Conflict forcing many innocent people to flee

Despite attempts at peace, the situation in South Sudan is still tense, and people fear a famine. Brother Bernhard Hengl, of the Combine Missionaries, claims “A terrible famine will happen this year!”. Br. Bernard has been on ground zero in the Sudan for several years, and has witnessed, first hand, the terrible violence throughout the country.

Places like Wau are very, very tense, he says. In February, soldiers were shooting and looting, even conducting house to house raids. Soldiers went so far as to take seeds from the people, thereby making cultivation nearly impossible, and a man-made famine very possible. He knows other threats continue, and does what he can to get supplies and services to the people while he still can. “We were trying to assist with some food during the last months. We need to get means to assist further, as people are dying in great numbers of hunger and sicknesses.”

The warring parties were government sponsored soldiers and opposition forces. The conflict between the two happened despite the recent cease fire.

Many innocent people, perhaps over 90,000 from Wau alone, have been forced to flee, and hide in the bush, and in mosquito-infested swamps. There they are forced in sleep in open fields and under trees. Recently, the Sudan Relief Fund was able to send some much needed blankets to the people, but more needs to be done.

Many of the people who have fled are young children, who are now without parents.

More violence seems likely in the coming months, and as mentioned above, a possible famine is is looming.

All is not lost though, parties are working towards peace, and many organizations are doing what they can to help the people. Prayers are, of course, desperately needed.

EU URGES SOUTH SUDAN TO IMPLEMENT SECURITY DEAL TO STOP FAMINE

Security Deal Needed to Stop Famine

By William Davison

The European Union’s top envoy in the Horn of Africa urged South Sudan’s warring parties to implement a security deal to enable humanitarian agencies to provide aid to more than 1 million people facing famine.

A deal agreed on Aug. 25 is “critical” to stabilizing the country eight months after fighting began, Alexander Rondos said in a phone interview yesterday from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The accord sets out measures government and rebel forces should take, including disengaging from combat areas and reporting troop positions to regional monitors, and is a step toward respecting a cease-fire agreed in January that has been repeatedly flouted.

“It’s action on the ground on the security front that has to occur,” Rondos said. “With this we need to see immediate implementation and this is entirely in the hands of the South Sudanese parties.”

Fighting erupted in South Sudan in December when President Salva Kiir accused his former vice president, Riek Machar, and other senior government officials of plotting a coup, a charge they deny. The conflict in the oil-producing nation forced at least 1.5 million people to flee their homes and left the country on the brink of famine that may kill 50,000 children, according to the United Nations.

About 102,000 displaced people are sheltering at 10 UN bases, the highest number since the conflict began, according to the world body.

The mandate of a 12,500-strong UN mission may have to be strengthened to allow peace-keepers to push back armed groups threatening to attack, Rondos, the E.U.’s special representative to the Horn of Africa, said. The operation’s role was shifted in May from nation building to protecting civilians and a Protection Force of East African troops was announced in March.

Strengthening Capacity

“We need to see whether under present circumstances the mandate and rules of engagement they have at their disposal are equal to the challenge,” he said. “There’s going to be have to be strengthening of the enforcement capacity if it’s clear that persuasion has to give way to enforcement.”

Conflict mediators from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, a seven-nation East African bloc, said they expect the step-by-step plan to mean “the guns will be silenced and the senseless conflict in South Sudan will end,” according to an Aug. 27 statement. Truce violations will be published on IGAD’s website, they said.

The number of South Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan may double to more than 1 million people by the end of the year, adding to an already large burden for neighboring countries, Rondos said.

“If we can’t get separation of forces, you can not get access, supplies to the vulnerable populations,” he said. “If you can’t get supplies to them they will come to the neighbors.”

Bloomberg

August 29, 2014

SOUTH SUDAN PEACE TALKS REACH APPARENT BREAKTHROUGH

Warring Parties Set Timetable to Form Transitional Government and Cease Fighting

By NICHOLAS BARIYO

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar agreed to form a transitional government in the next 60 days, a big step in efforts to resolve a devastating six-month conflict in the world’s youngest nation, mediators said on Wednesday.

Government and rebel negotiators are slated to start talks on the formation of a transitional government of national unity on Thursday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, according to a communiqué issued by the heads of state from East Africa’s regional trade bloc, the Intergovernmental Agency for Development, or IGAD.

The warring parties have 60 days to complete the talks and are also required to cease all military operations during the negotiations—or face punitive sanctions.

For the first time since the conflict erupted in December, IGAD leaders threatened late Tuesday night to impose sanctions on both parties.

The threat of sanctions, which diplomats said could include asset freezes and travel bans, came at an emergency summit in Addis Ababa and underscores the region’s growing frustration with South Sudan’s warring parties, which have violated previous cease-fire deals.

Although South Sudan’s political rivals have committed to the 60-day road map, those close to the conflict remain skeptical another promised cease-fire can hold.

“The leaders need to act swiftly on their promises by calling on their troops to lay down their arms immediately,” said Oxfam’s South Sudan country director, Cecilia Millan. “The people of this country have been forced to endure too much in the past six months.”

The conflict has also drawn in Uganda, and diplomats have singled out the presence of Ugandan troops as an impediment to peace.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who deployed troops to support a government offensive against rebel fighters shortly after the outbreak of the conflict, attended direct talks between the warring factions, the Ugandan presidency said.

