuba Mountains.
The war broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF )and Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF )in the capital Khartoum, eventually spreading to the whole country.
Last Saturday, SPLM-N, RSF and a coalition of political and armed groups signed in Nairobi a charter that would pave the way for a “peace and unity” government in the hope of restoring democratic governance in Sudan.