The South Sudan Thread

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Claims that South African soldiers in Sudan are not getting their fortnightly allowance from the United Nations are unfounded, the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) said on Monday.

Brig-Gen Xolani Mabanga said the claims were part of a campaign by the SA National Defence Union (Sandu) to discredit the SANDF.

"There is no way that the UN system can fail the troops of contributing countries," said Mabanga.

However, Sandu spokesman Pikkie Greeff accused Mabanga of defamation.

"He... does not know what he is talking about. Women deployed in the force cannot buy their toiletries. We are raising a legit concern here," he said.

Two soldiers deployed in Sudan had complained in the past two weeks that they had not been paid their allowances.

UN planes had been unable to get clearance to land near the soldiers' base so they could be paid in cash.

Greeff said there were no ATM facilities in the region.

"The soldiers need to buy water and other essentials so they can live. The [cellphone reception] is also bad, so you cannot always get hold of the troops on the line."

He said the South African troops had been in Sudan for over a year and it was the first time that this happened.


Source : Sapa /mom/hdw/clh/jk
Date : 22 Apr 2013 15:27
 
Last edited:
The UN is one of the most corrupt organisations worldwide (Surpassing some developing world governments). It is concievable that according to the records, they have been paid when in actuality someone else has been collecting on their behalf
 
South Sudan Failing after two years of Freedom: Activists

South Sudan is guilty of widespread human rights abuses and awash with corruption, campaigners warned on the second anniversary of the country's independence Tuesday.

US activists who backed the split from Sudan claimed in a letter that the fledgling country faces "an increasingly perilous state".

Signatories of the letter, which accuses the new country of failing its own people and repeating the mistakes of previous rulers before independence, include John Prendergast, a former director for African affairs at the White House's National Security Council.

"Many people in South Sudan are suffering, yet government officials seem to care only about themselves," reads the letter, also signed by former US State Department officials including Ted Dagne, a former advisor to the government.

"We joined you in your fight against these very abuses by the Khartoum regime for many years," they wrote in the letter, which is addressed to South Sudan's President Salva Kiir.

"We cannot turn a blind eye when yesterday's victims become today's perpetrators," they said.

The activists, who call themselves the "Friends of South Sudan", also said there was "clear evidence of massive corruption" and urged "profound reform".

South Sudan split from Sudan on July 9, 2011, after its people voted overwhelmingly for independence in a referendum six months earlier, part of a 2005 peace deal that ended one of Africa's longest civil wars.

The oil-rich but grossly impoverished region -- wracked by war for almost five decades -- was born as one of the least developed nations in the world.

Kiir has suspended several key officials over corruption allegations and launched national reconciliation efforts, but the activists were scathing as to the state of the nation.

"After almost nine years of self-rule, the government is still failing to meet the basic needs of its people," the letter added.

"Despite claims that vast sums have been expended on investment in infrastructure, there is very little to show in the way of roads, medical services, and education for millions of South Sudanese who greeted the prospect of independence with eagerness and hope."

Tensions with former arch-foes in Sudan remain, with the two nations clashing in brutal border skirmishes last year following bitter arguments over oil.

South Sudan has also been battling several rebel militia forces, some of whom Juba accuses of being backed by Khartoum, others the legacy of years of civil war.

But the activists accused Juba of targeting groups based on their ethnicity or because they oppose the current leadership.

"Over the past several years -- but the last six months in particular --South Sudan government security forces have engaged in a campaign of violence again civilians simply because they belonged to a different ethnic group or they are viewed as opponents of the current government," the letter read.

"This violence is shocking and has included rape, murder, theft and destruction of property."


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 09 Jul 2013 12:13
 
200 People wounded in South Sudan Tribal Clashes

Some 200 civilians have been wounded in ongoing clashes between rival tribes in South Sudan's largest state, according to a United Nations official who is urging the central government and local officials to stop "the cycle of violence" that has killed many people and displaced thousands.