James Gatdet Dak, a rebel spokesman, described Mr. Museveni’s participation as “a very good sign” for the peace process. It signals, he said, that interested parties “will now address the root causes of the crisis.”

But even as IGAD heads of state discussed the conflict, the United Nations mission in South Sudan said heavy gunfire and mortar shelling rocked Malakal, the capital of oil-producing Upper Nile state. The U.N. accused government officials of using a radio station in the oil hub of Bentiu to deliver threatening messages to civilians.

South Sudan’s military said it was investigating the allegations.

South Sudan’s oil regions have seen some of the heaviest combat since the conflict erupted and crude production has since dropped more than 30%, to 160,000 barrels a day, a severe blow to the country’s economy.

Messrs. Kiir and Machar agreed to form a transitional government in May, in a U.S. brokered deal, where they also signed a second cease-fire deal, after the previous one failed to hold. Sporadic fightinghas since continued, raising fears among aid officials that the ethnically charged conflict, in which more than 10,000 have been killed, could escalate into genocide.

Messrs. Kiir and Machar attended the IGAD summit and held face-to-face talks for the second time since the conflict erupted.

They agreed to recommit to the two previous cease-fire deals and allow unhindered humanitarian access to more than one million people who have been displaced.

In May, the U.S. Treasury Department ordered asset freezes and travel bans on Peter Gadet, a rebel commander loyal to Mr. Machar, and Gen. Marial Chanuong, head of Mr. Kiir’s presidential guards, for their role in the conflict.

The U.S. accuses Gen. Chanuong of ordering attacks against civilians in and around Juba shortly after the outbreak of the fighting. Mr. Gadet is accused of leading rebel forces during an assault on the oil hub of Bentiu in April that killed more than 200 civilians.

The Wall Street Journal
June 12, 2014
pg. A9

http://online.wsj.com/articles/south-sudan-peace-talks-reach-apparent-breakthrough-1402473616#

GROSS HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES SEEN IN S. SUDAN: REPORT

Gross Human Rights Abuses

FOOD CRISIS

In Need of Food

Some 3.5 million South Sudanese, or one in three people, face an acute lack of food, the United Nations says. A widespread famine is looming after violence disrupted farming and food prices soar. In Sudan, food is scarce in Darfur, the Nuba Mountains and some eastern parts. But with fertile soil and water access, both Sudans are potential bread baskets. The Niles correspondents from across the region spoke to farmers, firms, governments, NGOs and the people about the crisis and the future.

AIRDROPS AIM TO EASE SUDAN SUFFERING

Airdrops to Ease Suffering

By Nicholas Bariyo

KAMPALA, Uganda—The World Food Program has started emergency airdrops of food to millions of people isolated by conflict and rainy conditions in South Sudan, the food agency said Monday, in the latest effort to address an unfolding crisis in the world’s youngest nation.

The World Food Program is conducting the daily drops out of bases in South Sudan, Uganda and Ethiopia to provide food and nutrition assistance to at least 2.9 million people in the three oil-rich states of Upper Nile, Unity and Jonglei by the end of the year, said Lydia Wamala, the spokeswoman for the WFP in Uganda.

The process is expected to continue over the next two months but could last longer as a civil war continues to ravage South Sudan, Ms. Wamala said. The current conflict, which began in December, has splintered the country along ethnic lines, pitting President Salva Kiir’s Dinka community against former vice president Riek Machar’s Nuer tribesmen.

Insecurity and inadequate infrastructure in South Sudan have compelled the food agency to use the airspace of Uganda and Ethiopia to reach people in dire need of food, officials said.

“WFP is using land, air and water to deliver food to people who are isolated by conflict and facing intense hunger,” said Alice-Martin Daihirou, the organization’s country director. “While WFP’s team here in Uganda is providing this critical logistical support to our colleagues in South Sudan, we are also assisting a growing number of South Sudanese refugees.”

The development comes a few days after WFP said that more than 150 of its trucks carrying food aid for displaced people had become bogged down after heavy rains collapsed bridges and covered roads with mud.

More than 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict and up to 1.5 million remain displaced. The warring factions have signed two cease-fire deals since January, but there has been little to show for months of talks. East African mediators had set a deadline for Messrs. Kiir and Machar to form an interim government, but they failed to do so in the allotted time.

Diplomats say both sides continue to violate the latest truce as halfhearted negotiations continue in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

The conflict has disrupted farming and harvests over the past eight months, exacerbating the country’s food crisis. With only 4.5% of South Sudan’s land under cultivation, the government has always depended on oil revenues to meet food needs, but oil regions continue to be the scene of the heaviest combat. Crude output has dropped by a third to 160,000 barrels a day, a severe blow to government revenues.

The country broke away from Sudan in 2011, taking with it nearly 75% of Sudanese oil fields, but remains among the least developed nations in the world with virtually no basic infrastructure such as roads and railways.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture organization, food reserves are completely exhausted in areas isolated by the conflict, putting some 3.5 million people at risk of starvation. As the conflict continues, aid officials have warned that South Sudan is headed for the worst famine since the 1980s, when the U.N. has estimated that more than a million people died in the Horn of Africa.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/food-airdrops-aim-to-relieve-suffering-in-south-sudan-1410172436

Wall Street Journal

September 8, 2014