Africa

Briefing the Security Council on their strengthened collaboration, top officials from the African Union (AU) and the United Nations today highlighted their joint work on peace and security in the Gambia, Somalia and South Sudan, as well as other African countries, and urged adequate, timely and predictable funding.

Singer Angélique Kidjo and eight of Benin&#39s other music artists are urging parents to not marry off their young daughters in a new music video created by the United Nations Children&#39s Fund (UNICEF).

July 18, 2017 (KAMPALA) – South Sudan government has admitted that it blocked access to the Paris-based Sudan Tribune website over its “hostile” news coverage.

“If they [Sudan Tribune website] have been disseminating hostile messages towards us then we have the authority to close them,” information minister Michael Makuei Lueth told Bloomberg Tuesday.

“So many countries have been closing down, even giving total blackout to such media houses which create hostility,” he added.

Multiple sources, however, confirmed that two other news websites were inaccessible on Monday after authorities directed internet providers to block them.

However, the Sudan Tribune and other banned websites remain reachable for our readers in South Sudan when they use Tor Browser or install applications like Fire Onion, Orfox and Tor nado on their smartphones.

The move comes barely two weeks after authorities arrested the head of the state-owned television, Adil Faris Mayat after the station failed to broadcast President Salva Kiir's Independence Day speech.

Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called for the immediate release of Mayat, who has reportedly been held incommunicado since 10 July.

“We call for this journalist's immediate release,” said Cléa Kahn-Sriber, the head of RSF's Africa desk, adding “Frequent arbitrary measures of this kind by the security services and the accompanying impunity are killing media freedom in South Sudan and are holding back a return to peace and national reconciliation.”

After South Sudan obtained independence in 2011, a civil war broke out in 2013 and the ensuing political and security crisis has not spared the media. News outlets have been suspended, newspaper issues have been seized, and journalists have been detained arbitrarily, tortured, harassed, forced to censor themselves or forced to flee abroad.

The war-torn East African nation has fallen 20 places in RSF's World Press Freedom Index since 2015 and is now ranked 145th out of 180 countries.

(ST)

July 18, 2017 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's Ministry of Minerals on Tuesday said revenues of gold exports during the first half of 2017 has amounted to $1,6 billion.

Gold bullion blocks pictured at a gold refinery in Khartoum on 11 October 2012 (SUNA)

According to the ministry's semi-annual performance report, the gold production of the first half of this year reached 50.22 tonnes during the first half of this year, saying the share of traditional mining sector reached 42,6 tonnes.

The report pointed that the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS) has exported 16,1 tonnes while the private sector exported 2,2 tonnes.

Meanwhile, the minister of minerals Hashim Ali Salim has called for the need to form a committee to review policies pertaining to buying and selling of gold, demanding revising mining laws and the fees imposed on gold prospectors.

Sudan currently ranks third in gold production behind South Africa and Ghana but aims to land in the first place by 2018.

Gold has become one of Sudan's largest exports which partially compensated for the loss in oil revenues, which accounted for more than 50% of income until 2011 when South Sudan seceded, taking with it most of the country's oil reserves.

Sudan approved a law to regulate traditional mining by granting licenses and specifying areas to work in to protect them from hazardous conditions and smuggling.

It is believed that traditional mining employs more than a million Sudanese but it is still difficult to obtain credible data.

(ST)

July 18, 2017 (KHARTOUM) - Foreign Ministers of the east African regional bloc (IGAD) will meet in Juba on Sunday to discuss the report of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) on the implementation of South Sudan's peace agreement, said Sudan's Foreign Ministry.

President Salva Kiir (L) and rebel leader Riek Machar (R) attend the signing a ceasefire agreement during an IGAD summit on the South Sudan crisis in Addis Ababa on 1 February 2015 (Photo: Reuters/Tiksa Negeri)

South Sudan's peace agreement signed in Addis Ababa in August 2015 failed following the eruption of hostilities in the capital, Juba in July 2016. The conflict has since spread to Equatoria and Bahr El Ghazal regions, which were initially considered peaceful during the earlier periods when violence broke out in mid-December, 2013.

