Africa

June 20, 2018 (ADDIS ABABA) – The diplomatic corps of South Sudan's armed opposition faction (SPLM-IO) have lauded the Ethiopian government and the regional bloc (IGAD) for organizing face-to-face talks between Riek Machar and President Salva Kiir in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

South Sudan's rebel leader Riek Machar addresses a news conference in Uganda's capital Kampala January 26, 2016 (Reuters photo)

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiye Ahmed attended Wednesday's meeting, which saw the two rival leaders meet for the first time after nearly two years.

The meeting between Kiir and Machar was to discuss all outstanding issues in the power-sharing chapter within the peace agreement.

“By allowing the principals of the warring parties to sit and sift through their differences to address the root-causes and stop the war, IGAD has correctly diagnosed the problem and has set the negotiations on the right course,” the SPLM-IO said in a statement.

It further added, “We would, therefore, like to express our gratitude to Prime Minister Abiye for his wise leadership and timely decision.”

The armed opposition extended its appreciation to the regional countries and the Troika nations for their positive roles in efforts aimed at finding a lasting solution to the civil war in South Sudan.

The South Sudanese civil war is an ongoing conflict in South Sudan between forces of the government and opposition forces. In mid-December 2013, President Kiir accused his former deputy Machar and 10 others of attempting a coup d'état.

The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced over two million.

(ST)

June 20, 2018 (JUBA) – Indian peacekeepers serving with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) have been praised for helping restore peace and security in a remote town, ravaged by fighting that forced civilians to flee and devastated the economy.

UNMISS troops from India patrol the perimeters of a compound in South Sudan's capital, Juba (AP)

Indian peacekeepers, UNMISS said in a statement, operate a temporary base set up in February this year in the Jonglei region town of Akobo in the north-east of the war-torn East African nation.

Previously, however, UN peacekeepers were stationed in Akobo, but their base was closed down after being targeted by an unprovoked attack in December 2013, in which two Indian peacekeepers and 30 civilians who had sought refuge within the UN premises were killed.

David Shearer, the UNMISS chief, said there was need for UN's presence in the area to as to reach communities in need in all parts of the country, regardless of their ethnic or political background.

Consequently, UNMISS said, the temporary base operated by the Indian battalion was established in February 2018 to help protect civilians and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance to vulnerable people, making it the first UN peacekeeping presence in a rebel-held territory of the war-torn country.

"The results are visible. When we arrived here in February there was nothing in and around this TOB (Temporary Operating Base)," said Lt. Colonel Singh Negi, the Indian battalion commanding officer.

"Now you can see the construction boom; many settlements have come up. This is a clear indication that the people are feeling safer since UNMISS came,” he added.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced by the conflict in South Sudan.

(ST)

June 20, 2018 (ADDIS ABABA) - Eritrean President, Isaias Afwerki, Wednesday said he would send a delegation to discuss with the Ethiopian government ways to implement Algeria peace agreement over their disputed border.

President Isaias Afwerki (Photo Shabait)

The move comes two weeks after the announcement made by the Ethiopian government providing its full acceptance of the outcome of 2002 border commission ruling which awarded disputed area, including the town of Badme, to Eritrea.

This decision has been welcomed by the regional and international community as it paves the way to end a dispute that sparked in 1998, and negatively impacted the region.

Speaking on the occasion of Martyrs' Day, President Afwerki pointed to the “positive signals issued in these past days” saying it reflects the popular choice in the two brotherly countries that share common history and interests.

“For this reason, and outside myopic considerations of public relations stunts and advantages, we will send a delegation to Addis Ababa to gauge current developments directly and in depth as well as to chart out a plan for continuous future action,” he said.

Asmara's reaction has been awaited in Addis Ababa since the 5th of June as many analysts cast doubt on the willingness of President Afwerki to negotiate an end of the border conflict which led to the isolation of his country.

The Eritrean leader warned against what de called the “TPLF clique, and other vultures” saying they would seek to obstruct any positive change in the relations between the two countries.

“This is best illustrated by their ambivalent public pronouncements of “yes…but” in these past days. This is designed to prevent a durable solution to the senseless border conflict that they unleashed in the first place without any justification. But their principal preoccupation and ill-will is to avert and frustrate any positive change in Ethiopia”.

President Afwerki was referring to statements by some leading members of the ruling party, EPRDF, who are ethnic Tigrayans living in the border disputed area and opposition to Abiy decision to hand Badme over to Eritrea.

Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a war from 1998 to 2000 over their border dispute, which left about 80,000 people dead.

Abiy welcomes Afwerki's response

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed welcomed the "constructive response" of President Isaias Afwerki of Eretria saying it "is essential for the mutual benefit of both countries".

The Premier pointed to the face to face meeting between President Salva Kiir and SPLM-IO leader Riek Machar and expressed his optimism that the coming years will offer the spirit of unity and respect among the East African countries.

Addis Ababa in the past several times asked for negotiation before to implement the ruling of the arbitration commission but Asmara demanded to withdraw Ethiopian troops first from Badme before talks.

The decision of President Afwerki could allow the new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to consolidate his power and implement economic and social reforms in the country.

(ST)

June 20, 2018 (ADDIS ABABA) - Ethiopian Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu Wednesday met with the SPLM-IO leader Riek Machar ahead of a meeting with his rival President Salva Kiir in Addis Ababa.

Machar arrived in the early morning to Addis Ababa where he was received by Mrs Hirut Zemene, Ethiopia's State Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In a statement released this afternoon, the foreign ministry said Minister Gebeyehu held talks with Machar on the IGAD's efforts to revitalize the peace process in South Sudan.

"Workneh added, albeit the slow progress of the High-Level Revitalization Process, “We are, to a great extent, encouraged by the progress we have witnessed over the past one year,” said the statement.

Kiir and Machar are expected to discuss the outstanding issues in the implementation of the power-sharing in the 2015 peace agreement especially the cabinet composition, the parliament and the state governments.

The regional body is keen to narrow the gaps between the two mains parties to the revitalization process saying the outcome of the face-to-face meeting should be the driving force towards the end of the war and the peace implementation process.

According to the statement, Machar expressed his own and his party's keenness to bring about peace in the country.

"I am ready to bestow what is expected from me," said Machar.

The outcome of the face-to-face meeting will be discussed Thursday by the IGAD Council of Ministers that Gebeyehu chairs, following what the IGAD heads of states and governments will meet to endorse what the conclusions submitted by the Council of Ministers.

(ST)

June 20, 2018 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's Ministry of Oil and Gas on Wednesday said a delegation from South Sudan would arrive in Khartoum at the end of this month to discuss ways to scale up oil production.

A worker at the power plant of an oil processing facility in South Sudan's Unity state on 22 April 2012 (Photo: Reuters)

Sudan's State Minister of Oil and Gas Saad al-Din Al-Bushra told the semi-official Sudan Media Center (SMC) that the visit comes in implementation of bilateral agreements to increase production of South Sudan's oil fields.

Earlier this month, a Sudanese delegation visited Juba to discuss economic issues between the two countries. During the visit, Sudan and South Sudan ministers of petroleum discussed oil cooperation and resumption of production in South Sudan's oil fields.

Sudan lost 75% of its oil reserves after the southern part of the country became an independent nation in July 2011, denying the north billions of dollars in revenues. Oil revenue constituted more than half of Sudan's revenue and 90% of its exports.

Sudan currently produces 72,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd). The country's production is stationed mainly in the Heglig area and its surroundings, as well as western Kordofan.

Chinese companies control 75 per cent of foreign investment in Sudan's oil sector.

(ST)

June 20, 2018 (KHARTOUM) - The hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) on Wednesday said hundreds of displaced persons fleeing the fighting in Jebel Marra have gathered around the Mission's newly established base in Golo area.

Since last March, government forces and Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-AW) led by Abdel-Wahid al-Nur fighters resumed clashes in different parts of Jebel Marra.

“In the evening of 15 June 2018, displaced persons started gathering outside UNAMID's newly established Temporary Operating Base (TOB) in the Golo locality, of the Jebel Marra area, Central Darfur,” said the Mission in a statement on Wednesday.

“By the next day, 16 June, 305 IDPs, including 200 children and 85 women, were outside the TOB and had started erecting temporary shelters” added the Mission

According to the statement, UNAMID staff “provided protection and water to the displaced as well as first aid to an IDP woman who gave birth near the base”.

It pointed out that the displaced people “informed UNAMID that they were fleeing from villages in Jebel Marra where fighting has been reported, including Gubbo, Gur Lumbung, Kawara, Saboon El Fag, Abuloto, Ujongole, Kara, Jari, Buju Buju and Wira”.

