Africa

At a meeting today in the United Nations Security Council on the situation in the Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa, senior UN officials stressed that climate change plays a direct role in the region’s security, development and stability by increasing drought and fuelling conflict.

Kenya's parliament approves changes to anti-doping legislation in the hope of avoiding a ban on its athletes attending the Olympic Games in Rio.

And other ways Nigeria has changed under new president

Hundreds of people gather in Cairo for a candlelit vigil for the victims of last week's EgyptAir crash.

Up to 30 migrants are feared dead after a boat capsizes off the Libyan coast as the full horror of a similar shipwreck a day earlier emerges.

South Africa's parliament approves a bill allowing the government to expropriate land in the public interest.

Justice, accountability and the deterrent effects of the law remain “critical components” for achieving lasting peace in Libya, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) told the United Nations Security Council today, encouraging the country’s Government to give priority to devising effective plans and strategies to address atrocity crimes, and to invest in the relevant national institutions responsible for such work.

The mastermind of the 2010 bomb attacks in Uganda's capital, Kampala, which killed 74 people as they were watching the World Cup final, is found guilty.

By Mahmoud A. Suleiman

During the last few years the political components, both traditional and Leftists continued raising their voices calling for something vaguely termed ‘Civil State' as an alternative to the National Congress Party (NCP) regime that adopts ‘Political Islam' which stemmed from the ideology of the global Muslim Brotherhood Movement (MBM). The doctrine of Civil State is a big lie utilised as a camouflage to mislead the Sudanese public; some opponents say. For example, but not limited to them, two of the opponents to the principle of ‘Civil State' wrote in the Sudanese electronic press, with some skepticism and cynicism about the credibility of those who advocated ‘Civil State' to rule Sudan after the demise of the regime of the (NCP). Bearing in mind that the (NCP) regime led by the genocidal criminal and the fugitive from the international justice, Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir. One of those who wrote critically about the political Islam is the researcher and writer, Dr. Omer El-Guarrai. Dr. El-Guarrai in that respect wrote quoting Rashid Ghannouchi, leader of the Tunisian Ennahda Party, who seemed to have started retreating from the ideological principals his party adopted over the decade. Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the Tunisian Renaissance said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde days before the General Congress of his party between 20 and May 22 May 2016 that: (there is no longer justification for political Islam in Tunisia and the revolution of 2011 put an end to all dictatorships, extremist and hardline secularism. Moreover, Rachid Ghannouchi continued saying that we need increasingly to learn co-existence and live with a difference! The principles of Political Islam of the Global Muslim Brotherhood Movement (MBM) which Ghannouchi tried abandoning them. Ghannouchi said, criticizing extremism and the heinous crimes carried out against innocent people along swathes of lands in the Middle East and elsewhere in the name of Islamic Jihad by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL). Moreover, Ghannouchi concluded by saying that he is a Tunisian first and departing that ideology for good. However, that is it whether it is a political rhetoric or something trustworthy nobody is dead sure.

The other person who started criticising the political opposition factions, both armed and civilian, who have embraced the principle of ‘Civil State' is the writer and scholar Salah Shuaib. Shuaib blamed all those adopted the so-called ‘Civil State' including the Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). Moreover, Salah Shuaib indicated the (JEM) is still spins around the Popular Congress Party (PCP) axis formerly led by the Islamists godfather in Sudan about whom (JEM) issued a condolence statement in its formal Website on the death of Dr. Hassan Abdalla al-Turabi on 5 March 2016. The Sudanese rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) had issued a statement of condolence of the general secretary of the Communist Party of Sudan Mohamed Ibrahim Nugud, who died in March 22, 2012. The foregoing incidence cannot be interpreted that the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) has a Communist tendency. It is noteworthy that within the membership of the movement there exist numbers of members who believe in the principles of communism, socialism and liberalism, and so on. Furthermore, Condolence over the death of someone you know is stipulated in the Sudanese cultural norms. Thus, the condolence over the death of late Dr. Hassan al-Turabi is a natural thing and is one of the duties of Sudanese heritage. Moreover, it is not necessarily be interpreted as an evidence for the link of the Movement (JEM) to the former godfather of the National Islamic Front (NIF).

However, in a nutshell, we must be frank and honest that some of the Darfur rebel movements such as (JEM) which rebelled against the (NCP) regime injustice, walked with stream adopting the ‘Civil State' as an option to rule Sudan after the demise of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement (MBM) regime.

When one delves into the literature on ‘Civil State' there, are number of books and articles braying in favour of ‘Civil State' and praising its principle. Nevertheless, unfortunately they are words and resonating terms without detailing the practical steps for the establishment of a modern civil state in the Arab and Muslim countries, and more importantly, without an explanation of how to get out from under the yoke of injustice, oppression and tyranny regime!

To date, there has been no precise definition for the term ‘Civil State'. However, every Sudanese political group trying to suggest that they have the magical stick of the God's Prophet Moses to resolve the chronic crises of Sudan if they had the opportunity to govern the country stuck in mud of political failings since the exit of the British colonial power sixty four years ago on the first of January 1956.

