This book provides a comprehensive overview of the embattled Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan, where the Government of Sudan committed "genocide by attrition" in the early 1990s and where violent conflict reignited again in 2011. A range of contributors – scholars, journalists, and activists – trace the genesis of the crisis from colonial era neglect to institutionalized insecurity, emphasizing the failure of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement to address the political and social concerns of the Nuba people. This volume is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the nuances of the contemporary crisis in the Nuba Mountains and explore its potential solutions.

The conflict in the Nuba Mountains in central Sudan illustrates how state policies concerning the control of land can cause local conflicts to escalate into large scale wars, which become increasingly difficult to manage or resolve.

This volume documents the Sudanese government's campaign of genocidal attacks and forced starvation against the people of the Nuba Mountains in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Genocide by Attrition provides powerful insights and analysis of the phenomenon and bears witness to ongoing atrocities. This second edition features more interviews, a new introduction, and a revised and more detailed historical overview. Among the themes that link most of the interviews are: the political and economic disenfranchisement of the Nuba people by the government of Sudan; the destruction of villages and farms and the murder and deaths of the Nuba people; the forced relocation into so-called "peace camps" and the impact of forced starvation. The book also documents the frustration of the Nuba people at being left out of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed between the South and the North in 2005, President Omar al Bashir's threats against the Nuba people, and the crisis in the Nuba Mountains since June 2011. Genocide by Attrition provides a solid sense of the antecedents to the genocidal actions in the Nuba Mountains. It introduces the main actors, describes how the Nuba were forced into starvation by their government, and tells how those who managed to survive did so. Samuel Totten provides a valuable resource to study the imposition of starvation as a tool of genocide.

This collection of first-person accounts chronicles the experiences of 12 humanitarians who entered Sudan illegally to variously provide food, medical care and spiritual support to the besieged people of the Nuba Mountains. A diverse group of men and women of various ages, professions and religious beliefs, the chroniclers describe in detail the tragedies of the current war in the state of South Kordofan, their own close calls with death, and why they are committed to helping a little known group of people--Nuba civilians--as the United Nations, the African Union and all nongovernmental organizations are forbidden from crossing the border.

De Waal, ALex: The right to be Nuba. - S. 1-5. Saeed, Ahmed Abdel Rahman: The Nuba. - S. 6-20. Rodger, George: The Nuba of South Kordofan. - S. 21-23. Mekki, Yousif Kuwa: "Things were no longer the same". The story of Yousif Kuwa Meki in his own words. - S. 25-35. Rahhal, Suleiman Musa: Focus on crisis in the Nuba Mountains. - S. 36-55. Woodward, Peter: The state of Sudan today. - S. 56-58. Voices from the Nuba Mountains. - S. 59-84. Stewart-Smith, David: The survival of the Nuba. - S. 85-88. Kuku, Neroun Phillip A.: The Nub Relief Rehabilitation and Development Organisation (NRRDO). - S. 89-98. Mackie, Ian: Nuba agriculture. Poverty or plenty? - S. 99-102. Flint, Julie: Democracy in a war zone. The Nuba Parliament. - S. 103-112. Diraige, Ahmed Ibrahim: Unity in diversity. Is it possible in Sudan? - S. 113-114. Rahhal, Suleiman Musa: What peace for the Nuba? - S. 115-120.

"Nowhere has a range of case studies of Sudan been brought together in a single volume. Given the concern with the growing number and complexity of conflicts in Sudan and South Sudan there is a significant readership in academic circles and from those involved in humanitarian organisations of all kinds." Professor Peter Woodward, University of Reading "A timely contribution to an important set of debates ... tackles questions emerging from discussions about modernisation, urbanisation and globalisation from an explicitly local angle with regards to Sudan." Dr Harry Verhoeven, University of Oxford Sudan experiences one of the most severe fissures between society and territory in Africa. Not only were its international borders redrawn when South Sudan separated in 2011, but conflicts continue to erupt over access to land: territorial claims are challenged by local and international actors; borders are contested; contracts governing the privatization of resources are contentious; and the legal entitlements to agricultural land are disputed. Under these new dynamics of land grabbing and resource extraction, fundamental relationships between people and land are being disrupted: while land has become a global commodity, for millions it still serves as a crucial reference for identity-formation and constitutes their most important source of livelihood. This book seeks to disentangle the emerging relationships between people and land in Sudan. The first part focuses on the spatial impact of resource-extracting economies: foreign agricultural land acquisitions; Chinese investments in oil production; and competition between artisanal and industrial gold mining. Detailed ethnographic case studies in the second part, from Darfur, South Kordofan, Red Sea State, Kassala, Blue Nile, and Khartoum State, show how rural people experience "their" land vis- -vis the latest wave of privatization and commercialization of land rights. J rg Gertel is Professor of Economic Geography at Leipzig University; Richard Rottenburg is Chair of Anthropology at the University of Halle; Sandra Calkins is a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle