Africa

May 24 2016 (YAMBIO) - The Chairperson for Yambio county land dispute committee has been shot in Yambio town, capital of Western Equatoria state by unknown gunman.

Rev. Father Charles Bangbe (File Photo ST)

Speaking to Sudan Tribune from Yambio Hospital where doctors were attending to his bullet wound, Reverend Father Charles Bangbe, explained that an armed man with AK47 rifle entered his bedroom at around 10:00 pm and ordered him to sit down, then shot him. The unknown gunman who shot him on his left hand left, thinking that he was dead.

Reverend Bangbe who doubles as Secretary General for Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Church CEEC, said he could not remember having a personal problem with an individual that could result to the attempt to murder him.

He however said such an incident could be related to the land issues because he had had been solving land cases in the land committee set up by the state government to address disputes in Yambio county.

“I am a pastor and think I have no problem with anyone which could result to attempt to kill me. I believe it may be connected to the land issues that I am solving to give back the land to the owners,” he said.

Mayor of Yambio Municipality, Badagbu Daniel, condemned the incident in the “strongest term” and he called upon the people of Yambio town to remain calm while the government was working hard to investigate and bring the culprit to book. No arrest has been made so far.

Meanwhile the Senior Rector of CEEC in South Sudan, Canon Yepeta Nathan, urged the people of the newly created Gbudue State [Western Equatoria] to refrain from killings but should forgive one other.

He further urged the people of Gbudue State to pray hard for peace in the whole country.

Church leaders have been targets in several incidences in Yambio since the outbreak of the conflict which resulted into unknown gunmen killing people at night and threatening others to die soon.

One of the Episcopal Church pastor in Birisi survived death at the onset of the conflict in the area and church properties have been looted and houses around the church burnt.

This is the first shooting since peace was signed between South Sudan government and South Sudan National Liberation Movement in early April 2016.

South Sudan is known for rampant lawlessness as such unknown gunmen also terrify citizens including in the capital, Juba, where President Salva Kiir's government is based.

(ST)

May 23, 2016 (JUBA) - South Sudan lawmakers have unanimously supported the nation's membership to the East African Community (EAC) at a special parliamentary sitting, despite opposition's outcry.

South Sudanese MPs stand during a parliamentary session in Juba on 31 August 2011 (AFP)

South Sudan was admitted to the five nation bloc this year, five years since the application was dropped at the headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya are other members of the EAC, first established in the 1970s.

Philip Thon Leek, chairperson for foreign affairs and international cooperation, presented the motion in parliament on Tuesday, outlining possible benefits in joining the group.

“South Sudan will have a chance to work with powerful investors especially for large infrastructure projects [such as Africa power master plan, East Africa network, East African railway]. This will enable South Sudan to integrate its oil pipeline projects in addition to transportation of imports and exports cheaply,” said Thon.

Members of the main opposition Democratic Change (DC) Party protested the sitting, describing it as illegal since the Transitional Government of Nation Unity (TGoNU) was established under the terms of peace agreement signed last year.

Onyoti Adigo, the leader of minority in parliament said there should be no more parliamentary business without reconstitution of the transitional national legislative assembly as stipulated in the peace agreement signed in August 2015 to end 21 months of fighting between the government of President Salva Kiir and armed opposition faction led by Riek Machar.

"The assembly should be expanded to 400 members and there is no need to continue with any business without the new leadership in the house," Adigo told reporters on Monday.

The opposition lawmaker is also critical on the disadvantages posed by joining the EAC because South Sudan will be a dumping ground and receiver without exporting anything to southern neighbouring countries of Uganda and Kenya.

Philip Thon Leek, an MP representing Duk county and a former governor of Jonglei state, agreed that there are challenges amidst the opportunities for South Sudan in the EAC.

“Job opportunity is one of the major disadvantages that will be felt immediately due to disparity in the level of education and technical skills. South Sudan has only 27% literacy rate compared to 78% in partner states,” he said.

“Definitely after joining the East African Community, some of the phenomena of white color job will follow suit. This will be true of international NGOs operating in the country," he said, emphasizing that many South Sudanese will be outcompeted in the job markets if South Sudan open her borders to experts from neighbouring countries.

He said local industries will be affected negatively, stating their growths will be hampered because "established industries will take over the market."

He said the government now has a duty to promote local growth and development.

(ST)

May 23, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - The Egyptian-Sudanese Higher Committee (ESHC) would start a two-day meeting at the level of under-secretaries of ministries and experts in Khartoum Wednesday to discuss a number of joint issues including the disputed Halayeb triangle.

Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir (L) shakes hands with his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, during a news conference after their meeting in Cairo on 19 October 2014 (Photo: Reuters)

The Sudanese side will be headed by the foreign ministry under-secretary Abdel-Ghani al-Naim while the Egyptian side will be chaired by the assistant foreign minister for neighbouring countries, Osama al-Majdoub.

Sudanese presidential assistant Musa Mohamed Ahmed said the issue of Halayeb is of great significance, stressing that the government stance in this regard is “constant and declared”.

He told reporters following his meeting with the Vice President Hassabo Monhamed Abdel-Rahman Monday that the government doesn't deal with Halyeb as a political issue but rather a matter of sovereignty.