We need admitting that the background origins of the Sudanese political parties are sectarian.
If persistently keen observer looks at the Sudanese opposition components' backgrounds, most of them are affiliates of and belonged to the sectarian religious, we find that the National Umma Party (NUP) belongs to the Ansar Sect. Similarly, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) belongs to the Khatmiyya Sect. The other parties that rebelled as ‘Front' came out of the sectarian religious parties. They renamed themselves as the fashionable term front. Examples include the Broad National Front led by Ali Mahmoud Hassanein. Mr. Hassanein, a former vice president of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and he split from the main party after disagreements with the party leadership. Furthermore, there are many small parties were part of the religious denominations parties. Each of these parties claimed Fostering the so- called “Civil State”. In other words, political Islam remains under the curtain, fearing the wrath of the party membership. The bulk of the religious Sectarian Party affiliates believe that secular system as Atheism, not religious, because of ignorance or naivety! Moreover, fear of parties that their membership would leave the party for good if the leadership adopts any doctrine other than the one claiming hypocritically Islamism. This paradox continued haunting the political class in Sudan for decades and preventing the country's progress, prosperity and peace.
Further to the above are some of the names of the heads of Sudanese parties had already split from the sectarian parties:

Salah Shuaib said the truth categorically that the ‘Civil State' is nothing but a vacuous talk shop and that it is inevitable and necessary to resort to the Secular State option! Moreover, Salah Shuaib goes on to say that, the concept of the ‘Civil State' in the ‘Civilized West' might carry more meanings contrary to what in the context of the Islamic Civilization. Furthermore, Shuaib indicates that a demodulation to the concept occurred in the last two decades into the Arab political field across Organization from here and there and it then leaked to the ‘recipient Sudan'.

On the other hand, some members in the Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) believe the hint Salah Shuaib made is interpreted as there is still continuing link between (JEM) leadership and the (MBM) represented in the (PCP) formerly led by Dr. Hassan al-Turabi and justifying that link to the Movement's condolence of Turabi in the (JEM) Website. Many of the (JEM) members think that statement as an unfair insult and tallies to what some of the international community components as well as the National Congress Party (NCP) regime elements continued parroting since the outbreak of the Revolution in Darfur in February 2003. The (NCP) regime used propaganda machine for defaming (JEM) which proved its seriousness for removing the decades of injustice imposed on the people of the region of Western Sudan by the successive central governments. Unfortunately, Salah Shuaib, whose ancestors may have descended from Western Sudan if not from Darfur, continues promoting what some Westerners supporting the ruling regime of the (NCP) that has been providing classified intelligence services about its fellow Islamist trerrorists to them. This is despite the fact that (JEM) has started as a National movement for all the Sudanese people regardless of their colour, creed, ethnicity, gender, regional or political affiliation, culture or language for joining it as a member. Thus, the Sudanese (JEM) attracted its membership from all the then six regions of Sudan including people from the Southern Sudan prior to its secession. In this regard, one cannot blame Salah Shuaib as a journalist reporting on a controversial thorny subject of the ‘Civil State'. Salah Shuaib continues to say that the problem in Sudan centres around the leaders do not want to pay the high price of confessing courageously the facts essential and necessary for nation rebuilding and on those who are afraid to utter the need for saying that, Sudan is in need of Secular rule.

Peter Hill in his article entitles “The Civil” and “the Secular” in Contemporary Arab Politics said that the term “Medani”, generally translated as “civil,” has played an important role in Arabic political discourse since the revolutions of the Arab Spring began on 18 December 2010. Arab Spring refers to a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests both non-violent and violent, riots, and civil wars in the Arab world that began in Tunisia with the Tunisian Revolution, and spread throughout the countries of the Arab League and its surroundings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring

The term “civil state” (“al-dawla al-madaniyya”) is a unique product of this discourse. Though possibly coined by the Muslim Brotherhood Movement (MBM) in the 1950s, it is only since the revolutions that it has become a central and controversial term in politics

The term is complex, used in varying and indeed contradictory ways. In Egypt, different uses of the term “civil” reveal fault lines that exist in the post-revolutionary period between various political parties, and their conceptions of politics and society.

To track the different meanings of the “civil”, and by extension the “civil state,” is to sketch the landscape of competing visions about Egypt's future. Different uses of the term reveal widely shared aspirations for a non-military state, but also important differences of opinion over the role of religion in public life. One factor that emerges is the political power of these terms for both secularists and many Islamists, as both attempt to lay claim to the “civil” and “civil state.” Equally significant are the areas in which this crucial debate is silent, most importantly with regard to economic affairs and social justice.

This definition – a democratic and constitutional state that excludes the military – is the least controversial aspect of the “civil state,” and is the one most frequently used by Egypt's Islamist politicians and religious figures.

