Africa

March 18, 2016 (MOROBO) - A multi-purpose agricultural farmers' vocational training centre has been launched in South Sudan's Morobo county of Yei River state on Friday, with government officials and farmers commending the project as a tool to improving productivity in the area.

(ST Photo)

The facility is aimed at improving crop production, education, sanitation, health and environmental management skills. The project is funded by an Italian international group for technical cooperation with developing countries (ACAV).

The organization's South Sudan program manager, Pierluigi Florretta, said the project will support more than 200 farmer cooperative groups in Morobo and Yei River Counties, adding the centre will also help in building the capacity of youth to towards fighting dependency syndrome.

“What you have in front here is a working progress in order to establish a vocational school, the vocational school which has been a need is going to be a centre for training youth and giving them opportunity to come out [of] poverty and start a job,” Florretta said.

However Taban Samuel, a farmers' representative, called on the organization to introduce poultry, fishery and bee keeping to the farmers in the area.

“We are hoping that poultry keeping be introduced for us to reduce importation of chicken from somewhere. If there could be fishing, then we could produce and people consume from here. Thirdly if bee keeping is brought nearer then it will take root very well,” Samuel suggested.

Meanwhile, Yei River state agriculture minister, Huda Michael Laila, appreciated the Italian government in supporting human resource development in the state and South Sudan at large. She said no need for South Sudanese to go to Uganda in search of vocational studies.

“We are going to stand with this facility and our partners together so that this vocational centre train our youth, women and men so that that at the end of the day we shall not send our children to Uganda because we now have a vocational centre,” she explained.

On his part, Morobo county commissioner, Toti Jacob, added that the facility will assist the Government and the community to train drop out students in the area, revealing the county has planned to expand areas of crop production to more than 30 hectors of land this year.

“In my work plan for this year, I have planned to cultivate 30 square of land so that we can push out what we call hunger in the region. I believe with the presence of this facility in my area, it will help to improve farmer's skills as well as instilling new skills to the drop out students in the area,” said commissioner Jacob.

The Italian regional minister for research and university, youth policy and development cooperation, Sara Ferrari, on the other hand has asked the government of South Sudan to prioritize human resource and agricultural development as key sectors for economic growth.

“South Sudan is rich and blessed with natural resources and human resources, it's time for the government and the people to sit down and think ways forward towards developing [the] country. We as donors are ready to support developing countries in all areas of development,” she said.

(ST)

March 18, 2016 (ADDIS ABABA/KHARTOUM) - Sudanese government, armed groups in Sudan's Two Areas and Darfur Friday kicked off a Strategic Consultations Meeting in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

Mbeki speaks to participants at the inaugral session of Strategic Consultations Meeting in Addis Ababa on 18 March 2016 (AUHIP Photo)

The African Union High Level-Implementation Panel (AUHIP), which brokers Sudan peace process, seeks to bring the parties to end the fighting and strike a deal on the humanitarian access to civilians in the rebel held areas. The two confidence building measures will prepare the ground for comprehensive process on peace and constitutional reforms the mediators seek to facilitate.

AUHIP chief Thabo Mbeki who just concluded a visit to Khartoum urged the participants before to start talks in separate tracks, to innovate their approach and develop ideas on how to overcome differences that led to the failure of previous meetings.

Mbeki said the purpose of these consultations which include the opposition National Umma Party (NUP) is to reach a common ground for a comprehensive political process on democratic reforms in Sudan. He also spoke about his meeting with some opposition groups that he met for the first time during his visit to Khartoum.

The chief mediator also held a meeting with the European Union, U.S, Germany and Norway envoys to brief them on his plans and the meetings he held in Khartoum with the Sudanese government and opposition groups.

The parties will hold separate discussions on Darfur region involving a government delegation led by Amin Hassan Omer and rebel delegations from the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement of Minni Minnawi (SLM-MM). Gibril Ibrahim and Minnawi lead their respective delegations.

For the track on the conflict in Blue Nile and South Kordofan states, the government team is led by Presidential Adviser Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid while SPLM-N delegation is led by it Secretary General Yasir Arman.

In the previous rounds of negotiations, the mediation sought to bring the parties to sign a cessation of hostilities agreement which was seen as a step before the signing of a Declaration of Principles, defining the agenda of the peace talks.