The most critically wounded are now being treated in the capital of Jonglei state, where there is a rebel insurgency against the central government, Toby Lanzer, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan, said in a statement late Sunday.

The mix of ethnic clashes and a military assault against rebels in Jonglei has attracted the attention of humanitarian workers who have had little or no access to the area. On Sunday aid groups were able to get to Pibor - the county in Jonglei that is the epicenter of violence - for the first time this year.

Lanzer's statement said fighting in Pibor has forced thousands to flee into the bush. It urged all the warring groups to "ensure that aid organizations continue to have impartial, unconditional and unhindered access to civilians in need throughout the state."

South Sudan's army spokesman, Col. Philip Aguer, said the Murle and Lou Nuer tribes constantly clash over cattle thefts, conflicts that date back to the colonial era and which he said are hard to police. Aguer has described the clashes as a "communal" issue that cannot be resolved by military action.

"The government of South Sudan is struggling to encourage dialogue among the communities," Aguer said.

South Sudan's army is also in Pibor county battling a rebel militia led by a renegade colonel named David Yau Yau. Aid workers and rights groups have accused both the South Sudanese military and Yau Yau's rebel group of abusing civilians and denying them access to humanitarian assistance. The U.S. Embassy in South Sudan has criticized the central government for not doing more to stop the ethnic clashes.

Instability in Jonglei and South Sudan as a whole is due in part to easy access to weapons. A government disarmament campaign launched in Jonglei last year ended up boosting insecurity and was accompanied by abuses against civilians, according to a United Nations report released last year.

---

Associated Press writer Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda, contributed to this report.


Source : Sapa-AP /pk
Date : 15 Jul 2013 11:43
 
African Union Probes Rival Sudan Rebel Allegations

African nations launched an investigation on Monday into allegations by Sudan and South Sudan that they are supporting rebels operating in each other's territory, the African Union said.

The AU and east African bloc, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), launched the investigative panel in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

The three senior military officers begin work about two weeks before an August 7 deadline from Khartoum to shut down a pipeline carrying South Sudanese oil for export.

In a surprise move in early June, Sudan gave companies 60 days to stop transporting oil from South Sudan after President Omar al-Bashir accused the Juba government of backing rebels in the north.

Juba denies supporting the insurgents and in turn says Khartoum assists rebels on its soil.

Also on Monday, regional nations began determining the centreline of a demilitarised buffer zone that is to straddle the undemarcated border between the two countries.

"The launch of these mechanisms underscores the seriousness with which the African Union and IGAD regard relations between Sudan and South Sudan," the AU said.

"Since 2010, Africa has been working tirelessly to promote two mutually viable states, and these current allegations threaten this objective, and in fact pose a threat to regional peace and security."


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 22 Jul 2013 15:42
 
South Sudan Calls for Calm as President Sacks Government

Heavily armed South Sudanese troops and police guarded key government institutions in the capital Juba Wednesday, as radio broadcasts called for calm after the president suspended his cabinet.

Those removed include two of the young country's most influential leaders -- the vice president, Riek Machar, as well as Pagan Amum, the secretary-general of the ruling party, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).

The sackings have sparked concern over potential instability in the fledgling nation, awash with guns, riven by ethnic rivalries and still reeling from decades of war.

"We are asking our citizens, please do your duty and go to work," said Barnaba Marial Benjamin, who until his suspension late Tuesday was the information minister and government spokesman.

All 29 ministers were suspended as well as their deputies, in addition to 17 police brigadiers.

"Give the president a chance to form his government... he has already empowered the technocrats to see the day-to-day running of the administration," Benjamin said in a broadcast on the United Nations-supported Radio Miraya.

Troops and armed police blocked several key roads in Juba, with a heavy deployment at the government ministry complex, but the city was reported calm, army spokesman Philip Aguer said.

"This is routine work, they are being deployed to protect the ministries," Aguer told AFP.

Many of the ministers were key figures in the rebel SPLM or its armed wing that fought a brutal 1983-2005 war against the government in Khartoum, which led to a 2011 referendum in which South Sudan voted overwhelmingly to split from the north.

Machar, from the Dok Nuer people from the key oil producing Unity state, is a controversial figure for many, but commands loyalty among many branches of the Nuer, which form an integral part of the footsoldiers of the new nation's ex-rebel army.

He has made no secret of his desire to challenge Kiir for the presidency in elections due in 2015.

However, he fought on both sides of the civil war, leading a splinter SPLM faction that sided with Khartoum, battling troops commanded by Kiir, who comes from the Dinka people.

Machar's troops are accused of a brutal massacre in the ethnic Dinka town of Bor in 1991.

Amum was the top negotiator with arch-foes Sudan at long-running African Union-mediated talks over a raft of issues left unresolved at independence, including border demarcation and oil exports, currently under threat of suspension again, this time by Khartoum.

The suspended party leader is to be also investigated for alleged "mismanagement of the party" by a parliamentary committee, the presidential orders broadcast on state radio said.

No replacements have been announced, and it was not immediately clear whether all those suspended would return, or if new blood would be brought in to replace them.

While Juba has been rife with rumours in recent weeks about a potential reshuffle by Kiir -- especially concerning tense relations with his deputy Machar -- the move still took those involved by surprise.


Source : Sapa-AFP /pk
Date : 24 Jul 2013 09:45
 
Sudan Rebels Claim Attack Ahead of Oil Deadline

Sudanese rebels said they attacked government forces in North Kordofan on Wednesday, days before a Khartoum deadline to halt South Sudan's oil exports over allegations it is backing the insurgents.

The Justice and Equality Movement, a Darfur-based group which is part of a wider rebel alliance, said it attacked a military convoy at Sidrah, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of El Rahad town.

"Fighting is still going on," JEM spokesman Gibril Adam Bilal told AFP.

Sudan's army spokesman could not immediately be reached.

The JEM and the various factions of the Sudan Liberation Army in Darfur belong to the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), an alliance with insurgents fighting in South Kordofan state south of Sidrah, and in Blue Nile.

The SRF staged its first joint operation in April, sweeping through a previously peaceful part of North Kordofan near Sidrah as part of coordinated attacks in the region.

Analysts said those rebel strikes humiliated the authorities, who took a month to retake one of the seized areas, Abu Kershola.

In June, Khartoum gave oil companies until August 7 to stop transporting crude from South Sudan through a Sudanese export pipeline after President Omar al-Bashir accused the Juba government of backing the rebels in the north.

Juba denies supporting the insurgents and in turn says Khartoum assists rebels on southern soil.

Observers say in reality both governments have aided each other's rebels.


Source : Sapa-AFP /pk
Date : 24 Jul 2013 11:29
 
South Sudan Timeline

Key events in the brief, turbulent history of South Sudan, where troops deployed in the capital on Wednesday and calls for calm were broadcast by radio after the president sacked his cabinet:

2011

- July 9: South Sudan proclaims full independence after two decades of civil war in which some two million people died. Its capital is Juba, and Salva Kiir is sworn in as its first president.

The new state, which is landlocked, takes with it the bulk of Sudan's oil resources, but it remains dependent on the Sudanese government in Khartoum for the infrastructure needed to export them.

- November 5: Khartoum lodges a complaint with the UN Security Council over South Sudan's alleged support for rebels in its states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, which border the South. The latter denies it is backing the rebels.

- Late December: UN officials say at least 600 people are killed in ethnic clashes in the east of South Sudan, local officials say the toll is much higher.

2012

- January 13: South Sudan signs its first oil export contracts, with Chinese, Indian and Malaysian companies. But a week later, amid a continuing row with Khartoum over transit fees, it orders the shutdown of oil production.

- March 26-27: Fierce clashes erupt in the oil-rich Heglig border region, with each side accusing the other of having started the fighting.

- April 10-12: South Sudan seizes Heglig, which supplies around half of Sudan's oil production, an important part of its struggling economy.