According to the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12813859
The downfall of Tunisia's President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali inspired pro-democracy activists across the Arab world. Widespread discontent at economic hardship, decades of autocratic rule and corruption erupted into mass demonstrations in December 2010 after a young, unemployed man, Mohamed Bouazizi, set fire to himself after officials stopped him selling vegetables in Sidi Bouzid. Around 300 people were killed during the subsequent unrest, which forced Ben Ali to resign in January 2011, after 23 years in power, and go into exile in Saudi Arabia. He was later sentenced to life in prison in absentia. In October 2011, Tunisia held its first democratic parliamentary elections. The moderate Islamist Ennahda party won more than 41% of the vote in the constituent assembly tasked with drafting a new constitution. Veteran dissident Moncef Marzouki was then elected president.

In a nutshell, one has to do justice to Salah Shuaib as to the overall contents of his article. Salah Shuaib has written previously articles with similar themes. An example of that sort of articles he wrote an article with a title Intellectual, moral and psychological crisis of the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood Movement). His candor in telling the bare facts that other writers fear delving in for the consequences and leaving them go astray remains clear! The current article is commendable for being very frank demonstrating the facts that the Sudanese political class trying cover themselves up behind a transparent curtain, which reveals the hidden things behind it. The politicians tried hiding their true desires behind the ‘Civil State' trickery. The real intensions of those politicians centre on application of “Political Islam” through the backdoor. They intended to do so in spite of the abject failures and disasters brought to Sudan by the doctrine of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement (MBM) over more than forty odd years. Sudan and its people experienced autocracy, arbitrary laws that allowed lynching, flogging women, crimes of genocide, amputation of hands and lower limbs. The foregoing atrocities occurred during the two military dictatorships regimes backed by the ideological thoughts of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement (MBM. The Sudanese people especially in the marginalized regions suffered most during the reign of Jaafer Muhammed Nimeiri, 1969-1985 of so-called May 25 Revolution and the 30th June 1989 –to date military coup d'état of the National Islamic Front (NIF) that split after the so-called Haggle, Arabic “Mufasala” into (NCP)(PCP). Both of the infamous regimes applied selectively the provisions of punitive Sharia Laws that targeted mainly in Sudan the amputation of limbs of the poor, flogging of women in isolation from the tolerance of the Islamic religion. The NIF laws exempted the influential officials in the National Congress Party (NCP) regime who have been implicated in the crimes of corruption and looting public money and transferring it to banks outside Sudan by using Fatwas referred to as (in Arabic ‘Tahalul in English ‘Decomposition') and becoming “Halal”, emanated from religious Sheikhs belonging to the (NCP) government. The major government corruption in the era of the (NCP) regime represented by the sale of the Sudan House in the neighbourhood of Knights Bridge in London, Sudan Airways airstrip landing at the London Heathrow Airport, sale of the main airline carrier Sudan Air, Sudanese Cruise Lines, Sale of Sudan Railways and the catastrophic sale of the Gezira Irrigated Agricultural Project in the Central Region of Sudan.

There is no such thing as a civil state in the world today and not in the past it was utter vague and incomprehensible even to those who espouse to adopt it. It seems that the main purpose for the adoption of this lie is the fear an assumed of public reaction against any calls alternative to the doctrine of the (MBM) who failed in their experience all over the Islamic World they tried to rule, Sudan is not an exception.

The so-called civil state is an empty slogan of no truth in it. Worse, it presents as empty of content and a kind of hypocrisy because of the fear of some political elites assuming the possibility that people might revolt against the principle of the secular state, which some gullible people think it as a kind of atheism. There is no escape from the secular state to Sudan after the demise of the regime of the global Muslim Brotherhood movement in Khartoum. Sudan has experienced two experiments to apply state of political Islam, both of which failed catastrophically. They included the so-called September Laws in the era of President Muhammed Jaafer Nimeiri that extended for 1969 to 1986. The second and the worst one is the current (NCP) regime of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement (MBM). The latter proved beyond doubt as the most destructive, disastrous, and led to fragmentation of the Sudanese nation with the continued civil attrition wars and committing crimes of genocide and all sorts of vices in the name of Islam which disowns of all those heinous crimes.

Dr. Mahmoud A. Suleiman is an author, columnist and a blogger. His blog is http://thussudan.wordpress.com/

Rescued migrants have arrived in Sicily after the boat they were in capsized on Wednesday.

Ted Dumitru, who coached four African nations and some of South Africa's top clubs, passes away at the age of 76.

A Nigerian baby girl who survived a shipwreck in the Mediterranean goes to a foster family in Sicily, after touching Italian hearts.

By James Okuk

Since the time of separation of South Sudan from the Sudan in 2011, the bilateral relations between the two countries have not become desirably institutionalized for the needed viability of co-existence and cooperation of the two neighbouring countries for ensuring peace, security, stability and prosperity in commonality. The two states have not been seen treating themselves softly with best neighbourliness foreign policies despite the fact that they are deterministically bounded by the longest inseparable geography in the region with land boundaries of about 2,158 km (according to January 1, 1956 alignment). Political leadership could be the problem because social relations of the peoples of the two states are still fine.