However, the chief mediator in his remarks to the participants stressed that the agenda of this meeting will focus on the strategic issues without the details that the parties tackled during the previous meeting. They will also discuss ways to connect the cessation of hostilities and the humanitarian access with the issues of the national dialogue in Sudan, he underlined.

In statements to the official news agency SUNA, the head of the government delegation for peace talks with the SPLM-N stressed that the most important is to stop war, adding it will lead to the solution of all other issues including the humanitarian access.

The Sudanese presidential assistant was alluding to the recent call by the SPLM-N chief negotiator to separate the discussions on the humanitarian aid from the political process.

During an informal meeting held in Ethiopia last February about Darfur conflict, the government and rebel delegations said the discussions were "fruitful".

JEM and SLM-MM demand to open the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur for talks particularly on issues related to the compensations, land ownership, justice and security arrangements.

(ST)

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 19 2016 (IPS)

When the only female candidate failed in her attempt to become UN Secretary-General back in late 2006, an Asian diplomat weighed in with an upgraded Biblical quote: “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle”, he said, “than for a woman to become the Secretary-General of the United Nations.”

But as an unrelated New Yorker cartoon jokingly pronounced: “We (may still) need either bigger needles or smaller camels.”

That female candidate, Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, never made it to the 38th floor of the UN Secretariat, the office of the UN chief.

The other six candidates in that race were all men: UN Under-Secretary-General Shashi Tharoor of India; former Foreign Minister Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan; Jordanian Ambassador Prince Zeid Raad al-Hussein; Thai Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai; and UN Under-Secretary-General Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka.

The sixth male candidate, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, was eventually elected Secretary-General (SG), and took office in January 2007.

For most of the 70 years of its existence, the UN has remained mostly male dominated as part of an embedded political culture.

But that environment appears to change – although appearances are known to be deceptive, and politically so, in the world body.

However, if the current campaign for a woman Secretary-General picks up steam, there is still a chance the UN will get its historic first later this year—in a world where nearly half of the 7 billion people are women.

For the first time in the history of the UN, the President of the 193-member General Assembly (GA) Mogens Lykketoft of Denmark says he is committed to an “open and transparent process” for the selection and appointment of the next Secretary-General.

All member States have been invited to present candidates to the President of the General Assembly, as well as to the President of the Security Council. As of last week, there were seven officially declared candidates, four men and three women.

The list includes: Dr. Srgjan Kerim of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia; Ms Vesna Pusić of the Republic of Croatia; Dr. Igor Lukšić of Montenegro; Dr. Danilo Türk of Slovenia; Ms. Irina Bokova of Bulgaria; Ms. Natalia Gherman of Republic of Moldova and Antonio Guterres of Portugal.

Jessica Neuwirth, one of the founders and Honorary President of Equality Now, told lPS: “I think the time for a woman SG has finally come – SG Ban ki-moon has said he would like for a woman to succeed him, there are member states formally endorsing the idea that it is time for a woman SG, and while there have always been qualified women for the post, there are now a number of these women who are actually campaigning for it”.

“As for the regional rotation, I think more than any region’s turn, it is women’s turn to be represented and so there could and should be some flexibility to be sure that a woman can be chosen for the post,” said Neuwirth who is the founder/director of Donor Direct Action, an offshoot of Equality Now, founded to raise funds for frontline women’s groups.

She pointed out that Equality Now launched its first call for a woman SG soon after the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995 at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women.

She said the Platform for Action called for the development of “mechanisms to nominate women candidates for appointment to senior posts in the United Nations” and set the target of “overall gender equality, particularly at the Professional level and above, by the year 2000.”

“We are still waiting for implementation of this commitment, 16 years after the target date of 2000. Maybe if we start from the top we can actually get there,” she declared.

Charlotte Bunch, Founding Director of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership and Distinguished Professor, Rutgers University, told IPS: “We are closer than ever before to the possibility of a woman being selected as the next SG.”

She said the more transparent process adopted by the GA this year and the growing recognition of the need for diversity in leadership, including gender as well as geography, all bode well for this to happen.

“There are a number of well qualified women from various regions whose names have been either formally nominated and/or publicly discussed, and we hope all will be given serious consideration.”

But it is critically important which woman is chosen, as a poor choice sets women up for failure. “Her gender should be a strong plus, but not her primary qualification,” said Bunch.