- April 20: Under heavy international pressure, South Sudan withdraws from Heglig and later announces it will pull its forces out of the contested Abyei region.

- May 2: A UN Security Council resolution demands the two neighbours pull back their forces from the border and cease all hostilities.

- June 4: Kiir says corrupt officials have stolen an estimated $4 billion from the country's coffers.

- June 22: Direct talks between the two Sudans resume in Addis Ababa, seat of the African Union. A key aim is to set up a demilitarised buffer zone along their joint border.

- September 27: The two sides sign a series of deals on security and cooperation.

2013

- February 18: Kiir orders over 100 army generals to retire in a major restructuring of the ex-rebel force.

- March 20: The African Union says both sides have pulled back troops from their disputed border.

- April 9: Five Indian UN peacekeepers and at least seven UN civilian workers are killed in an ambush in Jonglei state.

- April 13: Oil from South Sudan transits again via Sudan, ending a bitter 15-month row.

- June 19: Kiir suspends two top aides -- cabinet affairs minister Deng Alor and finance minister Kosti Manibe -- and launches a probe into allegations of corruption.

- Mid July: Resurgence of heavy fighting in Jonglei, with hundreds reported wounded.

- July 23: Kiir suspends his entire cabinet and vice president, Riek Machar.


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 24 Jul 2013 12:27
 
Grenade kills 9 children in Warzone

Nine children have been killed by an unexploded grenade blast in Sudan's South Kordofan, a website based in the war-torn region says.

The incident happened near Cham Chaka village southeast of Abu Kershola, said Nuba Reports, a website of "citizen reporters" in South Kordofan's Nuba Mountains battleground.

It said the explosion happened when a group of youngsters found an unexploded rocket-propelled grenade.

"The children picked up the round and it exploded, killing nine of the children and wounding five," Nuba Reports said.

The incident happened in a remote area on July 24 and was posted on the website late Sunday.

On Monday night the website's founder, Ryan Boyette, gave AFP names of the victims, who he said were between three and 14 years old.

The Sudan Revolutionary Front rebel alliance seized Abu Kershola in April during coordinated strikes in the area, which analysts said humiliated the authorities.

The military took one month to retake Abu Kershola.

Ethnic rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N) have been fighting for two years in South Kordofan, and are part of the alliance seeking to topple the Khartoum government.

Sudan severely restricts access by journalists and other foreigners to South Kordofan and Blue Nile state, where SPLA-N is also fighting.

There are no reliable figures for how many people have died in the war but the UN has said more than 200,000 have fled the area as refugees.


Source : Sapa-AFP /mm
Date : 30 Jul 2013 01:00
 
Tribe Members claim to have killed 100 in clashes with Rival Tribe

An Arab tribe in Sudan's Darfur said on Tuesday it killed 100 members of a rival tribe, adding to a mounting death toll from an upsurge in violence this year.

"We lost 28 of our men and we killed 100 from the other side," Ahmed Khiri, a Misseriya tribal leader, told AFP.

He was referring to fighting with the Salamat group outside Garsila town in western Darfur on Monday.

Khiri said 17 more fighters on the Misseriya side were wounded and there was a threat of further violence.

"Troops from both sides are gathering in different areas," he said.

A Salamat leader said: "A huge number of people were killed on both sides.

"Yesterday there was heavy fighting... after Misseriya attacked our village with heavy weapons", the leader said, declining to be named.

Both tribes say scores more have been killed since the latest outbreak of warfare between the Misseriya and Salamat began in early July.

"The government promised to send troops from Zalingei to intervene between the two parties but they are not here yet," the Salamat leader said, referring to the capital of Central Darfur state.

Sudan's army spokesman could not be reached.

Garsila is about 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of the Abugaradil area, where last week's battles between Misseriya and Salamat killed 94 people, mostly Salamat, Khiri said at the weekend.

The Salamat said 52 of their men died during those clashes in southwest Darfur on the borders with Chad and the Central African Republic.

