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Le procès de Bosco Ntaganda s’ouvre ce mercredi à La Haye devant la Cour pénale internationale. Cet ancien chef rebelle est accusé de 18 chefs de crimes de guerre et crimes contre l’humanité qui auraient été commis en 2002 et 2003 au cours d’une guerre interethnique dans la région de l’Ituri. Une région où, précisément, les attentes sont fortes autour de ce procès.

September 1, 2015 (JUBA) – South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, his defense minister and members of the government negotiating team have briefed country's top military officers about the peace agreement recently signed with the armed opposition faction.

President Salva Kiir and defence minister Koul Manyang Juuk addressing the press on Monday morning (Photo: GOSS/Thomas Keneth)

The meeting, officials said, took place on Tuesday in the South Sudanese capital, Juba.

According to the army spokesperson, Col. Philip Aguer three officers from the country's two main rival faction are due to take part in a will participate in a military workshop due in Addis Ababa this week.

“Today the commanders of the army in all the sector divisions and specialist units were ordered to come for briefing and the briefing was all about the peace agreement and the implementation particularly the issue of ceasefire,” Auger told reporters in Juba.

The defense minister, in a statement on the state-owned SSTV, urged the military to respect the cessation of hostilities agreement. This notion was echoed by information minister, Michael Makuei Lueth.

“These consultations with the military should have been the first thing to do before signing the peace agreement, but the IGAD [Intergovernment Authority on Development said no,” said Lueth.

On security arrangements, the peace agreement stipulates that thevcapital, Juba, be declared demilitarised zone, with a radius of 25kms. Foreign troops, particularly from the IGAD countries and the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) will take charge of Juba for 30 months of the transition period until elections are conducted.

The two rival armies, according to the peace agreement, will also maintain separate commands for a period of transition with president Kiir being the commander-in-chief of the South Sudan army (SPLA) and rebel leader Machar also as the commander-in-chief of his forces until a unification process is completed as per the recently signed accord.

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EVENT On 2 September, 18 construction workers (17 of whom were Turkish nationals) were reported to have been abducted in Sadr City. The workers were employed at a project for the construction of a sports stadium in Habiba. According to the Iraqi news site, al-Mada press, the attackers wore

Fighting between insurgents and the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF) has intensified in Musa Qala, one of a number of districts in northern Helmand province that temporarily fell to the insurgency in late August. Afghan media first reported heavy fighting in Musa Qala on 24

The Royal Australian Navy ANZAC-class frigate HMAS Ballarat has completed dock work related to the Project SEA 1448 Phase 2 Anti-Ship Missile Defence (ASMD) upgrade and will be commencing sea trials with its newly installed equipments, BAE Systems Australia announced on 2 September. The upgrades

Boeing may be laying off potentially hundreds of employees, according to a Reuters report. The company would have notified employees on 31 August, according to Reuters. Boeing representatives did not immediate return calls requesting comment. Those employees are tied to Boeing's satellite business,

China placed its latest satellite in orbit on 27 August, carried by a Long March 4C rocket launched from the Taiyuan satellite launch centre in northern China. Yaogan-27 was described by Chinese media as a remote sensing satellite to be used for land surveys, crop yield forecasts, and disaster

EVENT Guatemala's national congress yesterday (1 September) voted to remove President Otto Pérez Molina's immunity from prosecution, the first time in Guatemalan history that such a move has been made. According to investigations carried out by the UN-backed International Commission Against

International ratings agency Fitch has reported that it "expects" Italian defence technologies group Finmeccanica to sell its 25% stake in pan-European missile systems house MBDA to co-owners BAE Systems and Airbus Group. BAE Systems and Airbus both hold a 37.5% ownership in MBDA, which

Israel Military Industries (IMI) has announced that it is now marketing its MPR-500 bomb internationally. The weapon is already in service with the Israeli Air Force, which used it during Operation 'Protective Edge' against militants in the Gaza Strip in 2014. The MPR-500 has the same form as a

India's Ministry of Defence (MoD) approved programmes worth nearly INR140 billion (USD 2.2 billion) for all three services on 1 September. The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) cleared the Indian Air Force (IAF) to buy 48 more Mil Mi-17V5 'Hip' medium-lift helicopters for INR69.92 billion and seven

Denmark is offering to Indonesia a programme to jointly develop and produce radar systems in a bid to secure additional sales in the market, it has emerged. The Indonesian Ministry of Defence (MoD) said on 1 September that Denmark has outlined a potential programme to transfer technologies to

Indonesia is discussing with Moscow the terms of a USD3 billion loan to support its acquisition of Russian military equipment, according to a senior member of the Indonesian House of Representatives' (DPR's) defence commission. Citing Tubagus Hasanuddin, vice-chairman of the defence commission,

Lockheed Martin has been contracted to deliver Block 3F software for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter for the US and UK militaries. The USD311.4 million contract announced by the Department of Defense (DoD) on 1 September covers delivery of the aircraft's full combat software to the US

Nordic defence munitions and missile propulsion products group Nammo announced on 1 September that it had established a subsidiary in Poland. The group - owned 50:50 by Finnish land systems group Patria and the government of Norway - said that the establishment of the Polish business meant that it

Russia is to begin production of a new helicopter that will be capable of speeds of up to 270 kt (500 km/h; 310 mph) in the early part of the next decade, state media reported on 1 September. Development of the high-speed helicopter is progressing well, with a prototype expected to make its maiden

Key Points Russian Borey-class SSBN scheduled to complete transfer to Pacific Fleet Russia plans to base four Boreys in the Pacific The Russian Navy's Borey-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) Alexander Nevsky is scheduled to arrive at its Pacific Fleet home base in early

Key Points Singaporean, Indonesian navies co-ordinated to foil an attack at sea, with three arrested Incident highlights the ongoing risk of robbery and piracy in the region A bid to rob a Malaysian-flagged tugboat in the eastern approaches of the Singapore Strait has been foiled by a

The Spanish government is being pushed to explain its position on the continued deployment of Patriot surface-to-air missile batteries in Turkey after the other two NATO allies (the United States and Germany) announced the withdrawal of theirs at the end of August. The opposition party, Geroa Bai,

The US Navy (USN) has begun initial integration of the Lockheed Martin's Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) onto the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet carrier-borne strike fighter. Fit checks are being conducted at Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River, Maryland, ahead of the start of airworthiness