In Nubia, fears of another Darfur

Los Angeles Times (Edmund Sanders)

First, southern Sudan erupted in a 20-year civil war, followed by the east and, most recently, the western region of Darfur. Now many fear that Sudan's northern territory of Nubia will be the next to explode over the fight for resources and all-too-familiar accusations of "ethnic cleansing" and complaints of marginalization by an Arab-dominated government. . . .

The spark for recent unrest was a government proposal to construct two or three electricity-producing dams along the Nile in the Nubian heartland, between the villages of Kajbar, about 350 miles north of Khartoum, and Dal, about 100 miles from the Egyptian border. This fertile Nile River strip is home to an estimated 300,000 Nubians, many of whom would be forced to relocate if rising river waters swallowed scores of villages.

Also at risk are some of the world's richest archeological ruins, notably those around the ancient city of Kerma, the first Nubian capital, settled at least 8,000 years ago and lying just downstream from where the proposed 200-megawatt Kajbar dam would be built. The site is home to the oldest known man-made structure in sub-Saharan Africa: a 50-foot, 3,500-year-old mud-brick temple known as the Deffufa.

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Ancient civilization threatened


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