Inter-tribal and inter-ethnic fighting has been the major source of violence in Darfur this year, where an estimated 300,000 people were displaced in the first five months alone, the African Union-UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) says.

That is more than in the previous two years combined.

A report last week by the Small Arms Survey, a Swiss-based independent research project, said expansion of the conflict to Salamat and Misseriya and other groups "is worrying as it suggests that local means of resolving disputes, already severely stressed by the years of war, can still collapse further".

The United Nations says that, as of the end of June, 30,000 Sudanese had fled into Chad because of tribal fighting in southwestern Darfur and North Darfur.

Clashes between Misseriya and Salamat began in April but on July 3 they signed a peace agreement.

Days later, they were fighting again.

The unrest forced the UN's World Food Programme to suspend for 13 days its distribution of food to more than 32,000 needy people in Garsila town.

They were finally able to finish the distribution last Friday, said Amor Almagro, WFP spokeswoman.

On Saturday in North Darfur state, two other Arab tribes, the Beni Hussein and Rezeigat, inked a peace deal to end a separate conflict, which a member of parliament said killed hundreds over several weeks.

Darfur's top official, Eltigani Seisi, told the ceremony that "absence of the state authorities led to fighting", and called for a clampdown by security forces.

He was quoted by the official SUNA news agency.

The Salamat in April accused members of the paramilitary Central Reserve Police of joining fighting in Rahad el Berdi near Umm Dukhun in Darfur, which the tribe said left dozens dead.

UN experts and human rights activists have also accused government security forces of involvement in Darfur's tribal fighting.

But UNAMID chief Mohamed Ibn Chambas has said the nature of the tribal disputes -- mainly competition for land, water and mineral rights -- made it hard to tell who was on which side as police and militia also had ethnic affiliations.

Prior to this year's surge of violence, there were already 1.4 million people in camps for people uprooted by Darfur's conflict, which began a decade ago when rebels from ethnic minority groups rose up against what they saw as the domination of Sudan's power and wealth by Arab elites.

Security problems have more recently been compounded by the inter-tribal fighting, kidnappings, carjackings and other crimes, many suspected to be the work of government-linked militia and paramilitary groups.


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 30 Jul 2013 16:35
 
South Sudan President plans new smaller cabinet

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir on Wednesday said he would introduce a new, smaller cabinet, a little more than a week after he dissolved the previous one.

"This downsizing of the cabinet will create synergies, allow budgets to flow to high priority development projects and also allow for better management by dedicated civil servants," Kiir said.

Kiir fired his deputy, Riek Machar, suspended the head of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, Pagan Amum, and disbanded the entire cabinet on July 23.

He did not say when its would be replaced.

Addressing accusations that he had created a political vacuum, Kiir noted that undersecretaries in the ministries, police and the army and other government services had remained operational.

"President Kiir is the only one ruling the country. He is becoming a dictator," Machar said on Tuesday.

The United States and the African Union have urged Kiir to speedily form a new government.


Source : Sapa-dpa /pk
Date : 31 Jul 2013 11:45
 
Darfur Tribes says Tentative Cease Fire Agreement Reached

Warring Arab tribes in Sudan's Darfur region said on Wednesday that they had reached a tentative ceasefire, after fighting which one of them said had killed more than 200 people.

"Last night we reached an agreement to calm things down," Ahmed Khiri, a Misseriya tribal leader, told AFP.

"I don't think there will be more fighting today or in the coming days."

A leader of the rival Salamat tribe confirmed the two sides were trying to halt the violence in western Darfur.

Both tribes said they would aim to reach a full peace agreement soon --after an earlier pact collapsed.

Khiri said more than 200 people had died, most of them Salamat, since last Friday. The Salamat were less specific, but said they lost 52 members in battle at the weekend.

The latest killings, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, began within days of the previous peace deal the tribes signed on July 3.

That agreement came after fighting which began in April.

