Africa

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January 29, 2017 (JUBA) - The new head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), David Shearer held a meeting with South Sudan President Salva Kiir, during which the former reiterated the mission's commitment to supporting peace efforts in the young nation.

David Shearer (Getty Images)

Shearer, a U.N spokesperson said, also assured the South Sudanese leader that the U.N and UNMISS are there to support the Government and help the people of war-torn South Sudan.

The senior U.N official reportedly state that he was in South Sudan with an open mind and would leave the East African nation if conditions in the country permit UNMISS to leave.

Shearer, who doubles at the special representative of the Secretary General in South Sudan, also met with the South Sudanese minister of cabinet affairs, Martin Elia Lomuro and that he was pleased to hear the minister reiterate South Sudan Government's commitment to the deployment of the Regional Protection Force (RPF) mandated by the U.N Security Council in August 2016.

UNMISS was deployed in July 2011 after South Sudan's independence from Sudan. Currently, there are 13,000 uniformed personnel and over 2,000 international and local civilian staff.

South Sudan descended into turmoil in mid-December 2013 when rival forces loyal to President Kiir bitterly fought with those loyal to his former deputy Riek Machar. Since then, tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced in a crisis that has produced one of the world's worst displacement situations with immense suffering for civilians.
(ST)

January 29, 2017 (KHARTOUM) - The United People's Front for Liberation and Justice (UPFLJ), a group from eastern Sudan, has called on the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate the killing incident known as “Port Sudan Massacre”.

Over 20 people were killed in Port Sudan, capital of the Red Sea state on 29 January 2005 when thousands of protesters called for the end of an armed conflict in the impoverished province and to provide job opportunities.

A delegation from the UPFLJ including its chairwoman Zaineb Kabashi and her deputy Osama Saeed has met with a number of officials from the office of the ICC chief prosecutor in the Hague.

In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Sunday, UPFLJ said the meeting discussed the ICC role to prosecute Sudanese officials wanted by the tribunal and on top of them President Omer al-Bashir.

The ICC has issued two arrest warrants against President al-Bashir in 2009 and 2010 for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed in Darfur.

According to the statement, the delegation presented an integrated vision that the ICC has jurisdiction to prosecute the “Port Sudan Massacre”, saying “the special force which had committed the massacre in cold blood was brought to disperse peaceful protests”.

The statement pointed that the ICC has jurisdiction individuals for crimes against humanity, saying the tribunal shall have the jurisdiction “when national courts are unable or unwilling to investigate the defendants”.

It pointed that the Sudanese courts are unwilling to institute the proceedings in relation to “Port Sudan Massacre”, accusing the Sudanese regime and security services of obstructing any moves to file a lawsuit in this regard.

“Accordingly, the delegation requested [the ICC] to file a lawsuit against the perpetrators of the massacre,” added the statement.

It further said the two sides agreed to hold a second meeting to allow the UPFLJ to hand over a complete dossier to the ICC to file the lawsuit.

The UPFLJ is a splinter faction of the Eastern Front that signed a peace agreement with the Sudanese government in October 2006.

The group says Khartoum government didn't implement the Eritrean government brokered agreement which provides to establish a $600 million development fund to be paid over four years.

(ST)

January 29, 2017 (JUBA)- South Sudan President Salva Kiir has issued an order removed Lam Akol Ajawin from the ministry of agriculture, several months after his resignation from the position.

Lam Akol, chairman of South Sudan's main opposition party (AFP/Samir Bol Photo)

Akol, an influential opposition leader, resigned his position august 2016 from the unity government formed in line with the 2015 peace agreement which the government and armed and non-armed opposition signed to end the over three years destructive war.

He described the agreement as “dead” following renewed rounds of fighting between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and former First Vice President Riek Machar, in the capital Juba in July 2016.

“Since the agreement is dead and there is no free political space in Juba, the only sensible way to oppose this regime so as to restore genuine peace to our war-torn country is to organize outside Juba,” Akol told journalists in the capital of neighboring Ethiopia, Addis Ababa,

Akol was one of two ministers in the unity government that was neither part of Kiir's SPLM nor Machar's opposition, known as the SPLM-In-Opposition (SPLM-IO). He was representing the alliance of non-armed opposition parties in unity government. When he left, the group was expected to convene a meeting at which they would deliberate on who should be the replacement.

His deputy, who hails from the alliance, has been acting and the new order from the president effecting removal of Akol from the position did not elevate him to full ministerial capacity and did not appoint a new official, continuing to create an administrative vacuum at the ministry.

South Sudan was plunged into civil war in December 2013, when Kiir accused Machar of plotting a coup to overthrow him, resulting in the eruption of war in which tens of thousands were killed and more than 2 million displaced in the civil war, with sporadic outbreaks of fighting even after a peace agreement was brokered in August 2015. Machar returned to the capital to re-take up the post of First Vice-President in April.

Last July, the rival forces clashed in Juba, resulting in the loss of more than 270 lives and tens of thousands of residents fleeing to neighbouring Uganda. Machar fled the capital with his forces as a result and Kiir issued a 48-hour ultimatum for him to return. When Machar failed to show, Kiir swore in Taban Deng Gai, as the new First Vice-President until Machar returned. The appointment was rejected by Machar as illegal.

Upon his resignation, Akol said he would to align with like-minded compatriots” in order to build a national coalition, saying the South Sudanese would no longer tolerate a “callous, totalitarian and ethnocentric regime that seems to thrive on the suffering of its own people,”

He later formed a national democratic movement which pledged to work with other remove the government under the leadership of President Salva Kiir from power.

(ST)

January 29, 2017 (JUBA) - The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has reiterated its call on all the warring parties involved in South Sudan's conflict to immediately cease hostilities and fully implement the peace agreement.

UNMISS troops from India patrol the UNMISS compound in Juba, South Sudan recently (UN MISSION/AP)

UNMISS, in a statement issued Sunday, said was deeply concerned about the outbreak of fighting between the South Sudanese army (SPLA) and SPLA in Opposition (SPLM-OI) in and around Malakal town, including intermittent shelling that has been reported over the last few days.

The situation in Malakal town, according to the mission, remained tense following clashes between rival factions.

“The mission continues to patrol regularly in Malakal and reports that the town is largely deserted,” reads the statement issued by the U.N mission in the young nation.

The acting SPLA spokesman, Santo Domic Chol said Wednesday that the two rival forces clashed near Malakal, the Upper Nile state capital after government forces were allegedly attacked by militias under the command of Johnson Olony.

He neither gave details on the exact location where the clashes occurred nor unveil information on any casualties from the Malakal incident.

UNMISS, however, said it will continue to act within its capacity to protect South Sudanese civilians in imminent danger and calls on all the country's warring parties in the conflict to silence the guns to enable the movement of humanitarian aid and personnel to affected areas.

South Sudan has experience violence since December 2013 when political disagreements between President Salva Kiir and Machar saw the nation split along ethnic lines. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced in South Sudan's worst ever outbreak of violence since independence from neighbouring Sudan.

(ST)