The souring relations between Khartoum and Juba didn't creep instantly from the blue. The ruling parties in both capitals had been fierce enemies for decades though the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) tried to tame them into partnership of making unity of the Sudan attractive, especially to South Sudanese (including the Nine Ngok Dinka Chieftaincies of Abyei Area). Because of that commitment, preparation for institutionalization of the independence of South Sudan was totally neglected by the CPA's partners because they were obliged to ‘make unity attractive.' That was why both of them were caught unaware by the overwhelming decision of the people of South Sudan not to be attracted to the politicized unity of the Sudan. The SPLM leaders in Juba found it difficult to go against the people's destiny and they had to betray their NCP partners in Khartoum who were left with no option but to absorb the shock with bitter acceptance of the result of the referendum for self-determination for the people of South Sudan in January 2011, especially after they realized that the separation project has the total backing and support of the U.S superpower and other allies in Europe and Africa.

However and after politics of unity of the Sudan was thwarted by the opposite referendum result, every other commitment that was stipulated in the CPA but remained unimplemented had to get subjected to either automatic collapse or renegotiation. Khartoum had to uncomfortably delete anything that has to do with South Sudan and Juba had to also do the same based on constitutional and sovereignty necessity. The issue of nationality, borders, currency, oil, trade, debts, assets, pensions, post-service benefits, Abyei Administration and referendum, Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile popular consultations, and disengagement with the SPLM/A-North popped up to become very urgent but at the same time intricately contentious. Nothing looked sufficient to bridge the urgent gaps left in the broken Sudan and also in the new made South Sudan with its open possibilities.

For example, Juba went ahead to print its own currency and passports without consultation with Khartoum, and despite the previous gentlemen agreement that these issues shall be handled evolutionarily and coordinately so as to avoid any consequence of abrupt unilateralism. The amount of the redundant CPA's Sudanese pounds circulating in South Sudan was seen to be a danger to Sudan's economy, especially after it has loss many oil fields to South Sudan. Hence, Khartoum decided abruptly too to change its currency to a new pound while disqualifying the old one it used to share with Juba. South Sudanese working in Sudan had to get fired. A threat of conflict and aggression became eminent. The border movements had to get restricted and sometimes closed, especially after the Sudan People's Liberation Movement – North (SPLM-North) in the areas of Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile went into war with Khartoum to add to Darfuri rebels.

Nevertheless, the nature of the possible war by then between Khartoum and Juba wasn't the same as the previous civil wars (e.g., Anya-nya and SPLM/A) because of the new reality that the warring parties were ruling two separate independent countries that are already recognized legitimately by the United Nations, the African Union and other international bodies and individual countries. The two countries have also recognized each other's independence when they opened their respective embassies in Juba and Khartoum and exchanged resident Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassadors. Such war, if allowed to be fully conducted, would no longer be an internal affair. Regional and International intervention was eminent. Thus, the AU had to take it upon itself to mediate for negotiations through a High-Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) chaired by the former South African President, Thabo Mbeki and with Abdulsalam Alhaji Abubakar (former Nigerian President) and Pierre Buyoya (former Burundian President) as core members.

The AUHIP led by these peer of former presidential elders and advised by some experts on Sudan and South Sudan (like Alex de Waal) tried to contain the situation though tensions over the post-CPA and post-independence issues continued unabated. To make things worst, the SPLM's regime in Juba decided to shut-in oil production in January 2012 when the resource makes up over 90% of the government budget and expenditure. The core justification was that Khartoum was taking and taping out secretly the crude oil from South Sudan without permission from Juba. In retaliation, the NCP's regime in Khartoum decided to close down the regular borders movements of the people and tradable goods along South Sudan. In April 2012 the two countries went for a brief but deadly war over the lucrative Heglig (known originally as Panthou) oil facility that has been managed by Khartoum while claimed by Juba. The UN Secretary-General, U.S President and other allies mounted a pressure on Juba to leave Heglig to Khartoum. Juba was left with no power to cement itself but withdraw from the contested area with regrettable costs to many lives of soldiers.

But the accusations of each side for supporting rebel's activities to topple each others' regimes became intensified with smearing and rhetorical propaganda. The Sudan Parliament went as far as declared Juba as “an enemy state”. The First Vice President of the Sudan issued orders to shoot-and-kill any person found smuggling goods at the border and to confiscate the caught trucks and other properties from such betrayers.

