This report documents and places into context an intensification of armed attacks on civilians in key areas of Sudan’s contested oil region in Western Upper Nile during 2000 and 2001. The attacks were carried out by Government of Sudan (GoS) forces and local pro-government militias and by rebel forces of, or aligned with, the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) and the Sudan Peoples’ Democratic Front/Defence Force (SPDF). A significant new development in the period 2000-2001 was a higher number of direct attacks on civilians by

the armed forces of the Government of Sudan.