The incident reflects the altered dynamics of a decade-old conflict in which, observers say, the government can no longer control its former Arab tribal allies known as Janjaweed.

Inter-ethnic fighting, more than government-rebel clashes, has been the major source of violence this year in Darfur, where an estimated 300,000 people were displaced in the first five months alone, an international peacekeeping mission in Darfur says.

That is more than in the previous two years combined.


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 31 Jul 2013 13:53
 
100 killed in tribal violence in Darfur

Fighting between rival Arab tribes over the weekend in Sudan's volatile Darfur region has left at least 100 people dead, a newspaper reported on Monday.

The Sudan Tribune, quoting sources in southeastern Darfur, said the clashes followed battles and cattle raids between the Rezeigat tribe and the rival Maaliya earlier this month.

The region has seen increasing tribal violence over competing land ownership claims.

An estimated 300,000 people were displaced by clashes in the first five months of this year, according to the UN and AU hybrid peacekeeping force in the western Sudanese region.


Source : Sapa-dpa /pk
Date : 12 Aug 2013 09:45
 
Peacekeepers attacked again in Darfur Region

Peacekeepers came under fire in Sudan's Darfur region while they searched for colleagues missing in a flood, the mission said Thursday, reporting the third attack this month against Blue Helmets.

The attack by "unknown armed men" happened on Tuesday about seven kilometres (four miles) northeast of Misterei, a West Darfur town near the border with Chad, said Rania Abdulrahman, a media officer with the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).

The peacekeepers repelled the assailants and there were no casualties, she said, adding that the search continues for four missing UNAMID troops who were swept away in a flash flood on Sunday.

Violence in Darfur and against UNAMID has worsened this year.

Three peacekeepers were shot and wounded on Monday in East Darfur, in an area where two Arab tribes fought deadly battles this month.

On August 12 a UNAMID police patrol was ambushed in the East Darfur capital Ed Daein but there were no injuries, UNAMID said earlier.

Hundreds of people have died in tribal fighting in Darfur this year, largely between Arab groups which analysts say are acting outside government control.

Seven peacekeepers were killed in an ambush last month. It was the worst-ever attack in the mission's five-year history.

The UN Security Council then ordered a review of UNAMID operations, in light of the deteriorating security.


Source : Sapa-AFP /pk
Date : 29 Aug 2013 10:15
 
S.SUDAN BATTLES RAGE AS KERRY WARNS OF 'SERIOUS' CONSEQUENCES

South Sudanese troops and rebels battled Monday, defying mounting pressure to end four months of civil war, with US Secretary of State John Kerry warning of "serious" implications if fighting continues.

A government offensive to seize the key northern oil town of Bentiu from rebel forces raged Monday, days after Kerry flew to Juba to extract promises from South Sudanese President Salva Kiir to hold direct talks with rebel chief Riek Machar on ending the killings in the world's youngest nation.

"Let me make clear: if there is a total refusal by one party or the other to engage into a legitimate promise which they agreed on... not only might sanctions be engaged but there are other serious implications and possible consequences," Kerry said, speaking in the Angolan capital Luanda on the last leg of his African tour.

So far, US-backed diplomatic efforts have struggled to gain traction, with both sides accused of war crimes including mass killings, rape, attacks on hospitals and places of worship and recruiting child soldiers.

A January ceasefire was never enforced, while stop-start peace talks in Ethiopia are yet to achieve even agreement on a basic agenda, despite UN warnings of the risk of famine and genocide if the fighting continues.

"There is accountability in the international community for atrocities, there are sanctions, there are possible... peacemaking forces, there are any number of possibilities," Kerry said.

Army spokesman Philip Aguer said there had been heavy fighting Monday in and around Bentiu, state capital of the oil-producing Unity state, a day after government troops moved to wrest back control.

"We are fighting in and around Bentiu to take back control," Aguer told AFP. "They are resisting but we have the upper hand."

Bentiu fell into rebel hands last month, and opposition forces were accused by the United Nations of massacring hundreds of civilians. The town has swapped hands several times.