Ahmed further pointed to joint efforts that have been made during the previous period to avoid escalation that could adversely impact on the two peoples and nations, expressing confidence that the problem could be overcome.

The Halayeb triangle overlooks the Red Sea and has been a contentious issue between Egypt and Sudan since 1958, shortly after Sudan gained independence from British-Egyptian rule.

The area has been under Cairo's full military control since the mid-1990's following a Sudanese backed attempt on former Egyptian president Mohamed Hosni Mubarak's life.
Egypt brushed aside Sudan's repeated calls for engaging in direct negotiations to resolve case or referring the dispute to international arbitration.

Relations between Sudan and Egypt have been frosty over the past few years, but they've recently begun to thaw thanks to a series of conciliatory diplomatic gestures.
In October 2014, presidents of the two countries upgraded representation in a joint committee aimed at strengthening bilateral ties.

Meetings of the three levels of the ESHC usually begin by the meeting of the under-secretaries and experts followed by the meeting of the foreign ministers and conclude with a presidential meeting between the two heads of states.

Khartoum would host the meeting of the experts and undersecretaries between 25 to 26 May while the ministerial and presidential meetings will be held in Cairo at a later date.

(ST)

May 24, 2016 (WASHINGTON) – An advocacy group, Enough Project, said there was need in South Sudan to bring to justice the leaders responsible for the 2013 crisis.

US peace activist John Prendergast speaking to senior South Sudan army officers during his visit to Bor February 9, 2014 (Photo: Larco Lomoyat)

Authored by John Prendergast, Founding Director of the Enough Project, he said the statement presented the case for the United States (U.S.) and the broader international community to counter what he said was the violent kleptocracy.

The 9-page brief statement, entitled “The Paper Tiger in South Sudan: Threats without Consequences for Atrocities and Kleptocracy” was followed. The brief presents critical recommendations for U.S. leadership, including imposing and enforcing targeted sanctions on senior officials of consequence in order to pressure these leaders to place the well-being of their people ahead of personal enrichment and power politics.

“After 30 years of either living in, visiting, or working in South Sudan, and after extensive analysis undertaken by my colleagues at the Enough Project, our collective conclusion is that the primary root cause for the atrocities and instability that mark South Sudan's short history is that the government there quickly morphed into a violent kleptocracy,” Deng said.
“Grand corruption and extreme violence are not aberrations; they are the system,” he said.

An elite pact, he added, like the current peace deal between the Juba government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army-In Opposition (SPLA-IO) may be the quickest path out of the immediate violence.

He said unless the violent “kleptocratic” system is addressed head-on by policymakers internationally, the billions of dollars spent annually for peacekeeping, humanitarian aid, and the ongoing diplomacy and assistance supporting the peace deal there will simply be treating symptoms, not addressing the primary root cause of cyclical conflict.

“The surest way for the United States and the broader international community to create real consequences and build critically-needed leverage for peace is by hitting the leaders of rival kleptocratic factions in South Sudan where it hurts the most: their wallets,” the statement said.

The lack of money requires a hard-target transnational search for dirty money and corrupt deals made by government officials, rebel leaders, arms traffickers, complicit bankers, and mining and oil company representatives.”

“Addressing root causes will require much greater international leverage, which until now has been a cripplingly and puzzlingly insufficient part of international efforts to support peace and human rights in South Sudan.”

“Sanctions, anti-money laundering measures, prosecutions, asset seizure and forfeiture, and other economic tools of 21st-century foreign policy are key instruments in securing foreign policy goals,” it said.

The administration, it said, should consider enacting secondary sanctions that would target foreign financial institutions engaged in facilitation of public corruption in South Sudan.

Additionally, sectoral sanctions could be deployed to limit certain types of financing available for future (rather than current) petroleum projects.”

The representatives see some evidence that officials from countries neighbouring South Sudan may have played a role in facilitating or helping to conceal the offshoring of their assets.

“The United States has tools at its disposal to foster significant change and help to end the suffering on the ground in South Sudan,” it said.

He said the Obama administration should deploy the tools of financial pressure accordingly, and the U.S. Congress should work to ensure that the agencies responsible for administering sanctions and leveraging such tools have sufficient resources and staff to fulfil this mission.

(ST)

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

May 24, 2016 (ADDIS ABABA) – Dozens of African Health Ministers support Ethiopian foreign Minister, Tedros' Adhanom, in his candidature for a top post at the World Health Organization (WHO).

Ethiopia's Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom speaks during a joint news conference with Algeria's Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci in Algiers June 30, 2013 (REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina)

Earlier this year, the African Union Executive Council endorsed the candidature of Tedros Adhanom for the post of WHO Director-General.

In statement issued Monday, Ethiopian's ministry of foreign affairs said health Ministers of more than 30 African countries have pledged to support the Ethiopian minister.

“Given the merits of Dr Tedros, what excuses do we have not to support his candidature?” said African Union's Commissioner for Social Affairs, Mustapha Kaloko at a special dinner reception in held in Geneva.

“Dr Tedros is a person WHO needs most to move forward with its reform agenda” Kaloko added.

Gambia's Health Minister described Dr Tedros as a candidate who hails an academic background and a proven public service record and a researcher that is capable of pushing for reform in WHO operations.