Her vision of the future of the United Nations in these troubled times and her ability to communicate and carry that out organizationally as well as her demonstrated commitment to the UN principles – of human rights, peace, development and gender equality – are also crucial, said Bunch who took a leading role in the campaign for the creation of UN Women.

As part of the transparency process, the President of the General Assembly will begin a series of informal dialogues with the candidates April 12 through April 14.

This meeting will provide candidates a platform to present their candidature and an opportunity for the 193 member states to ask questions and grill the candidates. The candidates will be offered a two-hour meeting for individual presentations.

Meanwhile, there is a global campaign by a collective group of NGOs called “1 for 7 Billion” demanding an open election process “which until now has been shrouded in secrecy.”

The group criticizes the “woefully inadequate way in which the Secretary-General has been elected to date by a handful of powerful countries (read: the five permanent members of the Security Council) behind closed doors.”
Last year The Colombian Ambassador Maria Emma Mejia circulated a letter seeking support for a female Secretary-General. Over 44 governments initially signed on to the initiative.

But not the five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council – the US, UK, France, China and Russia – who have always had the final say on the selection of the Secretary-General.

Russia has already made a statement that the job should go to the most competent person – irrespective of gender.

But it is rooting for an Eastern European on the basis of geographical rotation because the last eight UN chiefs have come from Western Europe (3), Asia (2), Africa (2) and Latin America (1).

A senior US woman journalist, who was at one-time based at the United Nations, told IPS: “My instinct is that the choice of a woman could be very narrow, since there are no obvious candidates — and I see that the US has been critical lately of the management of UNDP.”

“I don’t think Washington is focused very much on this with the pandemonium going on in the primary races. And the Russian nomination of a woman from Moldova looks more like mischief than anything else.”

Incidentally, she said, German Chancellor Angela Kane would like to be on that list but hasn’t got any backing from Germany.

The current Secretary-General’s all-male predecessors were: Kofi Annan (Ghana), Boutros Boutros-Ghali (Egypt), Javier Pèrez de Cuèllar (Peru), Kurt Waldheim (Austria), U.Thant (Burma, now Myanmar), Dag Hammarskjöld (Sweden) and Trygve Lie (Norway).

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@aol.com

Añelo, a Patagonian town in southwest Argentina that experienced explosive growth because it is next to the country’s biggest shale oil and gas field, is now starting to feel the impact on the development of these resources due to the plunge in international oil prices. Credit: Fabiana Frayssinet/IPS

By Fabiana Frayssinet
AÑELO, Argentina, Mar 19 2016 (IPS)

The dizzying growth of Añelo, a town in southwest Argentina, driven by the production of shale oil and gas in the Vaca Muerta geological reserve, has slowed down due to the plunge in global oil prices, which has put a curb on local development and is threatening investment and employment.

Vaca Muerta, a 30,000-sq-km geological reserve rich in unconventional fossil fuels in the province of Neuquén, began to be exploited in mid-2013 by the state-run oil company Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales (YPF) in a joint venture with U.S. oil giant Chevron.

“We had an interesting growth boom thanks to the strategic development plan that we were promoting, to get all of the oil services companies to set up shop in Añelo. That really boosted our growth, and helped our town to develop,” Añelo Mayor Darío Díaz told IPS.

The population of this town located 100 km from the provincial capital, Neuquén, in Argentina’s southern Patagonian region, rose twofold from 3,000 to 6,000.

And that is not counting the large number of machinists, technicians, engineers and executives of the oil companies who rotate in and out of the area, along with the truckers who haul supplies to the Loma Campana oilfield eight km from Añelo.

“There were around 10 services companies operating in Añelo; now we have about 50, and some 160 agreements signed for other companies to come here,” the mayor said.

The shale gas and oil in Vaca Muerta has made this country the second in the world after the United States in production of unconventional fossil fuels.

Loma Campana, where there are 300 active wells producing unconventional gas and oil after a total investment of three billion dollars, currently produces 50 billion barrels per day of oil, according to YPF figures.

The shale oil and gas industry has fuelled heavy public investment in Añelo and nearby towns. The population of this town is expected to reach 25,000 in the next 15 years.