Last month, South Sudan's Minister of Information Michael Makuei said Juba would host a meeting for the IGAD countries and the Chiefs-of-Staff of Chiefs of the countries participating in the regional protection force during July.

The director of the Neighbouring Countries Department at Sudan's Foreign Ministry Bukhari Ghanim said his country's delegation to the IGAD meeting in Juba would be headed by the foreign minister Ibrahim Ghandour.

He told the semi-official Sudan Media Center (SMC) Tuesday that Sudan works within the framework of the IGAD countries to achieve peace in South Sudan, pointing to the existence of a number of joint committees between Juba and Khartoum.

The Sudanese diplomat called for the need to make further official and popular contacts between the two countries, pointing to the importance to achieve understandings on the outstanding issues between Juba and Khartoum.

South Sudan seceded from Sudan on July 9th, 2011 following a referendum on whether the semi-autonomous region should remain a part of the country or become independent. 99% of the southern voters chose independence.

(ST)

July 18, 2017 (JUBA)- South Sudanese President Salva Kiir on Tuesday convened an emergency meeting of the national security committee in the capital, Juba a day after declaring a state of emergency in parts of the country.

South Sudan president Salva Kiir at a meeting with security officials, July 17, 2017 (ST)

The meeting followed the communal clashes in four states. The state of emergency covered parts of Aweil East, Wau, Gogrial and Jonglei states.

The order did not, however, mention which specific places in the state were affected. It not known which areas will be affected since such a declaration is usually followed by the introduction of special measures such as increased powers for the police or army, usually connected to civil unrest or natural disasters like earthquakes.

Martial laws apply for civil unrest in the area. And in most cases, the measures affect operations of local schools and other economic activities since it hampers movement.

South Sudan's First Vice President Taban Deng Gai, Vice the President James Wani Igga, Adviser for Security Tut Gatluak, Minister of National Security, Obuto Mamur, Minister of Defense Kuol Manyang, Minister of Interior, Michael Chiangjiek, Minister of Justice Paulino Wanawilla and the Minister of Information, Broadcasting & Postal Service, Michael Makuei Lueth attended the meeting.

However, the other officials and officers who attended the meeting were the minister in the office of the president, Mayiik Ayii, finance minister, Central Bank governor, the inspector general of police, deputy chief of defense forces, director generals for internal and external security bureaus of the security service, Akol Koor Kuc and Thomas Duoth and director of army military intelligence, Gen. Marial Nuor.

The country's minister of interior, who doubles as the spokesperson of the committee, Michael Chiangjiek said that the meeting discussed security situation in the Countrywide and the measures to be used to resolve the matters

Chiangjiek emphasised on the recent communal clashes between Jonglei state and Boma states were part of the agenda of the meeting held today. The committee, he said, condemned in "strongest" terms the attacks in which 30 people lost their lives, 18 wounded and 7,000 herds of cattle allegedly taken.

It was not clear which community took cows from which community in the region.

Unconfirmed reports, mainly on social media, blamed the ethnic Murle over the raid.

Chiangjiek said that the committee had agreed to form an investigation committee to look into the incident urgently. He said that the Boma state government had been ordered to collect all cattle that were raided and sent back to Jonglei state in order to avoid revenge from the youth of Jonglei state.Other issues discussed at the meeting were the deteriorating security situation in Gogrial state.

The committee reportedly agreed to deploy the army in the area to provide security and protect citizens.

(ST)

The UN refugee agency says traffickers on the migrant route from Libya are becoming ever more ruthless.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela says South Africa is in a political crisis and the ANC has "messed up".

The United Nations human rights arm today voiced deep concern for the safety of individuals taken prisoner by members of the Libyan army after recent fighting in Benghazi, noting that they may be at imminent risk of torture and even summary execution.

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