Tanzania's Health Minister made a moving remark where she said, Tanzania will stand by the candidate who is our own African son as Nyreee would have it.

Tedros had previously served as Ethiopia's Minister of Health for seven years before he assumed his post as Ethiopia's Minister of Foreign Affairs in November 2012.

Dr Kesetebirahn Admasu, Ethiopia's Health Minister, shared the gathering his intimate experience describing his long-time colleague as a man of profound humbleness and humility.

He cited some of the success stories of Ethiopia's health under Dr Tedros's leadership anong others mentioning those 3,500 health centers built and 16,000 health posts in less than seven years time.

He also mentioned the role he played in mosquito net distribution in Ethiopia.

“Until 2005, Ethiopia's total distribution of mosquito nets was 500,000. However, Dr Tedros had the audacity to aim leap frog the number to 20, 000, 000,” said the Ethiopian health minister.

"In less than two years Ethiopia managed to distribute 18,000,000 mosquito nets which is an unprecedented coverage in any part of the world, Dr Kesetebirahn said adding “Africa is not presenting only an African candidate, but an able candidate "

At the occasion, health Ministers of Nigeria, South Africa, Libya, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Sudan were among the Ministers who made a strong reformation of support to his candidacy.

In the past, he Ethiopian foreign minister had served in a number of expert and leadership positions in both federal and regional government,

After becoming minister of health, Tedros introduced multiple popular programs including the introduction of the 30,000-strong health extension workers program that focuses on child and maternal mortality.

Tedros dedicated his career to public service and scientific research on health concerns.

He is also a globally recognized researcher on Malaria and has written and published numerous studies on the subject in scientific publications, including Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, The Lancet, and Nature and Parasitologia.

Tedros has won many international awards including the ‘Young Investigator of the Year' award from the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

He was also the first non-American recipient of the “Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Humanitarian Award”, in 2011.

The election for the WHO Director General post is scheduled for May 2017 during the 70th session of the WHO Assembly.

(ST)

May 24, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - The Al-Khatim Adlan Centre for Enlightenment and Human Development (KACE) said Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) last Sunday has arrested several civil society and human rights activists.

Arwa Elrabie, executive director of Al-Zarqa Rural Development Organization (KACE Photo)

Since three years ago, NISS has intensified its crackdown on the cultural and human rights centres and ordered closure of most of them accusing the organisations of receiving foreign funding and being linked to opposition and working to topple the regime.

In a statement released Tuesday, KACE said that 8 activists have been summoned to the Office of the Prosecutor for Crimes against the State last Sunday for charges filed against them by the NISS, noting they were arrested at the state security prosecution awaiting investigation.

Reliable sources told Sudan Tribune that the activists have been transferred to the Khartoum North Central Court following the investigation and they expected to appear before the court on June 8th.

According to the statement, the list of the detainees include the director of the Centre for Training and Human Development (Tracks) Khalaf Allah al-Afif, administrative director of Tracks, Arwa Elrabie, executive director of Al-Zarqa Rural Development Organization, Mustafa Adam besides Al-Khazini Ahmed al-Hadi, Midhat Afif al-Din Hamdan, Hassan Khairi, Al-Shazali Ibrahim El-Shiekh and Imani Liela.

The statement added that NISS raided Tracks' premises in Khartoum on 29 February and seized the employee laptops and personal belongings including their mobile phones, saying it continued to summon the center's officials before transferring the case to the prosecution office.

It added that NISS had previously raided the center in March 2015 and filed charges against its officials however the court dismissed the case for lack of evidence and ordered return of the properties.

The statement pointed out that the detainees are experiencing harsh conditions and some of them suffer from a number of diseases, saying their visit is only allowed upon permission from the prosecutor.

KACE expressed concern over the deteriorating human rights situation in Sudan and in particular the conditions of rights defenders and civil society activists, pointing to the large restrictions on activities of NGO's working to promote human rights in the country.

It demanded the authorities to stop the arbitrary measures against the activists and to lift restrictions on the civil society to allow it carry out its role in strengthening human rights and human development.

The statement further urged the government to abide by its international obligations with regard to human rights and freedoms of expression, association and communication set forth in international covenants and conventions.

In December 2012, Sudanese authorities closed three civil society groups: Sudanese Studies Centre (SSC), KACE, the Organisation for Human Rights and Development (ARRY). The Cultural Forum for Literary Criticism, a literary forum, was also closed.

In March 2014, NISS banned for the first time a celebration of Women's Day organised by the Salmmah Women's Resource Centre and other groups.

Also, in January 2015 NISS raided the Mahmoud Mohamed Taha Cultural Centre in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman and ordered its closure.

(ST)

May 24, 2016 (JUBA)- South Sudanese government announced Tuesday that a high level delegation will travel to Khartoum for bilateral talks on the implementation of security arrangements the two neighbouring countries signed since four years.

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).

According to acting spokesperson of South Sudan foreign affairs and international cooperation Ministry, Thomas Kenneth, The delegation, will be led by Defence Minister, Kuol Manyang Juuk.

The purpose of the mission of the delegation, according to Kenneth, will be to meet with their counterparts in the Sudanese government to hold discussions on security matters, specifically issues to security arrangement under the 2012 cooperation agreement which the two countries had signed.