“We’re building two schools and a hospital,” Díaz told IPS. “The primary and secondary schools have been expanded. We are making town squares and a new energy substation. We built a water treatment plant and have improved the sewage service. In terms of public works we have really done a great deal, keeping our eyes on our goal: growth.”

But the expansion of the town has also brought problems.

The mayor pointed out, for example, that rent for a two-bedroom housing unit has climbed from 33 dollars to 100 dollars a month, and that a plot of land that previously was worth 1,700 dollars cannot be purchased now for less than 130,000 dollars.

“Those are abrupt changes brought by the oil industry,” Díaz said. “What us old-time residents of Añelo have suffered the most is the social impact of all of this movement, of so much vehicle traffic, so many people, which brings insecurity and other things that are typical of development in general.”

New complications

People in Añelo are now worried that despite the costs they are paying for the development boom, the promised progress will not arrive.

On Mar. 4, the outgoing president of YPF, Miguel Galuccio, announced in a conference with international investors that the cutbacks in the industry in 2016 would be reflected in slower progress in Vaca Muerta.

Workers in Loma Campana, a field with 300 shale oil wells in Vaca Muerta. The decision to slow down the development of unconventional fossil fuels in Argentina has led to lay-offs in the area. Credit: Fabiana Frayssinet/IPS

In 2015, the company’s revenues shrank 49 percent, while investment grew less than four percent, below previous levels.

The costs of producing shale gas and oil, which requires an expensive technique known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”, are not competitive in a context where international oil prices are hovering between 30 and 40 dollars a barrel.

In Argentina, the cost of extraction in conventional wells stands at 25 to 30 dollars a barrel, and in unconventional wells at around 70 dollars a barrel, oil industry experts report.

But the internal price of a barrel in Vaca Muerta is regulated at 67.5 dollars and in the rest of the country’s oilfields at 54.9 percent – an artificial price established to shore up the oil industry’s expansion plans, especially in this part of the country, although at a slower pace now.

YPF announced that in Vaca Muerta, it would cut oil production costs by 15 percent, which has led to lay-offs.

“The situation is very complicated,” said Díaz, who estimated that there will be 1,000 more unemployed people in the province, added to those who have already lost their jobs. “A reduction in activity,” has already been seen, he said, and “people are working fewer hours” and wages have fallen, which has a social impact, he added.

Oil worker unions in Vaca Muerta say 1,000 people have been laid off so far in the industry, as well as 1,000 in other areas.

Eduardo Toledo, an agricultural technician who decided to move from Buenos Aires to Añelo and invest his savings in a restaurant, is worried about the slowdown in oil industry activity in Vaca Muerta.

“When we started, we had just one stove with three burners and an oven,” said Toledo, whose customers are truck drivers, factory workers and other oil industry employees who have been drawn to this area by the relatively high wages paid by the industry.

Like Toledo, many people invested in hotels, rental housing, shops and small-scale service businesses. “Everyone wanted to come to what was going to be the shale gas and oil capital,” he said.

But now his restaurant is working at a “mid to low level of activity.”

“If people know they’re going to lose their jobs, they don’t want to spend money,” he said.

Toledo is still confident that interest in shale gas and oil will keep things moving, despite the plummeting prices.

In Vaca Muerta, 77 percent of the proven shale reserves are gas.

Besides, “there are major gas resources that have not yet become reserves,” Ignacio Sabbatella, who holds a PhD in social sciences from the University of Buenos Aires and is the co-author of the book “History of a privatization; How and why the YPF was lost”, told IPS. (YPF was renationalised in 2012.)

But experts and local residents are taking a long-term view.

Sabbatella stressed that it is important to keep in mind that beyond the current international oil price swings, the investments in Vaca Muerta “will yield fruit in the long term” – in five to 10 years.

He pointed out that shale oil and gas production only got underway in the area in 2011, “and especially after the recovery of state control of YPF, in a joint venture with transnational corporations like Chevron.”

YPF, Argentina’s biggest company, was in private hands from 1992 to 2012, when the government of Cristina Fernández (2007-2015) decided to renationalise it.

Sabbatella said the announced cutbacks in YPF have coincided with an overall “shift in policy” since the arrival to the presidency on Dec. 10 of the centre-right Mauricio Macri, who ended a period of centre-left governments under Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007) and later his wife and successor, Fernández.