Despite the fighting, Juba said it was committed to peace talks and that the president remained determined to meet with his arch-rival, the former vice-president turned rebel leader Machar.

"Of course the president (Kiir) is willing to meet face-to-face with the rebel leader (Machar) so that they sit together to bring peace in the country," foreign ministry spokesman Mayen Makol told AFP, insisting talks would happen "as soon as possible."

However, the army said that Machar is currently hiding in remote bush after fleeing ahead of the successful capture of his former rebel base at Nasir, a riverside town close to the border with Ethiopia.

"We are in control of Nasir and all is quiet there, with the forces of Machar on the run," Aguer added. "We believe he is hiding out somewhere near the frontier with Ethiopia."

Machar himself has failed to confirm attendance, although Kerry repeated Monday that the rebel had still "left the door open" on taking part.

The war has claimed thousands -- and possibly tens of thousands -- of lives, with at least 1.2 million people forced to flee their homes, many living in appalling conditions in overstretched UN bases and in fear of ethnic violence.

Although starting as a personal rivalry between Kiir and Machar -- who was sacked as vice president -- the conflict has seen armies divide along ethnic lines and fighting pitting members of Kiir's Dinka tribe against Machar's Nuer.

The conflict erupted on December 15 with Kiir accusing Machar of attempting a coup. Machar then fled to the bush to launch a rebellion, insisting that the president had attempted to carry out a bloody purge of his rivals.

Rebels have said they want to seize the lucrative oil fields, but the army insists they are in full control, although production has slumped with staff evacuated.

"Oil areas have been affected by rebel attacks as they killed the engineers... but in terms of control they are in our hands," said army spokesman Aguer.


Source : Sapa-AFP /kd
Date : 05 May 2014 15:06
 
US SANCTIONS TWO S.SUDANESE FOR 'UNTHINKABLE VIOLENCE'

The United States on Tuesday unveiled its first sanctions against the world's newest nation, South Sudan, targeting military leaders from both sides of the four-month civil conflict.

The two men, one from government forces and one from the rebels, were "responsible for perpetrating unthinkable violence against civilians," US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters.

The move comes against Marial Chinoum, a commander of the South Sudanese presidential forces, and Peter Gadet, a leader of the anti-government forces, and only days after Kerry visited Juba.

"We will do our utmost to prevent South Sudan from plunging back towards violence and despair," Kerry said after meeting EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in Washington.

"We will hold accountable those who have stood in the way of a peace plan."

The sanctions move will be a bitter-sweet one for Kerry because Washington was the prime mover enabling South Sudan to split from Sudan to become independence in 2011.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon visited Juba on Tuesday as rebels and government forces battled for control of a key oil town, in the latest major drive for a ceasefire in a war that has seen the nation collapse amid a brutal cycle of war crimes.

Ban said South Sudan rebel chief Riek Machar had promised to attend fresh peace talks tentatively scheduled to take place on Friday in Ethiopia.


Source : Sapa-AFP /mjs
Date : 06 May 2014 21:16
 
UN EVACUATES 220 STAFF, AID WORKERS IN SOUTH SUDAN

UN peacekeepers evacuated about 220 staff and aid workers from northeast South Sudan on Wednesday after militias killed at least six relief workers, a UN spokesman said.

The troops from the UN mission in South Sudan were expected to continue evacuations from Bunj, in Upper Nile State, on Thursday, said deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.


Source : Sapa-AFP /mr
Date : 06 Aug 2014 21:10
 
ARMS EMBARGO NEEDED TO STEM SOUTH SUDAN WAR: HRW

Rival forces in South Sudan's civil war should face sanctions and an arms embargo, Human Rights Watch said Friday, reporting "extraordinary acts of cruelty" it said amounted to war crimes.

Thousands of people have been killed and over 1.5 million have fled almost eight months of carnage in the world's youngest nation, where aid workers warn of famine within weeks if fighting continues.