Other members of the delegation will include the minister of interior, Alfred Lado Gore and foreign affairs and international cooperation Minister Deng Alor Kuol.

The chief of General Staff of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), the official army of South Sudan, Paul Malong Awan, will also go on the trip.

The latter had rejected in the past the operationalization of the buffer zone because it includes the disputed area of Mile 14, despite the assurances of the mediation that the measure will not prejudge any final demarcation of the 1,800-km border.

The officials were supposed to have travelled to the Sudanese on Monday 23 May but decided to push the meeting to June 7th as the day on which they would be able to travel to Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

The cause of the delay remains unclear and no official statements were released to the public.

Sudan recently closed again the border with South Sudan and renewed accusations that Juba continues to support the Sudanese armed groups.
(ST)

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The Security Council today stressed the importance of strengthening the existing cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union (AU), a regional organization described by a senior UN official as “the most important peacekeeping partner.”

The United Nations Independent Investigation in Burundi, which was set up to investigate human rights violations in the country since April 2015, said today it has completed the deployment of a team of human rights monitors on the ground.

Human Rights Watch

For Immediate Release

South Sudan: Civilians Killed, Tortured in Western Region
Provide Justice for Army Abuses in Western Regions

(Nairobi, May 24, 2016) – South Sudanese government soldiers have carried out a wide range of often-deadly attacks on civilians in and around the western town of Wau, Human Rights Watch said today. Soldiers have killed, tortured, raped, and detained civilians and looted and burned down homes.

The abuses in the Western Bahr el Ghazal region took place during government counterinsurgency operations that intensified after an August 2015 peace deal. The attacks underscore 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 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 Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “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.”

Since December 2015, newly deployed, mostly Dinka, soldiers from the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) have attacked ethnic Fertit civilians in villages and neighborhoods of the town of Wau.

The abuses have forced tens of thousands of people to flee, leaving villages and entire neighborhoods empty, Human Rights Watch found during a research mission to Wau in April 2016. In the neighboring region of Western Equatoria, Human Rights Watch documented the army's similarly abusive counterinsurgency tactics, also along ethnic lines, in February 2016.

A surge in abuses began in late December and continued into the spring, after large numbers of new soldiers from Northern Bahr el-Ghazal and Warrap were deployed in and around Wau. Local authorities told Human Rights Watch that the deployment was part of a counterinsurgency operation against mostly Fertit rebels based southwest of Wau.

Human Rights Watch documented numerous killings, most of which were reportedly committed by the newly-deployed Dinka soldiers. On April 9, researchers visiting Wau hospital saw the body of a man whom witnesses had seen soldiers shoot dead, in apparent retaliation for the killing of a soldier earlier that day by civilians. Shortly after the man was killed, the soldiers also killed two brothers and wounded their sister, again in retaliation, witnesses said.

On February 18, government forces retreating from combat with rebels outside of Wau fired indiscriminately on civilians in mostly Fertit neighbourhoods, killing at least two men in front of a police station, including a Fertit policeman. Later that day, near the same police post, witnesses said a soldier executed three young Fertit men on the basis of their ethnicity.

Soldiers have also unlawfully detained scores of Fertit men for up to five months, without charge or access to legal assistance, in two facilities, one of them within Wau's main military barrack, behind the commander's office. Former detainees told Human Rights Watch that they saw inmates die in detention.

At least eight former detainees said they were kept in cramped cells and forced to sleep next to a latrine, exposing them to various skin parasites. Most said they were beaten with electric wires or rubber tubes, often while their arms were tightly tied behind their backs for hours; others reported being given electric shocks.

“There's a machine they connect you to and it makes your body shiver,” recalled a 25-year-old man who was detained for more than three months after he was accused of milling grain for rebels in his village. “It has electricity. They took me to the machine and put the wires on me.”

The soldiers also attacked civilians and committed abuses during operations outside of Wau in December in the villages of Moimoi, Ngumba, and Khorkanda, among others. Witnesses said soldiers attacked, burned, and looted houses and killed civilians, including two elderly women who had been unable to flee before the troops arrived.

The soldiers are under the command of Chief of General Staff Paul Malong and two other senior officers - Lieutenant General Jok Riak and Major General Attayib Gatluak Taitai – all of whom also held positions of command over troops who conducted a brutal offensive in Unity state last year.

Since late 2015, 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 national government officials. While the three commanders would have known about the reported abuses since at least that time, they took no steps to investigate them or to prevent further abuses.

However, in March, President Salva Kiir sent a fact-finding commission composed of high-ranking officials on a week-long mission to Wau. The commission met with victims and witnesses and with the army, and sought to reconcile communities, according to a member who spoke to Human Rights Watch. But it has yet to submit its findings to President Kiir and the abuses have continued.

In a letter to Human Rights Watch dated May 5, the SPLA categorically denied the findings that Human Rights Watch had presented in a meeting – specifically, allegations of indiscriminate killings of civilians, arbitrary arrests or looting and destruction of property.

In early May, following months of complaints by community leaders and local authorities and a condemnation of the crimes by United Nations peacekeeping mission, UNMISS, South Sudan's army moved the soldiers out of positions in and around Wau town, residents reported. However, beyond establishing the fact-finding commission, the SPLA and other government authorities have failed to criminally investigate or prosecute the alleged crimes.