“The previous government did everything possible to sustain the levels of investment, exploration and production, even in an unfavourable international context, and what we are seeing is that this government is only halfway maintaining that policy and is even pushing YPF to cut its investments,” said Sabbatella.

“The current administration believes that the best thing is to adjust domestic oil industry policy to external conditions. In a context of low prices, they believe the best idea is to not sustain domestic investment, and they have even shown some illustrations of this, by importing cheaper crude and fuel from abroad, for example,” he said.

But Toledo prefers to be optimistic, because otherwise, he said, “I have to close my restaurant.”

“I can’t afford to go somewhere else and I’m not interested anyway because it’s hard to set down roots again in a place like this.”

Edited by Estrella Gutiérrez/Translated by Stephanie Wildes

Related Articles

• Añelo, from Forgotten Town to Capital of Argentina’s Shale Fuel Boom
• Vaca Muerta, Argentina’s New Development Frontier

March 18, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's foreign minister Ibrahim Ghandour and his Polish counterpart Witold Waszczykowski Friday signed a joint cooperation agreement between the two nations.

Sudanese FM Ibrahim Ghandour (L) received by his Polish counterpart Witold Waszczykowski in Warsaw on 17 March 2016 (Photo Polish FM)

Ghandour, who is visiting Poland upon an official invitation from Waszczykowski, is the first Sudanese foreign minister to visit Warsaw since more than forty years.

In his meeting with Waszczykowski on Friday, Ghandour thanked the top Polish diplomat for extending the invitation, expressing Sudan's awareness of the importance of Poland.

He added that his visit would pave the way for the resumption of cooperation between the two countries, pointing to the historic economic ties between Warsaw and Khartoum.

Ghandour briefed Waszczykowski on the recent developments in Sudan including the national dialogue, pointing to Sudan's role in achieving peace and security in the region.

Sudan's top diplomat also pointed to the efforts exerted by his country to combat illegal migration since launching the Khartoum Process in 2014, saying its outcome became the foundation for the recent Valleta summit on migration.

For his part, the Polish minister thanked Ghandour for accepting the invitation, stressing the joint cooperation agreement would reinforce the bilateral relation between the two countries.

The Polish foreign ministry said the two ministers discussed migration and the Khartoum Process.

Minister Ghandour drew attention to the fact that Sudan was prepared to cooperate in countering illegal migration, human smuggling and trafficking, and to consolidate Sudanese capabilities to receive refugees.

“Poland and Europe are prepared to support measures aimed at resolving international problems, including the phenomenon of illegal migration,” stressed Minister Waszczykowski.

The joint agreement covered areas of agricultural, higher education, political coordination and mutual support in international forums.

The two sides also agreed to exchange the diplomatic representation between the countries very soon.

Meanwhile, Ghandour discussed with the Polish minister of agriculture and rural development Rafa? Romanowski ways to promote cooperation between the two nations in areas of food security, agriculture, livestock and agricultural machinery and equipments.

The meeting also discussed the possibility for allowing the Polish products access to the Sudanese markets and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).

(ST)

March 18, 2016 (JUBA) – The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has outlined steps to be taken by South Sudanese parties to the peace agreement signed 5 months ago and called on the government of President Salva Kiir to stop operationalization of the unilaterally created 28 new states in the country.

Special representative for the UN secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict, Zainab Hawa Bangura (shown on screen), briefs the Security Council at its meeting on South Sudan on 22 October 2014 (Photo: UN)

On the controversial 28 states, the United Nations Security Council in a statement on Friday said the government should abide by the communiqué of the IGAD foreign ministers which called on Juba to suspend the operationalization of new states.

“The parties to the agreement abide by and take no action inconsistent with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) 30-31 January 2016 communiqué, which was subsequently endorsed by the parties and JMEC, on the issue of the Presidential Decree on the creation of 28 new states,” partly reads the statement.

The UNSC's presidential statement urged the government of President Kiir and the SPLM in opposition of First Vice President designate, Riek Machar, to “fully and immediately adhere to the permanent ceasefire.”

The world body also asked the parties to cooperate with the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC) and implement the security arrangement for Juba to facilitate the formation of transitional government of national unity.

It also urged the parties to soon form a transitional government, adding that it will review progress by the end of March.

