Battle rages around UN Military Observers in southern Sudan

By Lieutenant (Navy) Paul Morrison

The United Nations Military Observers (UNMOs) serving with the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) at the teamsite in Malakal will never forget the last week of February 2009, when the region was engulfed in a battle fought with weapons ranging from small arms to main battle tanks.

Located on the banks of the White Nile, Malakal is the capital of Upper Nile State in southeast central Sudan. It is dominated by three armed groups: the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA, the regular force in this area), with about 4,000 troops in two divisions deployed around the region, and two Joint Integrated Units (JIUs), each with about 1,500 troops.

Created under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the JIUs stood up all over Sudan in 2005. They are made up of soldiers from militias operating in the area where they are based, some associated with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF, the army of the Muslim Arab national government, with its power base in the north) and others from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA, the black African and mostly Christian army of the south). The JIUs were intended to be the basis of a national army for a unified Sudan.

The Malakal JIUs, called the SAF JIU and the SPLA JIU, are misleadingly labelled. First, they are anything but joint or integrated — they camp at opposite ends of town and generally avoid each other. Also, the soldiers of both units are southerners, members of two ethnic groups with a long-standing rivalry. Tribal issues are paramount in Malakal politics. Consequently, when the civil war began, the tribes aligned with the opposing factions and carried on their feud within the larger conflict.

Late in the evening of 23 February 2009, we — the Malakal UNMOs — learned that SAF General Gabriel Tang was in Malakal. General Tang is commonly regarded as the instigator of the November 2006 battle that claimed more than 150 lives.

The battle begins

At 2230 hours, Major Ahmed Ibrahim, an Egyptian UNMO living in Malakal, radioed the teamsite duty officer to report that he saw troops in town and believed they were SPLA regulars. At about 0830 the next morning, Maj Ibrahim was back on the radio reporting small-arms fire near his house, and the sound of tanks on the move.

I am the G1 (personnel officer) and one of only two anglophones on the team, so I got on the radio and started calling all 36 UNMOs posted to Malakal. Eighteen of them were in town, concentrated in three houses. They were told to stay indoors and wait to be escorted to safety.

The small-arms fire continued until 0900, when T-55 tanks deployed by the SPLA along two of the main roads began to fire their heavy machine-guns and main armament. The teamsite’s force protection — provided by the Indian Army — took their three BMP armoured personnel carriers to defend the U.N. air installation at Malakal Airport, where they arrived at about 0930. At 0950, they began receiving small-arms fire, but stood fast until mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades began falling on the airport. They then withdrew to defend the teamsite.

At the teamsite, three kilometres away from the airport, we could see the bombardment and recognize that the fire was very inaccurate. (Later, we learned that some mortar crews simply fired into the air with no idea where the rounds would land.) We put on our flak jackets and helmets. As the attack continued, we received reports of rounds landing in villages on the other side of the Nile, missing the airport by more than a kilometre.

Convoy out of Malakal

At about 1030, an SPLA battalion began to assault the JIU Headquarters camp with small arms, heavy machine-guns and mortars. At 1045, UNMOs living north of the JIU HQ reported explosions right in front of their house, followed by the passage of two SPLA tanks. At the same time, I was on the radio with one of the UNMOs in a house right next to the SAF JIU camp on the north side of Malakal. A firefight raging around them, they all lay on their bellies on the floor (the house has no basement) as tanks manoeuvred outside their front door. An RPG exploded so close to the back wall that fragments scattered inside.

At 1115 the teamsite leader ordered me to broadcast to all UNMOs to get ready for evacuation. One group reported that the fighting was still heavy in town, especially around their house, so the initial plan was to deploy Force Protection Company with their BMPs. In the end, only two BMPs left camp at 1515, and the UNMOs in Malakal had to drive to the teamsite in their personal vehicles (none of them armoured, of course) in a convoy escorted by the two armoured vehicles, one at each end of the column. The risk of getting caught in crossfire was enormous, but the convoy arrived at the teamsite without incident.

The evacuated UNMOs told us how exploding ordnance and the discharge of heavy weapons literally shook their houses on their foundations. Some who had been under fire before said this experience was worse than combat because it was so random and unpredictable; most shots fired in this clash were aimed poorly, if at all, and the UNMOs understood that it was simply a matter of chance that none of their houses were hit.

One group of UNMOs reported a particularly disturbing incident. Realizing that the SPLA had occupied their neighbourhood and would probably target SAF personnel, including the National Monitors (liaison personnel from each of the opposing factions), they went to the SAF accommodations and offered the SAF National Monitor the protection of the U.N. flag. On their way to the U.N. house, they were seen by an SPLA soldier who seized the SAF National Monitor and executed him right there on the street.

Tiptoeing into a tribal throwdown

The next day, 25 February, I was assigned to a patrol tasked to go into Malakal to pick up aid workers from the World Food Programme and GOAL Ireland who missed the evacuation convoy. We were also to assess the security situation, especially troop movements. The patrol leader was Lieutenant-Colonel Aldo Pulgar of Peru, and we were accompanied by a U.N. Police officer, Arild Smedsvik of Norway.

We had Force Protection Company’s three BMPs, so I could choose my seat: either on the benches in the back, with no windows, or on top in the crew commander’s hatch. I put on my flak jacket and helmet, climbed up on top, and got my camera ready.

On the main road, we saw the first signs of troops about one kilometre out of town: an SPLA battalion had established a defensive line across the fields. From the dead soldiers still lying where they fell, we concluded that the fighting continued. The road was blocked by a truck armed with a heavy machine-gun and we expected to be stopped, but the soldiers made room for us and waved as we passed through. Near the airport, we saw SPLA in company strength sheltering behind a drainage ditch dug only the week before. In hindsight, it seems suspicious that a drainage ditch was dug in the middle of the dry season in a perfect spot for a defensive line.

Once the patrol was in Malakal, residents of the side streets began to come out of their tukuls (thatched houses) and yards to wave at us. In stark contrast, the main streets were nearly empty, except for SPLA soldiers who had established defensive positions at main intersections throughout town. At the largest one, we saw a company of troops with two vehicle-mounted heavy machine-guns, two mortars and several RPG launchers. Turning into a side street, we saw a T-55 tank two blocks away, likely the same tank that was in action the day before. It sat in the middle of the road with its main gun pointed directly up the street we had just turned off.

The GOAL Ireland and World Food Programme compounds were two blocks apart in the same side street. We reached GOAL first, and the development workers promptly got themselves into their vehicle and joined the convoy between the BMPs. There was a delay at the World Food Programme compound, where two more vehicles were being prepared to join us, and the BMPs had to stop in the middle of an intersection.

Almost immediately, small-arms fire erupted very close behind us, and all the civilians watching us in the street disappeared into their fenced yards. Suddenly we were all alone, wondering if there was more to come, but we could not see anyone with a weapon. We decided that the shots were warning us to get out of there. When we finally got under way, we saw SPLA soldiers approaching.

With the convoy complete, we headed back to the teamsite, staying on the side streets to avoid confrontations. We arrived safe and sound with more than 20 aid workers, the last international staff evacuated to the teamsite from Malakal.

Lt(N) Paul Morrison of HMCS Montréal, based at CFB Halifax, is currently deployed on Operation SAFARI as a United Nations Military Observer serving with the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS). He is assigned to the Malakal teamsite in southern Sudan.