The post-independence negotiations got stalled until breaking news came later when Presidents Omar Hassan al-Bashir and Salva Kiir Mayardit were invited to Addis Ababa by the AUHIP to be direct participants of the September 27, 2012 agreements between their respective countries. These were:
1) The Cooperation Agreement signed by Presidents Kiir and al-Bashir themselves (confirming commitment to common viability and other bilateral agreements);
2) Security Arrangements Agreement signed by the Ministers of Defence, H.E. John Kong Nyuon for South Sudan and H.E. Lt. Gen (PSC) Eng. Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein for the Sudan (to demilitarize the border, starting with 10-crossing corridors)
3) The Border Issues Agreement (including demarcation and Zero-Points identification);
4) The Framework Agreement on the status of Nationals of the other state and Related Matters (e.g. Interior Ministers chairing negotiations of details of implementation of the Four Freedoms: to Reside, to Move, to conduct Economic Activity, and to Own Property);
5) The Framework Agreement to Facilitate Payment of Post-Service Benefits (to establish principles and mechanisms that ensure uninterrupted, timely and convenient payment arrangements for the retired or pensioned citizens of either state);
6) The Agreement on Certain Economic Matters (Division of Assets and Liabilities, Arrears and Claims and Joint Approach to the International Community to erase Khartoum's debts while it shoulders Juba's share but with no division of assets as a condition);
7) The Agreement on Oil and Related Economic Matters (Waiving the arrears, Resumption of South Sudan Oil Production, Transit through Sudan and Transitional Financial Arrangements, all costing USD 24.5 per a barrel for 42 months so as to enable Sudan to diversify its economy for resilience after losing many oil fields to South Sudan);
8) The Agreement on Trade and Trade Related Issues (pursuing independent trade policy while considering the possibility of common policies and adhering to policies of regional and international organizations to which each state belong); and
9) The Agreement on a Framework for Cooperation on Central Banking Issues (acknowledging the need for cooperation in the management of monetary and fiscal policies to maintain confidence and control inflation that could destabilize exchange rate due to fluctuations, and continuing to adhere to international finance and banking standards).

The rest of the seven agreements were all signed by the Chief Negotiators of the two countries (H.E. Pagan Amum Okiech for South Sudan and H.E. Idris Abdel Gadir for the Sudan). For operational institutionalization, the National Legislative Assemblies of the two countries had to cordially ratify them within 45 days from the time of signature so that the necessary mechanisms for effective monitoring would get established in addition to regular or extraordinary Heads of the two States Summits, Ministerial Meetings and Technical Committees (and Sub-Committees) Meetings.

Some mechanisms commenced as expected but got slowed down later by the tsunamic change of cabinet in Juba in July 2013 and the resultant outbreak of mid-December 2013 crisis of the deadly SPLM/A's leadership struggle. Though Khartoum tried to portray itself as neutral, Kampala direct intervention to take side with Juba in the war against Dr. Riek Machar' rebellion provoked the NCP' regime to rethink its September 2012 rapprochement despite the fact that one of the IGAD's Mediation Envoys (i.e, Gen. Ahmed Mohamed al-Dabi) was a Sudanese Government's nominee while Uganda was totally knocked out from the mediation as a result of objection by the SPLM/A-IO. The counter accusations and suspicion of maliciousness of one country against the other continued.

Notwithstanding, the August 2015 Agreement on Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (ARCSS) made Khartoum to be hopeful a bit with a hope of bettering relations with Juba. President al-Bashir, and as a member of IGAD's Summit of Heads of State and Government, appended his signature on the deal as a guarantor in the company of other Presidents and Prime Ministers of the bloc who also signed the peace document as guarantors in Addis Ababa. But before signing H.E. al-Bashir voiced out his protest on the continuous use of the name “Sudan Liberation Movement/Army” by the warring parties while South Sudan is no longer part of the whole Sudan that the SPLM intended to liberate in the past against the Islamic and Arabized injustices. Khartoum was keenly interested in the ARCSS so that the Sudan could gain from the stability in South Sudan, especially if Chapter II is implemented in letter and spirit as provided in article 1.5 for the withdrawal of Ugandan Forces from South Sudan within 45 days (except in Western Equatoria due to the previous agreement on hunting the LRA before the outbreak break of mid-December 2013 crisis), and also as stipulated in article 1.6 for disarmament, demobilization and repatriation of Sudanese Revolutionary Forces (SPLM-North, JEM, SLA-Minnawi, SLA-Abdel Wahid) within the pre-transitional period by the state actors with whom they have been supporting.

This could be the crux of the matter why Khartoum sent a chilling decision in mid-March 2016 to treat South Sudanese nationals as aliens and close the border for security reasons. Fast steps that have been taken by Juba to get admitted into the East African Community might have also hastened the vile of Khartoum to decide the way it did. Khartoum might have gotten worried of not harvesting the fruits of ARCSS as its implementation is over-delaying while time is running out. With no Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU) in place and effectively operational in Juba, defeating and destroying the Sudan rebels' forces shall remain a nightmare to the NCP's regime. But again, pushing Juba to disarm, demobilize and repatriate the Sudanese Revolutionary forces is not an easy project to pursue because it has a tremendous cost to lives, properties and finance of South Sudanese. Perhaps, if the AUHIP manages to strike a peace deal between the Sudan rebels and Khartoum, that could be the only safer exit by Juba from that trap.