UNAMID added it is coordinating with UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and local authorities to address the humanitarian needs of the displaced.

On Tuesday, Troika countries including United States, United Kingdom and Norway denounced the ongoing fighting between the Sudanese army and the SLM-AW in Jebel Marra saying this “unnecessary violence” affects only the civilians.

In a report covering the security situation in Darfur for the period from 16 February to 15 April 2018, the hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) reported low-scale skirmishes in Jebel Marra area between the government forces and the SLM-AW fighters.

On 12 April 2017, the Sudanese army declared Darfur a region free of rebellion following the capture of Srounq area, the last SLM-AW stronghold in Jebel Marra. However, the army continued for several months to carry out attacks on rebel's pockets in the mountainous area.

Jebel Marra, which spans over three states including North, Central and South Darfur, is located in a water-rich area that is characterised by a mild climate.

Last year, the UN Security Council decided to reduce the UNAMID, admitting that the security situation has improved but it decided to reinforce its presence in Jebel Marra because there is no cessation of hostilities as the SLM-AW refuses to declare it unilaterally or to engage in peace negotiations.

The Sudanese army has been fighting armed groups in Darfur since 2003. UN agencies estimate that over 300,000 people were killed in the conflict, and over 2.5 million were displaced.

(ST)

June 20, 23018 (ADDIS ABABA) - South Sudan President Salva Kiir and SPLM-IO leader Riek Machar Wednesday have finally met on Wednesday in a meeting attended by the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

The meeting was announced in a twit released by the Director of Ethiopian Prime Minister's Office Fitsum Arega without details about the outcome of the encounter.

"HE PM Abiy Ahmed hosted a private dinner to President Salva Kiir and Dr Rieck Machar together. The two met for the first time in two years," said Arega.

"Faced with the continued suffering in South Sudan, Ethiopia simply can't stand by. With more work, a peaceful future is possible in S. Sudan," he further said.

Different sources reached in Addis Ababa said the face-to-face meeting only gathered the two rival leaders and the Ethiopian premier.

The first meeting between Kiir and Machar since July 2016, was supposed to discuss only the outstanding issues in the power-sharing chapter of the peace agreement.

South Sudanese officials under the cover of anonymity told Sudan Tribune that the meeting was not successful and the two leaders didn't agree on anything.

"If the meeting was positive, at least, Abiy would be happy to issue a statement about its outcome, but this was not the case," an official said.

Machar, in a meeting with the civil society and opposition groups, pledged to defend their points of view in the meeting.

The IGAD Council of Ministers will discuss the outcome of the intensive consultations and then will submit its conclusions for considerations to the summit of IGAD head of states and government in the evening.

President Kiir is scheduled to return to Juba on Friday but it is not clear if another meeting will take place between him and Machar.

Upon his arrival to Addis Ababa, Kiir held a separate meeting with Abiy. President Kiir was accompanied by Minister of Cabinet affairs Martin Elia Lomuro, Ambassador Ezekiel Lul the Minister of Petroleum, Michael Makuei Lueth the Minister of Information and Awud Deng Achuil the Minister of Gender, and Social Welfare.

The meeting with Kiir, which began at 08:00 pm (local time), discussed the outcome of the Intensive Interlink Consultations and ways to move forward, according to a statement released by the information ministry.

(ST)

By Santino Ayual Bol

IGAD which has been facilitating and mediating the slow-heel Agreement to Resolve the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan shortly abbreviated as ARCISS has unilaterally cogitated and scheduled a face to face meeting between the President of the Republic of South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit and rebel chief Dr.Riek Machar on Wednesday, the 20th June 2018 in Addis Ababa. The ARCISS due to difficulties being encountered in the process seems now to be metamorphosing into slightly something else both in name, contents, and approaches which will be elucidated a little bit more the next paragraphs. However, in this first opening paragraph, it is imperative upon the writer to category state the position of the war affected -downtrodden common citizens of the Republic of South Sudan as follows:

We the common citizens of the Republic of South Sudan welcome anybody and any chance that will bring meaningful, total, and lasting peace tranquillity, and normalcy in the Republic of South Sudan forever. The current political quagmires in the country caught all South Sudanese people of good will by surprise. Nobody in his or her right mind who participated in the agitation for fundamental changes in the then one Sudan whether through nonviolent political resistance in government-controlled towns, or the clandestine support with logistics, intelligence, foodstuffs to the movement, or the diplomatic campaigns waged bravely and intellectually by our compatriots of the diaspora, or the direct active participation and self-sacrifice in the armed liberation struggle in the fields of combats or frontlines had foreseen the current debacles. All of us were fighting in one way or another for true comprehensive freedom, total peace of mind and body from Arab-Islamic daily menace, belittling, arbitrary arrest and killings, enslavement, exploitation, discrimination, the list is long, against African people of South Sudan. In short, we were aspiring for a happy, free, corruption free, nontribal, progressive, and democratic country of our own under the sun. A country where our leaders would treat us the common citizens as the custodians Number One of power and not pawns and gunpowder. No one ever dreamed the current state of affairs was what was awaiting the current long-suffering folks of South Sudan. Make no mistake about it, I'm not regretting our legitimate and correct decision taken during the referendum in 2011 to be free and manage our own affairs in our own homeland called the Republic of South Sudan. No, I'm not regretting. What I absolutely abhor and this is what underlies the above statement is the mindless spilling of blood and taking away of lives of innocent fellow countrymen and women whether in government-controlled areas or rebel territories and mindless vandalism of scanty properties of fellow folks in the cities and countryside. “I hate to hate a man” as correctly remarked by one of our freedom fighters during the SPLA/SPLM 21 year liberation struggle period. To hate a man is bad and above all worst still if he/she is a fellow countryman/woman.

This wanton killing and war madness that has perverted the country must stop. Our leaders from all the political divides (government, rebels, and non-violent opposition parties) should take it upon themselves as a matter of urgency and top priority and bring total long lasting peace in the country. Let the suffering of innocent little kids, orphans, women, widows, disabled and elderly stop through the good intention and decisions that our leaders should take soon while negotiating peace in Addis Ababa. Our esteemed people have become the laughing stocks for humanitarians and foreigners in POCs across the country and refugee camps in neighbouring. This fact alone if our leaders listen and care about the people and the country called South Sudan in the core of their hearts should voluntarily convince them to bring sincere lasting peace and not foreign coercion and threat of sanctions. We desire to celebrate the forthcoming Christmas in total peace and love for one another from Renk to Nimule, Kapoeta to Raja, Aweil to Yambio, Wau to Malakal, Akobo to Rumbek, Abiei to Bor, Ruweng to Torit, Fashoda to Juba, Nasir to Warap, Pibor to Yirol, etc. We want sincere patriotic love to replace tribal hatred and diabolic negative labelling of ourselves.

I would like to conclude this piece of opinion that the longer the war and anarchy last in South Sudan the deeper the suffering entrenches itself in the midst of our people. The longer the war lasts, the more likely that many generations of innocent children will be lost to illiteracy, malnutrition, six killer diseases, poverty, and other preventable maladies. The longer the current war lasts, the more likelihood of South Sudan's backward lagging in development gap widens and exacerbates itself. Nowadays the suffering of South Sudanese people has become the carcass of humanitarian vultures who have swarmed the country and the region from far and wide. UNMISS seems to be another emerging form of MONUC (La Mission des Nations Unis Au Congo) which arrived in DR Congo in the 1960s and has since then not left the same country and UNMISS like MONUC may not leave under the pretext that there is constant war and anarchy in the country with flimsy no cogent argument that the government is failing to protect its citizens as well as not being able to deliver basic services as is required of any government.

Foreign bullying of South Sudan by some neighbouring countries through encroachment into our borders and support of armed elements as well as arms and economic embargoes and sanctions by some bullying superpowers will continue to be invoked under the pretexts of the civil war in the country.

Hence, it is incumbent upon our leaders who will converge in Addis Ababa for the next few days to make needed compromises and bring peace on their own without being coerced to do so for the patriotic sake of saving the country and its people from the war itself and from unnecessary foreign interference, insults, and bullying.