The new national unity government should ask the African Union (AU) 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.

“South Sudan's top army commanders need to rein in their forces, thoroughly investigate abuses and ensure that those responsible for abusing civilians are fairly held to account,” Bekele said. “They should know that they too could face international and criminal sanctions if they don't take concrete action in accordance with the law.”

For more details, please see below.

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on South Sudan, please visit:
https://www.hrw.org/africa/south-sudan

For more information, please contact:
In New York, Jehanne Henry (English, French): +1-917-443-2724 (mobile); or henryj@hrw.org. Twitter: @JehanneHenry
In Amsterdam, Leslie Lefkow (English): +31-6-21597356 (mobile); or lefkowl@hrw.org. Twitter @LefkowHRW
In Brussels, Lotte Leicht (English, French, German, Danish, Swedish): +32-475-681708; or leichtl@hrw.org. Twitter: @LotteLeicht1

Conflict Dynamics in Western Bahr el-Ghazal

Decades-old tensions between the Fertit, a collection of local ethnic groups, and the Dinka, cattle-herders who have migrated to Wau from neighbouring areas in search of grazing land, flared anew in late 2012, following a decision by then-governor Rizik Zakaria to move Wau county's administrative headquarters outside of Wau. Many Fertit felt that they had not been consulted and that the move would marginalize them.

In December 2012, security forces opened fire on peaceful demonstrators protesting the move, leading to eight deaths. Other civilians, both Dinka and Fertit, were killed in revenge attacks following the protests. Authorities arrested scores of people, and sentenced dozens to prison for various crimes following trials that were marred by due process concerns. Authorities did not investigate or prosecute security forces for the protester killings.

The wider conflict in South Sudan, which began in December 2013, further polarized communities in Wau along ethnic and political lines. On April 24, 2014, Nuer and Dinka soldiers and trainees clashed at the SPLA barracks in Mapel, 60 kilometers east of Wau. Following these clashes, a group of Nuer defectors fled to ethnic Fertit areas of Western Bahr el Ghazal, witnesses and UN staff reported, strengthening perceptions of the Fertit as anti-government.

By early 2015, opposition forces including Nuer and Fertit armed groups established a presence in Western Bahr el Ghazal. In May and June, they attacked the towns of Bazia and Farajallah, south and southwest of Wau, residents reported, then clashed repeatedly with the government forces into early 2016, despite the signing of the peace agreement in August 2015.

As in Western Equatoria, South Sudan's army has conducted heavy-handed military operations to root out rebels while at the same time denying opposition forces were formally present in the area. Opposition forces in both regions have claimed to have official cantonment sites as defined in the security arrangements under the August peace agreement. On November 24, 2015, Fertit activists published a petition denouncing arrests, crimes and abuses by SPLA in Wau. Thirteen people who signed were arrested by national security authorities, then released a few days later after apologizing for the petition.

In December, Major General Attayib Gatluak “Taitai,” the commander who oversaw a bloody government offensive in Unity state in 2015, was appointed as head of the SPLA Division 5, in charge of Wau state. Local authorities told Human Rights Watch that the army's chief of general staff, Paul Malong Awan, deployed additional troops to the area under Taitai's command from Northern Bahr el-Ghazal and Warrap states shortly after his appointment.

Local authorities and witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch described the new troops as especially abusive.

Attacks on Civilians Outside of Wau

Displaced people from the towns of Moimoi, Ngumba, Khorkanda, and Busseri to the south of Wau, told Human Rights Watch that government soldiers whom they identified as “new forces” came to their villages in late December and began looting and burning their houses, and killing some of their relatives.

The operations targeted areas south and west of Wau where the government suspected rebels were operating. Non-governmental organizations and international actors in the area reported that the rebels had a base at Mvokongo, about 60 kilometers into the bush southwest of Wau.

One witness from Moimoi, a 63-year-old man, told Human Rights Watch that soldiers deployed between Moimoi and Busseri arrested four young men in his village, accusing them of being rebels: “On December 25, after people came out of the church, they arrested four youths. They said [the youths] were rebels, but in fact they were students.” The following days, soldiers beat villagers demanding to know the whereabouts of the rebels, burned hundreds of houses, and killed at least five people.

In Khorkanda and Ngumba, smaller villages south of Moimoi, witnesses said soldiers also killed civilians and looted and burned several dozen houses in December and January. UNMISS staff, among others, confirmed they had seen evidence of SPLA operations around this area at this time, although they did not witness the actions of the soldiers in the villages.

A 64-year-old man from Khorkanda, a smaller village near Moimoi, said that most of the villagers fled when soldiers arrived, but that an elderly woman he called his grandmother was too old to flee and was found dead when the villagers returned: “When the situation calmed down in the evening, we returned and saw that she had been beaten to death next to a tree. Her head was crushed.” When he went back to his house two days later to pick-up remaining food with his 11-year-old son, soldiers shot at them: “As we fled, they shot my son and he died. I could hear him cry behind me but I couldn't stop running.”