“The President, the First Vice-President, and Vice-President, as set out in the Agreement, take up their positions in the Transitional Government of National Unity (TGNU) in Juba,” reads the statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Friday.

It called on the government of South Sudan and the SPLM-IO to protect civilians and civilian facilities, including schools and hospitals and allow people to move freely in accordance with relevant provisions of international law and UN guiding principles of humanitarian assistance, including the full, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access to help ensure timely delivery of humanitarian assistance to all those in need.

The statement accused the South Sudanese army of taking part in the Malakal attack on civilians inside the UN compound, warning this could amount to war crimes.

“The Security Council expresses particular alarm at credible reports of armed men in Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) uniforms entering the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS) protection of civilians site and firing on civilians,” it said.

“The Security Council stresses that attacks against civilians, UNMISS personnel, as well as United Nations premises are unacceptable and may constitute war crimes.”

The Council warned the parties that attacking on UN bases, like that on Protection of Civilians sites in Malakal last month, may constitute war crime.

It called upon the government of South Sudan to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the attack and commended the United Nations for quickly announcing establishment of a High-Level Board of Inquiry to be convened by the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations and Department of Field Support which will conduct an in-depth investigation into UNMISS' response to this incident.

The Security Council also underscored its grave concern at the deteriorating economic and humanitarian situation in South Sudan, with an estimated 2.8 million people who are severely food insecure and that humanitarian access continues to be restricted.

President Kiir and opposition leader Machar signed the Agreement to Resolve the Conflict in South Sudan in August 2015, but formation of transitional government has been delayed due to failure to demilitarize the capital, Juba, and transportation of SPLM-IO forces to Juba.

Machar, who was appointed by President Kiir last month as his deputy again said he would only return to Juba after his forces landed in the capital.

The Troika (U.S, Norway and Britain) as well as European Union has pledged to transport the opposition forces to Juba. It is not yet clear when that will happen.

The UN Security Council in its statement however commended the peace parties for taking some steps including selection of ministerial portfolios, among others, but added it will review progress on 31 March.

(ST)

March 18, 2016 (ADDIS ABABA) – The continued determination by the South Sudanese government under the leadership of President Salva Kiir to operationalize the controversial new 28 states in the country is a waste of resources and a misplaced priority as the economic crisis deteriorates, an official of the armed opposition faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM-IO) has said.

SPLM (IO) Chairman, Riek Machar, addressing the 2nd National Liberation Council (NLC) meeting in Pagak, November 5, 2015 (ST Photo)

“For sure, the ongoing defiant implementation of the new controversial 28 states is not only a violation of the August 2015 peace agreement but also a misplaced priority. It is a waste of the country's scarce resources in the face of the deteriorating economic crisis,” James Gatdet Dak, official spokesman of the SPLM-IO leader, Riek Machar, told Sudan Tribune on Thursday.

“The leadership of the SPLM/SPLA (IO) expects suspension of these 28 states in the event of forming a Transitional Government of National Unity,” he added.

He wondered what the government will have achieved by continuing with the implementation of the new states when it knows that they will be suspended in a matter of weeks and the parties may afterwards revert to 10 states as provided for in the peace agreement.

Dak was responding to media queries on the position and current view of the opposition faction on the new states as the government has continued to operationalize them despite the recent call from the East African regional bloc, IGAD, to suspend them, which the rival parties also agreed to.

An inclusive boundary commission with membership of all the parties to the peace deal will be established by the transitional government to try to reach a consensus on a number of new states to be created, including identifying and agreeing upon their boundaries.

The February 2016 IGAD communiqué, released in Addis Ababa by the bloc's foreign ministers, also called on the parties to revert to the existing constitutionally recognized 10 states - which became the basis for the peace agreement - should there be no consensus on the number of new states and their boundaries.

But the government has continued to operationalize the 28 states it unilaterally created on 2 October 2015, arguing that it was a demand of the people of South Sudan.

The opposition official said his they expected the government to rather suspend the new states until when the parties sit and try to reach a consensus within one month from formation of the government and the boundary commission as stipulated in the IGAD communiqué.

Dak also said it did not make sense for the government to operationalize the “28 new problematic states” so as to accommodate more politicians at the expense of the people when it is not paying salaries to its army and civil servants as well as cutting down the number of its foreign mission officials abroad due to lack of funding.