The same patriotic spirit and zeal that drove during Anyanya One and for 21 years during the SPLA/SPLM struggle both President Salva Kiir Mayardit and Dr.Riek and their comrades to bravely fight for the liberation of South Sudan from Khartoum belittling and insults and which again guarded them wisely during the interim period from 2005 – 2011 and referendum campaign should make them come to their true senses again to save the country from the current unfathomable abyss it has descended into. It is not too late to help the country out of this shame. No South Sudanese in his/her right mind is at the present moment happy about what is happening in the country whether in government-controlled towns, in rebels territories in the countryside, in neighbouring countries, or overseas. Let this mindless war stop through the compromises we faithfully urge our national figures to undertake in the course of this coming week in Addis Ababa.

Response by the Sudan Liberation Movement to statement by the United States, United Kingdom & Kingdom Of Norway on cessation of violence in Darfur

By Abdul Wahid al-Nur

Dear President Trump, Prime Minister May and Prime Minister Solberg:

Abdel Wahid Al-Nur (ST)

The leadership of the SLM appreciates the concern voiced by the US, UK and Norway over the desperate plight of the civilian population of Darfur enduring continued, genocidal violence and state terror by the military and paramilitary forces of the Sudanese dictatorship. We further embrace your call for Khartoum to end the embargo on sorely needed humanitarian aid reaching the region, and to cease impeding access to the combined AU and UN peacekeepers in UNAMID. We have long called for both and not merely urged such measures but begged the international community to intervene decisively to lift the humanitarian blockade long used as a tool of subjugation and to strengthen the UNAMID mission, thus reforming its weak and severely constricted operational posture that barely qualifies as peacekeeping, while repeatedly appealing for the adoption of a more appropriate and muscular peace enforcement mandate that better corresponds to reality.

However, our sharply divergent understanding of what this reality constitutes, far away from the opulence of the White House, No.10 Downing Street and Inkognitogata 18, as we endure the horrors you are not witnessing to nor could ever imagine occurring on a daily basis in Washington, London and Oslo despite your own experience of terror, determines that we equally reject and decry the false equivalency in culpability for the most recent upsurge in bloodletting posited in your joint communique of June 19th.

In particular, we take exception to your assertion that the SLM's refusal to participate in the so-called peace process is the key obstruction to the resolution of the crisis in Darfur and that we are antagonists responsible for callously prolonging the suffering of the civilian population. On the contrary, despite our limited means and isolation, where we fight with little more than our will to resist annihilation and dispossession, the refusal of the Sudan Liberation Army to capitulate, forms the only line of defense protecting the civilian population from the regime's well established policy of extermination and ethnic cleansing that now includes the proven use of chemical weaponry, a subject you remain entirely mute towards, while condemning chemical warfare in Syria. SLA held liberated territory is the only sanctuary available to civilians in Darfur, imperfect as it is in the face of overwhelming government firepower that subjects non-combatants and combatants alike to routine artillery and aerial bombardments, gas attacks and as prevalent large scale incursions by government ground troops and the routine raiding, abductions, summary executions, gang rapes, torture sessions and razing of villages, that give weight to the charges brought by the International Criminal Court against President Omar al Bashir, as you are well aware, the sole sitting head of state indicted for War Crimes, Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity.

But then the Sudanese tyrant enjoys a process of rehabilitation overseen by the US, UK and the European Union, while the Arab League, African Union and Organization of Islamic Cooperation, as the UN itself dithers, also avert their eyes and ignore his crimes against his own people. But they remain visible to us, as we are his victims. Your passive complicity is deeply painful to us when anchoring our liberation struggle is a desire to free not only Darfur but the whole of Sudan. The crushing irony is that the dream we die for is to forge a pluralist and secular democracy in your own example.

When we are as committed as you are to confront Islamist extremism, we are incredulous you embrace a hardline Islamist dictatorship as a credible ally, that has not stopped fostering Salafist terror nor ceased its own state terror. In light of Russia's aggressive stance towards the whole of the West, efforts to undermine both American and European democracy, clear menace to NATO, and key role in Syria antithetical to Western aims in the Middle East, it is as bewildering to witness your nations whitewash Khartoum when al Bashir is deepening his military ties to the Kremlin and Russian mercenaries now have a presence in Sudan.

Western democracy is failing the people of Darfur and Sudan as a whole and betraying its own values and strategic aims in so doing. It neither gives us much cause for optimism that the United States has walked away from the UN Human Rights Council and earlier the US State Department closed its War Crimes Office, just as the UN Security Council has not seen fit to reverse the decision to dramatically reduce the size of an already understrength and under-resourced UNAMID mission, against all logic.