During the same period a group of about 30 soldiers entered the village of Ngumba, a short distance from Khorkanda, and looted and burned the village. “They collected our things and burned our houses,” said a 42-year-old man. “Those who resisted or could not move were killed. My grandmother tried to flee and was shot just outside the hut.”

Soldiers also attacked civilians in villages west of Wau. A 55-year-old woman said that soldiers came to her village, Gwalengbo B, in March 2016 and shot her 60-year-old husband in the stomach and her 29-year-old son in the neck: “We were at home and then we heard shooting and we hit the ground and crawled away when a group of soldiers came in. There was no reason for them to target us.”

At least 38,000 people have been registered by aid organizations as having been displaced by fighting and abuses in predominantly Fertit areas southwest of Wau.

Killing, Rape, Looting in Wau

Wau residents, including local and state authorities, told Human Rights Watch that abuses increased inside the town after the new soldiers deployed, particularly in areas near checkpoints leading west and south out of town, but also in Fertit areas inside town.

They described repeated harassment, looting and assaults, including killings and rapes. Many were forced to flee their homes to other parts of town. Several Fertit neighborhoods remained largely empty with some burned out houses when Human Rights Watch visited in April.

A young teacher living in the Hai Khamsin neighborhood, near a checkpoint, said that soldiers came to his house on March 21, beat him and looted his belongings, forcing him to relocate to another part of town: “They came in and put my face down to the ground. They took my money and my phone. I told them that I am a teacher but they would not listen. They said I was a rebel…”

In another example, soldiers looted homes near the Lokoloko area near a checkpoint after their commander told residents to leave in February. “Then they started to loot the doors and zinc roofs,” said a 40-year-old woman. “We saw that. Now our house is occupied by two soldiers.”

Soldiers shot and killed town residents on several occasions. On April 9, in an incident that highlighted tensions between the military and civilians, soldiers shot dead a Jur moto-taxi driver and two Fertit brothers and wounded their sister. The attacks were apparently in retaliation against residents in the Jebel Khair area after a group killed a drunken soldier during a dispute between the soldier and a local bar owner.

The wounded woman said that she confronted the soldiers, asking why they killed her brothers. “They replied: ‘You are lucky that you are woman,' and they shot me in the leg.”

On March 24, the burned remains of a motorcycle taxi driver, hands tied behind his back, were found behind the Catholic church. Witnesses said the men who killed him had detained him in a compound near the church occupied by soldiers, though researchers could not confirm whether the men were soldiers.

Human Rights Watch also heard several allegations of rapes by soldiers in recent months.

Three soldiers raped a 60-year-old woman in April just outside of Wau, while her nephew was forced to watch, the woman's niece said: “The soldiers asked the nephew if it was good or bad what they were doing to the auntie and he was forced to say it was good. They took turns raping her and then left and she had to struggle to get to the main road.”

In another case, a father told Human Rights Watch that five soldiers raped his 28-year-old daughter, who was two-months pregnant, in the Hai Kosti neighborhood on New Year's Eve: “They took her to a compound and raped her. Her boyfriend, who is the father of the baby, was with her. He was badly beaten.” After the family reported the case to the police and the woman received medical care, soldiers at a nearby checkpoint detained both her and her father for several hours, and declared that there had been no rape, the father said.

February Violence in Wau

In mid-February 2016, soldiers killed at least a dozen civilians and injured several others amid violence between Dinka and Fertit communities in Wau and clashes outside of town.

On February 14, new army reinforcements came into the town from neighboring states. On February 17, in response to the ambush of a supply pick-up truck on the road to Bazia, soldiers moved out of town toward the west, local residents said.

In the village of Natabo, west of Wau, a 36-year-old man said that soldiers had killed his young brother and a friend on February 17:

“Five or six land-cruisers and a tank arrived and they began a house-to-house search. My mother and younger sister escaped, but my brother and his friend were in another hut. The soldiers found them and shot them dead. A woman saw the soldiers kill them and shouted, ‘Why do you kill them?' They replied: ‘We're looking for young men.'”

On February 18, groups of Dinka youths armed with machetes and sticks moved from the Souq Jow market to the Hai Kalvario and Hai Falata areas of Wau, near the western exit of the city, following reports that four Dinka had been found dead. There, the Dinka youths clashed with Fertit youths.

That evening, as the soldiers returned to Wau from their western offensive, they began torching houses near the Lokoloko checkpoint and then intervened in the fighting, on behalf of their fellow Dinka, witnesses said.

They said the soldiers fired indiscriminately on civilians in predominantly Fertit neighborhoods and killed several civilians. In one incident in Hai Kalvario, they opened fire in a street and killed at least two men and injured two others next to a police station.

One survivor recalled: “I was walking near a police station. When I crossed the road, I saw a group of about 25 soldiers shooting at people. I was trying to cross the road to get to safety, and I was shot at. The soldiers searched all the bodies. […] I pretended they had killed me. One soldier took my wallet. Others looted the police station.”

That evening, another group of soldiers killed three other young men in the same neighborhood after demanding to know their ethnicity. The father of two of the boys said that a soldier approached his sons to verify whether they were Fertit. “Then the soldier whistled and two other soldiers came. One of them immediately shot my sons and their friend dead,” he said.