Tens of thousands of people from such states, he alleged, have been fleeing from South Sudan to neighboring countries because of hunger while millions others are starving internally.

He further argued that some of the new states are problematic and will likely bring to the people of South Sudan more inter-communal violent conflicts.

The opposition's official pointed out that some of the communities, such as the Shilluk ethnic group in Upper Nile region, whose lands have been grabbed and annexed to a Dinka neighbouring community in the process of creating the 28 states, have threatened to wage war in defence of their ancestral lands.

A better decision, he added, is to suspend the new states as called for by the IGAD communiqué and for the parties to collectively agree on the way forward.

(ST)

March 18, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - The Sudanese Congress Party (SCoP) has urged the African Union High Implementation Panel (AUHIP) to abide by the AU Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) resolutions (456) and (539) which call for holding an inclusive and comprehensive national dialogue.

NUP leader Sadiq al-Mahdi (L) and SCoP chairperson Omer al-Digair in Cairo on 14 March 2016 (ST Photo)

In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune Friday, the SCoP said all major national parties have accepted the AUPSC resolutions however the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) seeks to divide the issues and the negotiations forums via the old colonial approach of “divide and rule”.

SCoP renewed its common position along with its allies in the “Sudan Call” and the National Consensus Forces (NCF) which state that the comprehensive political solution couldn't be achieved without meeting several conditions including reaching a total cessation of hostilities in war areas, releasing political detainees and cancelling restrictive laws.

The statement stressed the need that a transitional authority comprised of all political and civil society forces should be established to implement any political agreement among the various parties, pointing that the AUPSC has adopted this position in its resolutions (456) in September 2014 and (539) in August 2015.

The AUHIP has invited the government and the National Umma Party of Sadiq al-Mahdi besides three armed movements: Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and Sudan Liberation Movement - Minni Minnawi (SLM-MM) to take part in a consultative meeting in Addis Ababa on 18 March.

The meeting is supposed to discuss the way forward on the national dialogue and how to stop the armed conflicts in South Kordofan, Blue Nile and Darfur.

SCoP further said the government has always sought to manipulate the peace talks and the national dialogue to avoid reaching a genuine solution that could end the war and lead to a genuine democratic transformation.

“The NCP regime continued to take advantage of the seasonal negotiations events for purposes that has nothing to do with the peaceful solution for the issues of the Sudanese people. It used those events only to confuse the Sudanese people and to market itself to the international community and to divide the opposition front”, the statement read.

SCoP renewed its position that there is no partial solution for the Sudanese crises, saying that the sustainable solution must be inclusive of all issues and parties.

The strategic consultative meeting is conceived by the AUHIP to replace a national dialogue preparatory meeting the government had rejected.

The purpose of the pre-dialogue meeting was to gather the armed and political holdout groups and the government to discuss confidence building measures paving the way for their participation in the internal political process.

The pre-dialogue meeting was supposed to intervene after the signing of a cessation of hostilities agreement within the framework of declaration of principles for a peaceful settlement.

(ST)

March 18, 2016 (JUBA) - South Sudanese President, Salva Kiir, has issued an administrative order appointing former rebel spokesperson, Brigadier General Lul Ruai Koang, as the new spokesperson of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), the official army of South Sudan.

Lul Ruai Koang speak to the press in Addis Abab on May 9, 2014 (AFP Photo)

President Kiir, according to the appointment letter he signed on 4 March 2016, but which Koang received on 17 March, two weeks later, assigned him as the spokesperson of the SPLA. He replaced former army spokesperson, Colonel Philip Aguer, who, since 24 December 2015, became an active politician after his appointment as the governor of the newly created Jonglei state.

Aguer's appointment has since created a vacuum in public communications with the army on matters relevant to defence and security of the people and the country.

Speaking to Sudan Tribune on Friday, Koang commended the president and the leadership of the army under the overall command of the chief of general staff, Paul Malong Awan, describing it as a privilege and honour to serve the country at the most critical time in the history of South Sudan.

“I feel honoured and privileged to serve our people and the country as the spokesperson of the SPLA at this time,” said General Koang, when asked how he felt after receiving the news he had been into a highly selling and combative office which represents the views of the army on national affairs.

The military officer said he would work to ensure he speaks and stands for the values the army has been constitutionally mandated to uphold and enhance.