Khartoum doesn't trust the SPLM-Juba because of its connection to the rebels of the Sudan and also to President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, despite his two-day bilateral visit to Sudan in September 2015 where it was highlighted that there shall be renewed cooperation between them in security, intelligence and defence matters. Kampala has been accusing Khartoum of harbouring the Lord Resistance Army (LRA) of Joseph Kony in a remote area in Darfur region and assisting them with arms. Nonetheless, Khartoum has been appreciating Kampala for restricting activities of Sudanese rebels who used to hold meetings in Uganda and get arms through it. That could be part of the motivation why President al-Bashir took the risk of ICC's Warranty of Arrest and travelled to Uganda on May 12, 2016 for Inauguration of President Museveni's fifth term of presidency and further discussion on bilateral ties even with protests by US, Canadian and some European Governments.

It seems probable that the recurrent chilling bilateral relations between Khartoum and Juba shall not get eased unless there is peace in both countries. The positive moves towards revitalization of the delayed ARCSS implementation shall make Khartoum to slow-down and monitor the new political developments. The suspension of operationalization of hullabaloo of the 28 states until a political consensus is reached as directed in the January 2016 Communiqué of IGAD's Council of Ministers, may also cool the nerves of Khartoum to be patient and improve the bilateral ties with Juba. Not only these but also if the development partners and rest of international community come to aid of Juba for easing the dire humanitarian situation and rescuing the collapsing economy, Khartoum may reconsider its arrogant attitude towards Juba. The NCP plotters could get tamed more if the TGoNU sent to Khartoum a very high-level delegation composing of prominent representatives of the four principal parties to the ARCSS to discuss the hot issues with President al-Bashir and his cabinet. Their negative attitude towards Juba may subside immediately with Abyei becoming a bridge between the two countries as dreamt by veteran Ambassador Francis M. Deng.

The result of that unique visit shall speed up the paralyzed progress of the required missing ministerial and technical committees for the proper institutionalization of the specific instruments of implementing the signed bilateral agreements or renegotiating them. The normalized cordial relations between Juba and Khartoum shall enable both countries to venture into unsuspicious joint activities for rebuilding the two states with common prosperous viability. Some of the marginalized professional South Sudanese diplomats shall be willing to help and use the nuance they have had within the Sudanese diplomacy so as to generate fruitful gains within the context of sustainable peace and desirable neighborliness as stipulated in the constitutional principles of the two countries.

Thus, the key to ending the unending Khartoum-Juba diplomatic, security and economic rows or show-downs is to properly institutionalize the bilateral relations and cement it with concrete mutual interests that each state will be sensitive to compromise at any cost. Diplomacy and international relations is supposed to be based on the premise that isolation is not an option but interdependence with keen understanding and skilful management of sophistication of the globalization process.

It is high time the TGoNU prioritizes a reformed and transformed South Sudanese diplomacy in order to protect invigoratingly the national interests and safeguard the territorial integrity; identify and level the extent of cooperation or competition with others; preserve the national security and stability and contribute in doing the same to the region and the world at large; cement the development of core national economic, social and political objectives; and motivate the influential positive actors while neutralizing the negative ones.

Dr. James Okuk is lecturer of politics reachable at okukjimy@hotmail.com

Zamalek will now complete their Egyptian Premier League season, having said on Wednesday they were withdrawing over "disastrous refereeing errors".

South Africans are wondering how serious President Jacob Zuma is about austerity after it emerged this week that the state had spent about 8.6m rand ($550,000; £374,000) on new cars for his wives over the past three years, writes the BBC's Milton Nkosi.

May 25, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – Tens of relatives of students arrested by the Sudanese security service have protested at the office of the vice chancellor of the Khartoum University on Wednesday demanding their immediate release.

Families of detained students sit in outside the Khartoum University Vice Chancellor on 25 May 2016 (ST Photo)

Earlier this month, Vice Chancellor relieved six students and suspended 11 others for their alleged role in April protests against the relocation of the university buildings.

Following this decision, on May 5, armed men in plain clothes of Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Service stormed into the office of the lawyer Nabil Adeeb in Khartoum and arrested dozens of students who hired him to challenge the dismissal decision.

On Wednesday tens of the students' families have handed over a memorandum to the minister of the higher education and the vice chancellor to protest the in which they described the penalties against the students as unfair.

The memo, which was supported by the university's teachers, the graduates association and the students lawyers, said that in addition to the punishments” the Vice Chancellor of the University of Khartoum made outrageous rumours against the students, a matter that paved the way for the security service to arrest and torture them”.

The signatories to the memo have held the university officials responsible for the safety of the students, saying that the case would not take that course if the university adopted wisdom and constructive dialogue and committed to the laws.

They further called them to reach the security service to ensure the immediate release of the students, urging the university administration to reverse the dismissal decisions.

The students started legal actions against the merits of the university's vice chancellor dismissal decision but they were surprised by the security service raid at the lawyer's office, the memo said.