"The scale and gravity of the abuses warrant a comprehensive arms embargo on South Sudan, as well as targeted sanctions on individuals responsible for serious violations of international law," HRW said.

The United States and the European Union have already slapped penalties on three senior army commanders from the government and opposition, while the regional IGAD bloc have suggested they could follow suit if progress was not made.

US Secretary of State John Kerry warned Tuesday the international community was moving towards a "final ultimatum" to warring parties, after meeting South Sudanese President Salva Kiir in Washington.

United Nations Security Council members are due to visit the war-ravaged nation next week.

Fighting broke out in December, sparked by a power struggle between Kiir and his sacked deputy Riek Machar, with battles between government troops, mutinous soldiers and ragtag militia forces divided by tribe.

In July, South Sudan said it had taken delivery of some $14 million (10.5 million euro) worth of arms including anti-tank missiles, grenade launchers and assault rifles, bought from China before fighting began.

China has also sent troops for the UN peacekeeping mission in the country.

But while diplomats report growing frustration at the collapse of ceasefire deals, they suggest sanctions on the two leaders would be made only if talks with Security Council envoys in Juba stall.

This week at least six aid workers were killed in South Sudan's Upper Nile state, with the UN evacuating over 200 workers who supported some 125,000 refugees from neighbouring Sudan.

Civilians have been massacred, patients murdered in hospitals and people killed sheltering in churches.

"South Sudan's death toll in this new war is unknown but thousands of civilians have been killed, homes and markets burned, and bodies left to be eaten by birds and dogs," the HRW report read, based on over 400 interviews.

"Widespread killings of civilians, often based on their ethnicity, and mass destruction and looting of civilian property, have defined the conflict."

While peace talks officially resumed this week in Ethiopia, the two sides have barely met, and previous ceasefire deals have all swiftly collapsed.

"The crimes against civilians in South Sudan over the past months, including ethnic killings, will resonate for decades," HRW Africa chief Daniel Bekele said.


Source : Sapa-AFP /mjs
Date : 08 Aug 2014 02:15
 
S.SUDAN CHILDREN SLAUGHTERED OR TAKEN TO FIGHT: AFRICAN UNION

Thousands of children in war-torn in South Sudan have been deliberately killed or abducted to fight in the nearly eight month-long conflict, African Union experts said Friday.

"The present conflict can be characterised as nothing less than a war on the children of South Sudan," said Julia Sloth-Nielsen, heading the AU committee investigating child rights in the young nation.

Attacks were "perilously close to constituting a crime against humanity", she said.

"We have received numerous reports of children -- even babies -- being wantonly killed," Sloth-Nielsen told reporters, after a week of investigations by the 11-member African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.

"It is not that these deaths are accidental or unfortunate by-products. We are reliably informed that children are being targeted, deliberately."

More than 900 children have been abducted in the eastern war zone state of Jonglei, while there are confirmed cases of "rape of both girls and boys," the committee said in a statement.

In one case in the eastern town of Bor, 490 children were found in mass graves after fighting.

Thousands of people have been killed and over 1.5 million have fled civil war in the world's youngest nation, where aid workers warn of famine within weeks if fighting continues.

"The situation is deteriorating as I speak," Sloth-Nielsen added.

Fighting broke out in December, sparked by a power struggle between President Salva Kiir and his sacked deputy Riek Machar, with battles between government troops, mutinous soldiers and ragtag militia forces divided by tribe.

In an April attack in Bor when gunmen sprayed civilians sheltering in a UN peacekeeping base with bullets, 12 children were killed, including a baby just three months old.

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said in April said that more than 9,000 children had been taken to fight.

Children were suffering more than even during the 1983-2005 war, that paved the war for South Sudan's independence, the AU team said.

"The impact of conflict of the last eight months upon children is greater than in the entire 21 year period during which the war was ongoing," the committee said.


Source : Sapa-AFP /lk
Date : 08 Aug 2014 14:58
 
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