“My message to our people is that the SPLA remains fully committed to defending and protecting territorial integrity of the republic of South Sudan, defend the constitution, protect the lives and properties of our [people] against aggression,” he said.

Commenting on the same development, Gordon Buay, a South Sudanese diplomat at its mission to the United States, congratulated President Kiir on the appointment of General Koang to the position and described him as the “right man in the right job.”

“I want to congratulate President Kiir Mayardit for the appointment of Brig. Gen. Lul because he is the right person for the job,” said Ambassador Buay in a statement which he personally extended to Sudan Tribune on Friday and which he also distributed to a select group of people in his contact list and on social media.

Buay added that he was particularly happy with the appointment because General Koang will “properly deal with anti-peace elements that are spreading lies in the media against the Constitution of South Sudan.”

“There are bandits and political terrorists that are against the implementation of the Compromised Peace Agreement,” he said.

General Koang defected from the armed opposition faction of SPLA-IO under the leadership of Riek Machar, former vice president. He then joined the government since April last year.

(ST)

DJ's top tips for the continent's best releases

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has learned of the arrival in Djibouti today of the Foreign Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, and the announcement of the release of four Djiboutian prisoners by the Eritrean authorities.

Briefing the Security Council, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and United Nations High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein today voiced concern about spiralling violence and rights violations in Burundi, and called for an inclusive political dialogue to peacefully resolve the 11-month crisis.

March 18, 2016 (PIBOR) - The medical charity, Medicins San Frontiers (MSF) said it has re-established a limited medical program in its heavily-looted centre in Pibor, South Sudan.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has expressed dismay at the continued targeting of medical facilities and patients during ongoing conflict in South Sudan (Photo: Kim Clausen/MSF)

MSF said was forced to evacuate to the United Nations base amid heavy fighting on 23 February and upon return four days later, its team found the medical centre was completely looted, depriving the area's170,000 people of access to secondary healthcare and undermining medical response in Lekonguole and Gumuruk.

“We have managed to open a limited medical program to address the most urgent needs of the population, but we have not returned to business as usual in terms of medical capacity,” Corinne Benazech, MSF head of mission in South Sudan said in a statement.

“Our ability to provide medical assistance has been greatly diminished by the looting of our medical facility two weeks ago. It is women and children who suffer most from reduced access to medical care, not only in Pibor, but also in Lekonguole and Gumuruk,” she added.

MSF called on armed actors to respect the provision of medical care.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and over two million displaced in South Sudan's worst outbreak of violence since the young nation succeeded from neighbouring Sudan in July 2011.

A peace deal signed in August last year to end the conflict is yet to make meaningful gains, amid continuous violations of a ceasefire agreed upon by both sides involved in the South Sudanese conflict.

According to MSF, the medical charity has also been supporting the provision of primary heathcare services in Lekonguole and Gumuruk from its medical centre in Pibor, but can now only provide the most critical medicines to support the population of those communities.

“We call on anyone in possession of looted medical equipment to return it to MSF. Some of the items that were taken from us have no use or no value outside of a medical facility. If they are returned to MSF, it will help improve the population's access to medical care by allowing for the resumption of more life-saving medical activities,” said Benazech.

However, as MSF continues providing assistance to those mostly in need, it says any further targeting of its medical services could make it very difficult for MSF to sustain life-saving services in the Pibor area.

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The wealthy South African family accused of wielding undue influence through links to President Zuma says it has been the victim of "xenophobic and hate speech".

Dubbed by the press as “the man who mends women,” Dr. Mukwege has gained international recognition for his work and earned many prestigious distinctions, including the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights in 2008 and the Sakharov prize in 2014. At 59, he has also been shortlisted several times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Oscar Pistorius is targeted by a conman offering to repeal his murder conviction in return for money.

Rival Islamist militant groups al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Boko Haram stage separate attacks in Niger, killing four members of the security forces, officials say.

The United Nations health agency has dispatched a team of specialists to Guinea after 2 new cases of Ebola were confirmed yesterday, the first re-emergence of the deadly virus in the Western African country since its original outbreak was declared over on 29 December 2015.

Blissed out in Cairo and solidarity in the sand

A 63-year-old Kenyan man is hospitalised after he was attacked by a lion wandering along a busy road in the capital, Nairobi.