During and following these events, soldiers entered both main hospitals in Wau, looking for patients with gunshot wounds whom they accused of being rebels, local officials and hospital staff said. On February 18, the soldiers forcibly removed two wounded men and took them to military detention, despite protests by the senior medical staff and the deputy governor, Major General Andrea Dominic. The army then detained the deputy governor, reportedly on orders from Malong, the chief of general staff, accusing the deputy governor of supporting the rebels. He remains in detention in Juba.

Harassment of medical staff has continued, and soldiers beat a staff member. Since the February events, staff began to refuse to spend the nights at the hospital for security reasons, leaving the patients on their own.

Arbitrary Detention, Torture, and Enforced Disappearances

Government soldiers have targeted ethnic Fertit males for arbitrary detention, holding scores of men in military barracks without charge, often for long periods.

Based on interviews with eight former detainees and the relative of a current detainee, soldiers engaged in clear patterns of abuse, arresting men based on their ethnicity and holding them either at the Jebel Akhdar or Grinti military detention facilities.

Most of the detainees said they were arrested in the street or at their home, badly beaten, and then held under the pretext that they are rebels or rebel supporters. Some were released only after relatives or friends paid large sums of money to the soldiers. None were charged with any criminal offense.

The military should not detain civilians. International and South Sudanese laws require providing anyone detained with access to counsel, medical and family visits, and either charging them promptly with a criminal offense or releasing them – within 24 hours under South Sudan law. The SPLA in its May 5 letter to Human Rights Watch denied that any civilians were in military custody, claiming that all detainees were either captured “prisoners of war” or unlawful combatants, all of whom were registered with the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The former detainees reported dire conditions of detention, beatings and torture, and deaths of other detainees.

A 30-year-old man who came to Wau in October 2015 to sell sorghum and charcoal said that three plain-clothes Dinka men arrested him and took him to Jebel Akhdar, a military intelligence detention center. There, he was harshly beaten for three days:

“Upon arrival, they forced me into a grain bag and beat me with their gun butts and boots. The second and third days, they tied me by my wrists and ankles to two poles and lashed me. They wanted me to confess that I was a rebel. I said no and they increased the beating.”

After two weeks at Jebel Akhdar, sleeping in an overcrowded cell, the man was transferred to the Grinti barracks, where he was beaten and tortured for four months.

He said he saw fellow detainees die: “Whenever the ICRC or government officials would come to visit Grinti, they would hide some of us for days in the administrative store. Once, five detainees died of exhaustion and thirst in there. They left their bodies with us in the store for two days.”

Several former detainees at Grinti said that at night they or others were blindfolded and individually taken to a separate room within the barracks compound. There, they would be beaten or given electric shocks.

A 21-year-old moto-taxi driver said he was asked by a soldier to drive him to Grinti on March 24. When they arrived at the barracks, the soldier accused him of being a rebel and detained him. He said he was held for four days and tortured, then released without charge: “At night, they blindfolded me and took me to a room. For an hour, they beat me with a stick and rubber and asked me about the rebels.” The soldiers did not return his motorbike.

A 42-year-old man who spent two months in detention at Grinti said that soldiers gave him a choice between a beating or electric shocks. “They said to me, ‘Are you chai bi laban ow chai saa'da?' [Are you tea with milk or plain tea?]. I learned later that tea with milk means to be electrocuted and plain tea is beating.”

Another former detainee said he was tied to a chair after a beating, and given electric shocks: “They would take off my shirt and put sticks on my groin for 2 or 3 seconds and I would bend and shiver on the chair. Then they would ask me questions.” A 43-year-old teacher who was also detained said: “The other prisoners said I was lucky because when they arrested me, the electricity machine was broken.”

In another case, two men in their 20s said they had been arrested on January 1, 2016, and detained in Grinti for 11 days. Their detention appears linked to an incident in which a soldier was harassed and then raped during New Year's Eve celebrations.

One of the men said: “Upon arrival, we were lashed with electric wire and they beat us with their boots. My friend was bleeding. They slapped me so hard that I could not hear for several days.” For the first two days, he said, like many other detainees, he was forced to sleep in the cell's latrine quarter. Though not necessarily politically motivated, their detention underscores the military's practice of abusing and torturing detainees.

In March, following pressure by the governor and a visit to Grinti by the national fact-finding commission, a number of detainees were released, but only after their relatives paid up to 1500 South Sudanese pounds (about US $60 at present exchange rates) to soldiers to secure their release. Despite SPLA denials that it was detaining civilians, Human Rights Watch, based on its research and witness accounts, believes that a number of civilians remained in arbitrary detention in Grinti as of mid-April.

Human Rights Watch also documented at least six cases of enforced disappearance. In one case, a 30-year-old engineer, Michaelangelo Mangu, was forcibly disappeared after SPLA arrested him in February in Hai Khamsin. “We looked for him everywhere, with the security, the governor, and we have had no luck,” a colleague of his said. His whereabouts remain unknown.

Another man said that three of his cousins were arrested at the Lokoloko checkpoint on February 21 as they made their way back to Wau on motorbikes: “They were initially detained by the side of the road. We went to the commissioner of Wau and opened a case with police and went to the mayor and the governor ... Until now we have received no feedback. Some people think they were killed on the day of their arrest.” They remain unaccounted for, he said.