Your selective criteria ignore that we are defending our ancestral lands from expropriation and that those of us that have taken up arms come from the very same families subject to slaughter and starvation. The people are the SLM and the SLM is the people. To equate our actions with those of the regime is akin to labelling the Jewish partisans in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943 as morally equivalent to the Nazi SS storm troopers sent to liquidate them. We will not acquiesce to being compared to genocidaires, especially when the US has eased sanctions on the regime, the UK is quietly training members of the security services and the EU is funnelling hundreds of millions of Euros to active genocidaires. We remain as baffled that you insist we join a patently false and purely cosmetic peace process, where we find ourselves unable to register egregious human rights violations, a deliberately created humanitarian crisis and a scorched earth policy as good faith measures to foster constructive dialogue.

We urge all of you to better acknowledge that you are backing the wrong partner and the tide of history is against you. The Sudanese regime is in a state of growing collapse, the coherence of its institutions, like its social fabric, ruinous economy, dysfunctional government and even restive elements in the armed forces and ruling party all point to a looming failed state. The ferocity of the regime in Darfur and widespread repression across the country, seeking to quash the anger of a citizenry that has not seen the light of freedom since 1989, is not a display of strength but instead desperation, in the twilight of a doomed dictator seeking to avoid his Gaddafi moment.

We are not your enemy. We long instead for peace, prosperity and a free society to flourish, where with your aid in achieving this goal, you would find in us a lucid and faithful ally and partner in securing stability in Sub-Saharan Africa and the greater region. But browbeating us into submission and asking us to willingly go to our own execution, this betrayal of our own people, when we have buried more than half a million of them, though the UN inexplicably stopped counting the dead in 2008, is not something we will ever countenance.

In closing all we may offer in good conscience is for SLA troops to observe a ceasefire and return to their bases, if indeed international pressure will be brought to bear to concretely allow UNAMID to effectively protect civilians, patrol and uphold a clear demarcation line between ourselves and government forces and for unhindered humanitarian aid to flow into affected areas, displaced civilians having the right of return without fear of reprisal, the proposed dismantling of IDP camps be abrogated and all of Darfur opened to unfettered access to international media and human rights investigators. We have nothing to hide and would welcome such steps. But unless such conditions can be met, we will adhere to our God-given right of self-defence if attacked and government aggression against us or the civilian population will not go unanswered militarily nor see us lay down our arms.

We sincerely doubt were it 1941 that the United States would have readily surrendered to Imperial Japan after Pearl Harbor, nor that Britain would have capitulated during the Blitz in 1940 when it stood alone against Nazi Germany after the defeat of the British Expeditionary Force and the fall of France or that the Free Norwegian Forces and resistance members would have ever given up their struggle against occupation after the valiant sacrifice of the Royal Norwegian Armed Forces against the same Nazi juggernaut. The Sudanese regime is also composed of fascists, militarists, butchers and ideological zealots, do not ask us to do what you would not do yourselves faced with the same circumstances.

* The author is the Chairman Sudan Liberation Movement & Commander in Chief Sudan Liberation Army

June 19, 2018 (JUBA) – All the warring parties involved in the conflict in South Sudan must immediately halt using sexual violence as a tactic of war, which is happening on an appalling scale in the country and with impunity, various European heads of missions said Tuesday.

President Salva Kiir addresses the nation at the South Sudan National Parliament in Juba, November 18, 2015. (Photo Reuters/Jok Solomon)

The message was contained in a statement jointly issued by the Heads of Mission of Canada, Denmark, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Britain and the United States (US).

“The use of sexual violence as a tactic of war is totally abhorrent, and sadly continues today unabated. We are shocked by the recent rape and gang-rape of over one hundred women and girls, some as young as four years-old, according to a number of reports,” partly reads the joint statement.

It added, “We condemn in the strongest terms these heinous acts and support the UN's [United Nations] call for the immediate end to attacks against civilians.

Expressing their solidarity with the survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, the various head of missions also recalled the ongoing plight of the many civilians affected by violence in South Sudan.

“We are horrified by brutal attacks around Leer and Mayendit in Unity State, as well as in Equatoria. Since the start of 2018, and despite the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA) and ongoing peace process, we have witnessed the deliberate targeting and killing of civilians, including children, disabled people and the elderly; with some civilians being burned alive in their homes; abductions and mass displacement of populations; and attacks on medical and humanitarian personnel and facilities,” further noted the statement.