The students were brutally beaten before taken to unknown place inaccessible to their families and lawyers” the memo added.

The memo has blamed external bodies for the crises of the university, pointing out that the protection of the independence of the university's institutions is essential to solve the university crisis.

Human Rights Watch issued a statement on Wednesday condemning the continued arrest without charges of the Sudanese university students.

"If the authorities have credible evidence that any of those detained have committed legitimate offenses, they should have already charged the detainees. Anyone not already charged should be released pending any potential charges the authorities intend to bring", Human Rights Watch said.

The international rights group pointed that the Sudanese security services have "repeatedly and violently cracked down on protests, including in September and October 2013, when security forces killed more than 170 protesters".

(ST)

May 25, 2016 (JUBA) – Current sittings of the former national legislative assembly of South Sudan are illegal following formation of new unity government which should have reconstituted new parliament, said officials of the armed opposition faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO).

The opposition faction also said their leadership has been committed to peace and cooperated in its implementation, including the urgent need to reconstitute the parliament in accordance with the August 2015 peace agreement.

“We have a new transitional government of national unity, being executive, since 29 April. There should have been a reconstituted new inclusive transitional national legislative assembly from that day. This would have included memberships of opposition factions,” James Gatdet Dak, press secretary of the SPLM-IO's leader, Riek Machar, told Sudan Tribune on Wednesday.

“This has not happened and the former parliament of pre-transitional unity government has continued to illegally operate alongside the new executive organ,” he said.

Dak said mode of electing new speaker as well as who should chair the first sitting during which the speaker should be elected from lawmakers from Equatoria region have delayed reconstitution of the new parliament.

He said while the SPLM-IO was for secret ballot votes in electing the speaker and that the oldest Member of Parliament should be best suited to chair the sitting, the former government was for show of hand in voting and for the current speaker, Manasseh Magok Rundial, to chair the first sitting.

“But the most serious violation or inconsistency as the parliament is concerned is the ongoing illegal sitting of the former parliament of the former government when a new government is in place,” he said.

The SPLM-IO's leadership, he added, was of the view that the sittings should have been suspended until the contentious issues were addressed by the new government and a new national parliament reconstituted which could now sit under new inclusive membership and speakership.

On Monday, for instance, he said the old parliament of President Salva Kiir's faction unilaterally deliberated on and ratified a document which made South Sudan a member of the East African Community (EAC).

He said such an important decision affecting the future of the whole country should have been delayed to be discussed by the new transitional unity parliament.

Dak also said the former parliament has continued to summon national ministers of the new unity government to present to its sittings in violation of the peace agreement.

The Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (ARCISS), which the parties signed in August 2015 to end 21 months of civil war, has called on the parties to form a new unity government, including new parliament with membership from all the peace partners.

He said the SPLM-IO's leadership is committed to the implementation of the peace agreement as signed to end the suffering of the people, but added that there is need for reciprocity from the other partner.

Dak reiterated other challenges including lack of resolution on the status of the 28 states unilaterally created by former government against the peace deal which was based on the country's 10 states.

Refusal by President Kiir's faction in the cabinet to agree on cantonment of opposition forces in Equatoria and Bahr el Ghazal regions is another stumbling block, he said.

NO OFFICE FOR MACHAR

Dak also revealed that the SPLM-IO's chairman, Riek Machar, who was appointed as First Vice President in the transitional government of national unity has not yet been given office to operate from.

Machar, he said, has been operating officially from his temporary prefab residence behind Jebel Kujur, about 6kms west of Juba city center or the presidential palace, and would only come to the government's premises or meeting hall in the city when there was cabinet meeting or to attend other official meetings involving other ministers or senior foreign dignitaries.

Several ministers appointed from the SPLM-IO, he added, have no cars to take them to work as cars used by the former ministers were nowhere to be found and no new cars have been provided for them.

He said some of the new ministers have been forced by the situation to hire vehicles or share hired cars for official transportation.

(ST)

May 25, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Sudanese government Wednesday said the implementation of the cooperation agreement is indivisible and cannot be selective, ahead of meeting with South Sudanese officials to be held in Addis and Khartoum.

South Sudan's defence minister Kuol Manyang Juuk shakes hands with his Sudanese counterpart Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Ouf while AUHIP member Abdulsalam Abubakar applauds, after the signing of an agreement to operationalize the buffer zone between the two countries on 14 October 2015 (Courtesy photo by the AUHIP).

These statements come as a South Sudanese high level delegation led by the South Sudanese Defence Minister Kuol Manyang Juuk is expected in Khartoum on 7 June to discuss the implementation of the eight agreements and security arrangements particularly.

The eight agreements brokered by the African Union High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) include oil transit, security arrangements, four freedoms and border demarcation are signed on 27 September 2012.

In Khartoum, the coordination committee between the different panels tasked with the implementation of the Cooperation Agreement held a meeting chaired by the Sudanese Vice President Hasabo Abdel Rahman.

