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Guile and Deception in the Sudanese Civil War by A Geibel 
The Battle of Wau - Guile and Deception in the Sudanese Civil War by Adam Geibel - Copyright 1999 The Sudan has been victim of almost continuous civil war since 1956 between the north and the south. When Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan al-Bashir assumed power in 1989, he began enforcing stricter Islamic law, banned opposition parties and jailed dissidents. As a result, rebels representing the south's Christians and animists renewed their battle for greater autonomy from the Muslim north. Little covered in the mainstream media are the battles between the SPLA and the Khartoum government, which rival those from the days of the Mahdi and "Chinese" Gorden. The city of Wau, with it's strategically significant airfield, is in the Sudan's south-western Bahr-el-Ghazal Province, some 300 kilometers from the Uganda border. By taking this population center, the SPLA would be able to lengthen Khartoum's already strained air umbrella over the country's south, as well as adding legitimacy to their own cause. The first clues to the Battle of Wau came to light on 23 January, 1998, when East Equatoria's governor, Abdallah Kafeloan, reported that an estimated 1,600 rebel fighters were defecting to the Khartoum government. The phenomenon of entire units defecting is not to the Sudan. Five days later, the SPLA made an evening announcement that its forces have taken Wau, the capital of Bahr el Ghazal and Southern Sudan's second-largest town. The 1,600 fighters had only been pretending to defect to Kerubino Kwanyin Bol so that they could attack from within the garrison town. According to the rebels, both the town and the railway terminus linking southern Sudan to Khartoum were taken in a hard-fought battle. SPLA spokesman Justin Yaac made several claims; that government planes were unable to land and turned back, that 108 government prisoners were taken, but the number of their casualties was unknown. Khartoum acknowledge the midnight SPLA attack, but claimed that only 500 rebels had been repulsed with heavy losses. On the 31st, the government army said that it had lost 23 men in the fighting, but still controlled the town. Later reports indicated that the rebels held the city proper for only three hours. On the 1st of February, following airstrikes on SPLA positions, the Sudanese army counterattacked rebels forces at the Wau airport. The next day, SPLA spokesmen claimed that their forces had captured the south-western town of Aweil, 150 km NW of Wau and were moving towards a government garrison just west of the town (this was apparently a pincer meant to draw off Khartoum's reinforcements and assets targeting Wau). The local business community had fled to the base for military protection. Meanwhile, "very heavy" fighting in Wau continued for a fourth day with government troops attacking with artillery support. On the 3rd, the rebels acknowledged that they had lost control of Wau's airport and military garrison. On the same day, another Sudanese opposition group announced that they had launched a dry season offensive and killed 60 government soldiers in an attack on an Eritrean border army camp. Deputy commander of the Sudan Alliance Forces (SAF), Brigadier Isam Mirghani, said the camp was assaulted on the 2nd as part of a co-ordinated offensive launched last week with the SPLA. In Khartoum, Sudanese army spokesman Gen. Sir al-Khatim was quoted as saying Eritrea had shelled areas in eastern Sudan recently. The Sudanese military said earlier that Eritrea artillery had shelled border areas near the town of Abu Gamel on Friday, killing three people and wounding 21. On the 4th, Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS), which groups UN and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), reported that more than 100,000 - 150,000 displaced people have fled the battle area in and around Wau. On the 5th, Khartoum banned OLS aid flights to the Bahr el-Ghazal region (primarily Wau and surrounding towns) a day after an operation started to assist up to people displaced by fighting. On the 9th, the World Food Program told told the media that food supplies were being airdropped to people in Bahr al Ghazel region who had fled Wau. On the 12th, Khartoum claimed that calm had been restored after the battle for Wau. Khartoum's soldiers were reported to have infiltrated a rebel position outside the town and captured a missile launcher and its five-man crew. On 2 April, the OLS welcomed a Khartoum government decision to allow relief flights to resume into all areas of Bahr el-Ghazal province, where 350,000 people were in need of urgent humanitarian assistance since the government suspended all flights into the region on February 4 following the outbreak of hostilities around Wau. By May, Wau was one of the few spots in the region still held by the government and if overrun, the other Sudanese government garrisons would have fallen one after the other. Wau was undergoing an almost permanent siege. Sustaining this garrison and the other critical southern base at Juba has become difficult and costly for Khartoum, since reinforcements and food come by a train from the north. The train creeps down the line at walking pace, protected by horseborn Islamic militia (Arabacised nomads)who fan out on either side, destroying anything in their way. By mid-month, SPLA columns were marching on the government garrison at Gogrial, with the next target Wau. On 22 May, Aid workers returning from south Sudan have reported that government cavalry had launched brutal attacks on rebel villages, looting and burning homes and killing civilians. They said dozens of civilians, mainly from Dinka tribe, had been killed in the raids which began in early May in Bahr el-Ghazal and continued until last weekend. The International Signifigance of Wau? Wau (07°42'N 27°59'E) was also allegedly the site of a Chemical Warfare facility built in 1995, located in a large former fruit processing factory taken over by the military. The Wau factory reportedly gave Khartoum the capability of using "home-grown" mustard gas against the rebels, thereby not implicating its allies in chemical warfare. Although the Wau facility was reportedly controlled by the Sudanese military, Iraqi technicians were said to work there,supervising safety and security procedures. Iraqi officers were also said to be in charge of the gas storage site. Production of mustard gas was said to have began in the Fall of 1995. The Iraqi team gradually handed over production to the Sudanese military but remained responsible for final phases of the manufacture of the gas and its safe storage. Nothing in the media was reported about this facility during the Battle for Wau, from which one can draw several conclusions. REFERENCES: Heavy fighting erupts over key Sudanese airport, CNN, January 31, 1998 Rebels Claim To Have CAPTURED AWEIL, MISNA, 2 FEB 1998 THE MISSIONARIES ARE SAFE BUT WAU RESEMBLES A GHOST TOWN, MISNA, 11 MAR 1998 Sudan rebels put war before want PETER BEAUMONT, Guardian, May 15, 1998 |