Fighting broke out in South Sudan in 2013 after President Salva Kiir (a Dinka) sacked his deputy, Riek Machar (a Nuer), pitting the country's two largest ethnic groups against each other in a deadly struggle for supremacy. Since then fighting has taken place across multiple fronts, as rebel groups have spread across Africa's youngest nation.

According to UN humanitarian affairs agency (OCHA), conflict and insecurity have now forcibly displaced 1 in 3 of the country's population, either within South Sudan or across borders. As such, however, the UN has projected that the number of refugees could cross the 3 million mark by the end of this year, making South Sudan Africa's largest refugee crisis since the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

(ST)

June 19, 2018 (KAMPALA) – Ugandan Police have deployed at Rhino Camp settlement in the West Nile district of Arua after three South Sudanese refugees were killed in a football World Cup game fight.

South Sudanese refugees attend independence day celebrations at Kirayandongo resettlement camp 9, July 2017 (ST)

The West Nile Regional Police spokesperson, Josephine Angucia said they discovered a body dumped in the bush on Tuesday.

She identified the body as that of 32-year-old Aleu Anei Aleu.

On Sunday night, two Dinka tribesmen identified as Nabuk Jimak, 50, and his son Majok, 18 were killed in the fight, Police authorities said.

Violence, according to eyewitnesses, broke at a video hall in Tika zone, where a group of South Sudanese refugees were watching Sunday's World Cup game played between Brazil and Switzerland.

Police investigations show violence ensued following a disagreement among the refugee youths who were supporting the different teams.

"Before the fight, police dispersed the crowd but they went and reorganized, resulting into some of the Nuer youths attacking the Dinka community," the Regional Police Commander, Jonathan Musinguzi told Daily Monitor Tuesday.

Police said youth from the two rival tribes were found hiding with pangas, clubs in bushes as they planned to retaliate, adding that three refugees were picked from the bush where they were hiding.

Ugandan officials have appealed to the members from the two communities to seek dialogue and urged them to live in harmony.

Meanwhile, the Arua military brigade commander, Col. Bernard Tuhame said acts of violence will not be accepted in the camps.

"Why should you kill just because of football? We will investigate why the matches were organised to be watched in the camps because these people still have tribal grudges,” Tuhame was quoted saying.

Last month, violence broke up in Omugo settlement camp after South Sudanese refugees protested delay by relief agencies to deliver food supplies to them, destroying computers and looting several items.

(ST)

June 19, 2018 (JUBA/KHARTOUM) - The European Commission announced on Tuesday a €68 million in humanitarian assistance for vulnerable communities in both Sudan and South Sudan.

European flags are seen outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels (Reuters Photo)

The funding, the Commission said, comes as millions of people across both countries are in need of assistance, with the conflict in South Sudan triggering an influx of refugees into neighbouring Sudan.

"The EU is stepping up its support as many people in Sudan and South Sudan face massive humanitarian needs. Our aid will provide essential supplies such as food and healthcare and allow our partners to continue their lifesaving work on the ground,” said Christos Stylianides, the Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management.

“Above all, it is crucial that humanitarian workers can deliver aid safely so they can help those most in need. Aid workers are not a target,” he added.

In South Sudan, according to the Commission, €45 million will primarily target internally displaced persons and host communities, providing emergency food assistance, health, nutrition, shelter, water and sanitation as well as protection from gender based violence. Funding will also support measures to protect aid workers.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced by the conflict in South Sudan. Also, an estimated up to 101 aid workers have been killed since the conflict started in December 2013, and violent attacks on humanitarian workers are still on the rise.

However, despite the increasing impediments on the delivery of humanitarian assistance, the European Union (EU) is among the biggest donors of humanitarian aid in the world's youngest nation.

On the other hand, it said, at least €23 million will ensure protection of displaced communities, treatment of under nutrition in the most affected areas, as well as food assistance and improved access to basic services such as health, shelter, water and sanitation in Sudan.

Meanwhile, to date, the Commission has reportedly mobilised over €412 million in humanitarian aid for South Sudan since fighting erupted in December 2013. Since 2011, the EU has reportedly also provided almost €450 million in humanitarian aid in Sudan for those affected by conflict, natural disasters, food insecurity and malnutrition in the country.

