LONDON, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- The Sudanese government is getting away with murder in South Kordofan, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said in a joint statement Tuesday.
Both rights groups sent researchers to the Nuba Mountains region of South Kordofan, which borders the newly independent nation of South Sudan, to investigate claims of atrocities in the area.
During their weeklong mission they found at least 26 civilians were killed during Sudanese airstrikes in the area. Sudan blames South Sudanese rebels for much of the violence amid accusations charging Khartoum with an ethnic-cleansing campaign in the southern state.
Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said the Sudanese bombing campaign is leaving maimed civilians, mass displacements and failed crops in its wake.
"The Sudanese government is literally getting away with murder and trying to keep the outside world from finding out," Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International's senior crisis response advisor, said in a statement. "The international community, and particularly the U.N. Security Council, must stop looking the other way and act to address the situation."
A 12-page report from the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights documented serious rights violations in South Kordofan. The report accuses the north's armed forces and the south's army of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and other atrocities.
Sudan's government recently called for a two-week cease-fire in South Kordofan. Sudanese Ambassador to the United Nations Dafalla al-Haj said reports of crimes in South Kordofan were based on hearsay.