"The meeting stressed that the Cooperation Agreement does not accept division and selectivity. Its eight agreement must be enforced simultaneously" said the State Minister at the Sudanese presidency Haroun al-Rashid after the meeting.

He further called on the South Sudanese government to accelerate the works of it various committees to reach an agreement.

Since four year, the two countries have failed to implement the eight agreements except that one on the oil transit fees.

As it accuses Juba of supporting Sudanese rebels, Khartoum insists on the need to operaltionalize the demilitarized zone and to deploy the joint patrols in line with the security arrangements agreement.

Al-Rashid said the different subcommittees presented their reports on the implementation of the signed agreements. Also, the meeting discussed the needed efforts to reactivate the work with their counterpart bodies in South Sudan.

He added that the meeting discussed the ongoing preparations to hold the meeting of the Joint Political and Security Committee (JPSC) next month in Khartoum and the meeting of the Joint Border Demarcation Committee which will be held in Addis Ababa at the end of this month.

Earlier this year Sudan decided unilaterally to open border and allow cross border trade but two months later decided to suspend it and renewed accusations against Juba.

(ST)

May 25, 2016 (JUBA/NAIROBI) – South Sudan's top army commanders should thoroughly investigate abuses committed by its forces, ensuring that those responsible are held accountable, a United States-based human rights body said in a new report.

Soldiers from the South Sudanese army (SPLA) jump off the back of a truck while on patrol in the capital, Juba, following the December 2013 outbreak of violence (Photo: Reuters)

“They should know that they too could face international and criminal sanctions if they don't take concrete action in accordance with the law,” Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report issued Wednesday.

According to the rights body, South Sudan government soldiers carried out a wide range of often-deadly attacks on civilians in and around the country's town of Wau.

The soldiers, it alleged, killed, tortured, raped, and detained civilians and looted and burned down homes in the attacks.

Abuses in the Western Bahr el Ghazal region reportedly took place during government counterinsurgency operations that intensified after a peace deal was signed last year.

The attacks, the rights body stressed, underscored the need for the national unity government to take immediate steps toward accountability for crimes by all warring parties since the start of South Sudan's conflict in mid-December 2013.

“With all eyes on the new national unity government in Juba, government soldiers have been literally getting away with murder in the country's western regions,” said Bekele.

“The new government should immediately call a halt to the abuse, free all arbitrarily detained civilians, and support the creation of a war crimes court that can investigate and prosecute those responsible, including at the highest levels of authority,” he added.

ARMY DISMISSES REPORT

A spokesperson for the national army, Brig. Gen Lul Ruai Koang, said the report was “bias, one sided and heavily relied on incredible eye witnesses to draw conclusions”.

He instead said his office would provide graphic evidences proving that “horrific”crimes were indeed committed against innocent civilians by the “criminals and bandits”.

“These are crimes that HRW either deliberately, out of ignorant or in haste failed to mention in its report as some of the most terrible and heartbreaking crimes committed by unlawful combatants we have been battling,” said Koang.

“It's good to underscore that it takes two to tangle,” he added.

The report says newly deployed, mostly Dinka, soldiers from the South Sudanese army allegedly attacked ethnic Fertit civilians in villages and neighborhoods of the town of Wau.

The abuses, it said, forced tens of thousands of people to flee, leaving villages and entire neighborhoods empty, which it found during a research mission to Wau in April.

The rights body claimed it documented numerous killings, most of which were reportedly committed by SPLA soldiers.

Since late 2015, it said, local authorities, including the governor of the newly created Wau state, Elias Waya Nyipuoch, and community leaders have been reporting the spate of abuses to the army and other government officials.

No steps, the US-based rights body said, were taken to investigate these abuses.

The new transitional government of national unity, Human Rights Watch said, should ask the African Union to promptly establish the hybrid tribunal envisioned in the August 2015 peace agreement to try serious crimes in South Sudan.

“National authorities should also investigate and fairly prosecute human rights violations. The UN peacekeeping mission should also report publicly on the abuses and the government's response,” further says the new report.

(ST)

May 25, 2016 (JUBA) - The United Nations humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan, Eugene Owusu, has strongly condemned the tragic killing of Sister Veronika Racková, a Slovakian nun and medical doctor who was shot last week in Yei River state.

Deputy head of UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), Eugene Owusu (YouTube Photo)

The nun, who was on a humanitarian mission, died at a hospital in Kenya.

“I am deeply saddened by this senseless act and send my deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Sister Veronika Racková,” Owusu said in a statement.

“I welcome steps being taken by the authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice and urge them to act swiftly,” it adds.

The deceased was reportedly driving an ambulance on her way back from a medical centre when she was attacked.

Her death, Owusu stressed, brings to 54 the number of aid workers killed in South Sudan since mid-December 2013.

“Violence against humanitarian workers and humanitarian assets is categorically unacceptable and must stop,” he said.

Owusu urged the Transitional Government of National Unity to endeavour to strengthen the safety and security environment for aid workers and intensively work with them.

(ST)