(ST)

June 19, 2018 (KHARTOUM) - The Troika countries have denounced the ongoing fighting between the Sudanese army and the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement -Abdel Wahid in Jebel Marra area of Darfur saying this "unnecessary violence" affects only the civilians.

Since last March, the two warring parties resumed clashes in different parts of the mountainous area. As a result of the government gradually began massing troops and intensified the fighting.

last week, a military source said the government mobilize more than 2,000 troops including the Rapid Support Forces to retake several positions in Jebel Kali and Badia areas claiming the rebel captured taking advantage of the unilateral cessation of hostilities.

"The civilian population continues to bear the brunt of this unnecessary violence, which has led to the burning down of villages, causing high numbers of civilian injury and death, and the displacement of nearly 9,000 people," the Troika countries (Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States) stressed in a statement on Tuesday.

Regarding the Sudanese government, the three countries condemned the denied of humanitarian access to the conflict zones and "strongly urges the Government of Sudan to immediately provide unfettered access to both UNAMID and humanitarian actors.

CALL FOR SANCTION

The statement further pointed to the refusal of the rebel SLM-AW to take part in the peace process saying its position "obstructs the achievement of sustainable peace in Darfur and unnecessarily prolongs civilian suffering".

The Troika, also, said the government military operations undermines the efforts to end the conflict through a negotiated solution.

"There can be no military solution to the conflict in Darfur and the international community should consider imposing sanctions against those who continue to act as spoilers," stressed the statement.

The United Nations Security Council is set to vote a resolution drafted by the penholder on Darfur, United Kingdom, extending the mandate of the UNAMID for one year. This resolution further provides to close 14 peacekeeping sites in the whole region but maintains 13 sites in Jebel Marra.

The statement called to allow unfettered humanitarian access and to "meaningfully engage" with the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP)-led peace process in order to reach a permanent ceasefire.

Two holdout armed groups, SLM-Minnawi and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) are engaged in peace talks with the government. The mediators hope to finalize a pre-negotiation agreement and to start peace talks before the end of December 2018.

The SLM-AW boycotts any peace talks with the government and refuses to declare a unilateral cessation of hostilities. The SLM-MM and JEM from one side and the government are committed to a unilateral ceasefire in Darfur.

(ST)

June 19, 2018 (JUBA) - The South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA) has rejected the IGAD Revised Bridging Proposal to end the four-and-half year conflict in the country, saying it avoided considering crucial outstanding issues.

On Monday, the IGAD mediation closed the Intensive Interlinked Consultations (IICs) and decided to refer the outstanding issues in the power-sharing chapter to the IGAD Council of Ministers to resolve and then submit it to the IGAD head of states and governments summit on Thursday 21 June.

In parallel, the regional block counts on a meeting on Wednesday between President Riek Machar and his main rival Riek Machar to reach a compromise on three disputed issues: the composition of the government, le parliament, and the state governments.

Feeling that they are marginalized in the process, the SSOA said concerned about the way outstanding issues were "glossed over" by the mediation; stressing that their positions were not considered in all the mediation's proposals for the resolution of issues pertaining to Governance and security arrangements.

The opposition alliance further exposed their different positions for a lean government, de-concentration of powers of the President, technocrats' government during the Transitional Period, restoration of the ten (10) States, and devolving power and the requisite resources to the States and Local governments.

The alliance stressed that their propositions are the prerequisites for a sustainable peace and rejected the Revised Bridging Proposal which takes into consideration only the government's positions.

"We shall never be part of a deal that carries the seeds of its own failure because that failure costs lives, resources and disrupting social fabric. Only a transparent and inclusive negotiated agreement can deliver a sustainable peace to South Sudan," said the SSOA in a statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Tuesday.

The mediation says the purpose of the final IICs meeting was to "to identify possible compromises and build consensus on the bridging proposal”.

Government spokesperson Minister Michael Makuei Lueth said the outstanding issues would be discussed in the face-to-face meeting between Kiir and Machar on Wednesday.

Following what and based on its outcome the IGAD Council of Minister will formulate a position that to be referred to the heads of state and government for consideration.

However, the SSOA called on the "IGAD Summit of heads of State and Government to ensure that the root causes of the problems are addressed in order to achieve a just and sustainable peace".

(ST)