Under international law, an enforced disappearance occurs when the authorities take an individual into custody but refuse to acknowledge doing so or do not provide information about the detainee's whereabouts or fate. Enforced disappearances constitute a serious crime under international law and are prohibited under any circumstance. They may also constitute a crime against humanity, as well as a serious violation of international humanitarian law. Among the rights an enforced disappearance may violate are those to life, liberty, and security of the person, including protection from torture and other ill-treatment.

Criminal and Command Responsibility

The headquarters of the SPLA's Sector 1 and Division 5 are in the Grinti military barracks north of the town.

Sector 1 is commanded by Lt General Gabriel Jok Riak, who has been under UN sanctions since July 2015 for breaches of the cessation of hostilities agreement and obstructing international organizations from accessing affected areas. The sector oversees the 3rd, 4th and 5th divisions. Division 5 is deployed to operate in Wau and Lol, Western Bahr el-Ghazal's two newly created states, and to defend the country's northwestern border with Sudan.

In December, Malong, the chief of general staff, appointed Major General Taitai, as Division 5 commander. Prior to his appointment, Taitai oversaw an extremely abusive government scorched-earth offensive in Unity state and turned a blind eye to the use and recruitment of child soldiers as Division 4 commander.

At the same time, the army also deployed new forces to Wau from the neighboring states of Northern Bahr el-Ghazal and Warrap. Several people interviewed, including two former SPLA officers, said those units consisted largely of Dinka, who were untrained, dressed in ragtag fatigues and especially aggressive. The SPLA's spokesperson told Human Rights Watch that the new soldiers in Wau were drawn from the SPLA Division 3, headquartered in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal and commanded by Major General Santino Deng Wol – also under UN sanction since July 2015, for breach of the cessation of hostilities agreement and violations of international humanitarian law.

The soldiers did not respond to requests by the governor of the newly created Wau state, Eyias Waya Nyipuoch, to allow aid groups access to affected areas. Most of his complaints to commanders about their abuses also remained unanswered. In early January, Governor Nyipuoch began to publicly denounce the abuses, established a state-level investigation, and reported findings to the national government. In March, the national government sent a fact-finding commission that included high-level military and civilian officials to Wau. It has yet to release its findings.

State officials have also made Major General Taitai the Division 5 commander and Malong the chief of general staff, aware of the serious allegations of misconduct, crimes and abuses by government forces. In April, during the Human Rights Watch visit, Malong was personally overseeing a military operation including the use of attack helicopters in the Wau area. The SPLA Act of 2009 provides that the chief of general staff is responsible for “the development of operational plans, deployment of forces and command of the SPLA on behalf of the Commander-in-Chief,” as well as for “convening a General Court Martial, when appropriate.”

International humanitarian law requires army commanders who know or had reason to know of abuses and crimes about to be or committed by their subordinates to take preventive or reparative actions. Failure to take all necessary and reasonable measures to prevent or punish abuses carried out by troops under their effective control can leave commanders criminally responsible for the acts of their subordinates.

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May 23, 2016 (JUBA) – Military spokesperson of a co-national army in South Sudan, the Sudan People's Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO), has refuted allegations that their forces had attacked locations of their partners, the SPLA under the command of President Salva Kiir.

Lt. Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual, the chief of staff of the SPLA-IO, talks to the press at a rebel military site in Juba on April 25, 2016 (Photo AFP/Charles Lomodong)

Colonel William Gatjiath Deng, in a statement he circulated on social media on Monday, said their forces had become co-national army of the transitional government of national unity and would have no reason to attack their colleagues, the SPLA.

“Now SPLA-IO has become a part of the current government and completely there would be no genuine reason for SPLA-IO to fight the SPLA, IG at all,” said Col. Deng.

On Friday, the spokesperson of the SPLA of the former government, Brig. Lul Ruai Koang, lashed at the SPLA-IO leadership, accusing it of attacking their positions near Bentiu, capital of Unity state.

General Koang also described SPLA-IO commanders as “idiots” in his press statement, prompting the response from his counter-part, Col Deng.

“I am sure SPLA-IO generals are not idiots as you [Koang] put it on your naïve press release issued on Friday at Bilpham, we are here to implement this agreement as it is in the book, and they are professional generals that is why they have delivered you this lasting peace,” he said.

He also said SPLA-IO has forces in Equatoria and Bahr el Ghazal regions, contrary to what the SPLA spokesperson refused to recognize.

General Koang, who was SPLA-IO's spokesperson for nearly two years before rejoining President Salva Kiir's government in a dubious deal in 2015, once argued that SPLA-IO had forces in Equatoria region, indicated by his previous infamous press statement entitled, “It has exploded in Equatoria” which he circulated to the media last year.

His former colleague, but currently opponent, Col Deng, said it was better to “ignore” Brig. Koang's statement, although he also said it needed analysis.

“I would like to inform the general public that, such incited and abusive language always used by the then Spokesman, needs to be analyzed and ignored as the country is ready to live in peace rather than to use antagonistic and horrible speeches,” he added.

He said it was the government forces which attacked positions of opposition forces in Rubkotni county in Unity state, or the newly created Northern Liech state.

(ST)