For residents in southern Sudan, the official return of the dry season brings with it the renewed threat of war.

As roads dry out, government forces and rebel groups have mobilised to resume fighting after peace talks between representatives from the two sides failed to reach an agreement in late November.

This week, the South Kordofan governor, Issa Adam, told press that 2016 would be the “final year of the conflict”, implying a potential intensification of fighting if armed groups continued to reject political dialogue.

During the last period of conflict, which usually starts in December as roads become passable after the rainy season, more than 2,000 bombs were dropped on civilian targets in the region, according to citizen reporters.



Residents had hoped that the warring sides – engaged in conflict since 2011 – would agree to cease hostilities and allow humanitarian aid into the worst hit areas of South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.



According to local humanitarian organisation, the Coordination Unit, an estimated 140,000 people in the two states face emergency threats of malnutrition and mortality.

Change of wind marks today as the end of rainy season in Nuba Mountains #Sudan hoping war changes to peace. pic.twitter.com/N2RVZUYNCt — hajooj kuka (@hajooj) December 7, 2015

In 2014, the violence between Omar al-Bashir’s government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) caused widespread devastation, destroying homes, farms, schools, churches and clinics.

Government forces were also reported to have bombed a Médecins Sans Frontières hospital twice, despite staff having informed officials of the work and GPS coordinates of their facility prior to the attacks.

Khalid Omer, a civil society representative present at the talks, said that the Addis meeting the last opportunity for a political settlement. “I see the collapse of the talks as a declaration of war by the government against the people,” he said.

I see the collapse of the talks as a declaration of war by the government against the people Khalid Omer

Thousands of people from the Nuba Mountains have been living in caves in order to escape airstrikes by Khartoum’s Armed Forces. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The region experienced relative calm after the 2005 deal between Bashir’s government and SPLM rebels, which led to South Sudan’s 2011 secession.

But fighters in South Kordofan and Blue Nile, known as SPLM-North, were left on the wrong side of the newly drawn border. In the lead-up to the split in 2011, conflict broke out again in these areas.

Aid

Observers present at the talks – held in Addis Ababa between 19-23 November, the 10th round since the war began – reported that humanitarian aid was a particularly thorny issue for both sides.



For years, aid has been used as a weapon of war by Sudanese authorities both on the front line and at the negotiating table, according to the human rights advocacy group the Enough Project.

In the Nuba Mountains, as the situation for civilians has deteriorated, issue of how food, medicine and other supplies reaches the region is becoming increasingly urgent.

“We want a process where there is multiple access to aid, a channel from El-Obeid by air, but also cross-border access from South Sudan and Ethiopia,” Yasir Arman, secretary general of the SPLM-N, said during the talks.

But Lt General Emad Adawi, part of the government delegation, said they would not allow aid to pass from abroad for fear the rebels would use the route to smuggle weapons.

Khartoum’s negotiators proposed humanitarian access contingent on the rebels allowing government troops to control areas along the South Sudanese border.

The SPLM-N rejected the offer, arguing the border has become a lifeline for the 70,000 people who have fled fighting in South Kordofan and have found refuge in Yida camp, which is situated just across the newly-drawn line in South Sudan.

“We believe that [the government] want to infiltrate our areas,” Arman said. “This is why we refused a land corridor and insisted that inside Sudan, we want aid to be delivered by air.”

New recruits for the Sudan People’s Liberation Army train in a secret camp in the Nuba mountains in 2011. Photograph: Trevor Snapp/AFP/Getty Images

Distrust of Khartoum’s aims is widespread. Gisma Adam, a schoolteacher in the Nuba Mountains, said: “You know we are not trusting [President Bashir]. What we are seeing on the ground are [government forces] killing people, bombing.”

“I can say that during these five years of war, people are suffering,” she explained, “but we are still surviving.”

Abdu Badawi, a farmer in the Nuba Mountains, fears that if aid came through El-Obeid, government forces could use their standing to further inflict suffering upon civilians.

“They can put poison in the food that is delivered to us. I think they only see us as the enemy,” he said.

A version of this article first appeared on Nuba Reports

