Religious Leaders of South Sudan Meet With Pope

Church leaders from South Sudan have asked Pope Francis to make a joint peace mission to the war-torn country. Leaders met with Francis at the Vatican and invited him to visit the country to bring the message of peace and brotherly love directly to the people and the quarreling members of the government and political parties. South Sudan Christian leaders said they are certain that by working together, they can convince their people that dialogue, reconciliation and cooperation are the only paths to the peace and prosperity the South Sudanese have struggled so long to obtain.

Read more here.

The Worst Place on Earth: Death and Life in the Lost Town of Leer

In South Sudan, soldiers get away with murder, while skulls tell truths that the living are afraid to utter. It’s a land that has experienced Syrian-level death counts with almost no attention whatsoever from the rest of the world.  It’s a killing field, a place where human remains lie unburied, whose residents have long since fled, while its few remaining inhabitants are mostly refugees from similarly ravaged villages.

This has been the story of South Sudan’s civil war: few pitched battles between armies, many attacks on civilians by armed men.  Often, it’s unclear just who is attacking.  Civilians hear gunfire and they begin to run.  If they’re lucky they get away with their lives, and often little else.

Read more here.

100,000 Fearful Civilians Trapped in South Sudan Town

The United Nations says 100,000 people were trapped and facing an increasingly dire situation in the besieged South Sudanese town of Yei after fleeing violence that included killings and mutilations. More than 30,000 people have fled into Yei, southwest of the capital, Juba following deadly attacks on civilians and looting of property. They joined several thousand displaced people who had arrived since mid-July, and as many as 60,000 town residents, the United Nations refugee agency said. South Sudan has been consumed by violence that began in late 2013 and has left tens of thousands of people dead and forced millions from their homes.

http://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2016/9/57ee684f4/100000-fearful-civilians-trapped-south-sudan-town.html

South Sudan Road Ambush Kills 21 Civilians

A road ambush blamed on South Sudanese rebels killed 21 civilians, says the government. The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said it received reports of horrific violence being carried out against civilians in Central Equatorial State and urged both rebel and government commanders to control their forces and cease hostilities. An official says nearly two dozen civilians were killed, some were burned to death, and twenty others were wounded.

Read the full Reuters article.

UN Peacekeepers Fled, Used Tear Gas on South Sudan Civilians

A new report says United Nations peacekeepers fled their posts when fighting erupted in South Sudan’s capital in July, then used tear gas on frightened civilians who sought shelter within the U.N. base. The report states some peacekeepers refused orders to protect civilians during the chaos in Juba, and refused to respond to pleas for help as government soldiers looted and raped aid workers at a nearby Terrain compound. This reports adds to a growing list of incidents where peacekeepers have been accused of failing to carry out their mandate in South Sudan.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/peacekeepers-fled-tear-gas-south-sudan-civilians-42595085

A Portrait of Turmoil in South Sudan, from Behind the Lens

South Sudan, the world’s newest country, is again on the brink of a civil war. Currently, 250,000 children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, tuberculosis, and malaria. Due to renewed fighting, more children soldiers are being recruited and coerced into joining armed groups. As a result of the ongoing war and troubles, most infrastructures have been stripped, leaving half the children in South Sudan without a school to receive proper education. This video gives you an inside look of the turmoil and the toll it has taken on civilians, specifically children, shows how the humanitarian crisis is worsening by the day:

Sudan Used Chemical Weapons against Civilians in Darfur, Says Amnesty

War crimes condemned as study uncovers horrifying evidence of chemical attacks by government forces on civilians, including babies and young children.

The Sudanese government has allegedly been using chemical weapons against civilians, including babies and young children, in the Darfur region. According to a recent report, Amnesty International carried out dozens of interviews and analyzed footage from the Jabel Mara area, documenting victims of aerial and artillery attacks which spread “black smoke”, which poisoned the air, causing severe injury and death by suffocation. The human rights group said the chemical attacks killed up to 250 people, mostly children, and represent a “new low” in the list of serious abuses perpetrated by government forces in the region.

Read the full article at The Guardian.

A Hollywood Spotlight on South Sudan’s Horrors

The little-known new nation of South Sudan is attracting the attention of two respected Hollywood actors, which isn’t as incongruous as it might sound to some.

After all, George Clooney and Don Cheadle are known for their social activism, and they are once again spotlighting a sobering cause.South Sudan is, perhaps, the closest the thing to hell on Earth these days. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported last week that the number of people who have fled the African nation passed the 1 million mark. Another 1.6 million South Sudanese – some 20 percent of the nation’s population – are displaced as a result of the vicious civil war between the Dinka and Nuer ethic groups in the world’s newest country. Almost 200,000 refugees have fled South Sudan since July. Really, they are ghost refugees, exhausted and depleted from days of walking the bush without food or water, scarred by what they have fled. Children who’ve lost one or both parents.

By https://www.realclearpolitics.com/authors/ann_corkery/

Read the Full Article Here >>

George Clooney’s Group Tracked South Sudanese Leaders Using Social Media

Hollywood actor and global activist unveils undercover investigation of South Sudan’s Top Leaders

 Investigators at The Sentry, an initiative co-founded by George Clooney, have delivered a damning report exposing the war profiteering carried out by South Sudan’s top government leaders. During a press conference on Monday, Clooney warned international leaders that the raging civil war will only continue to get worse if action is not taken immediately. The group compiled evidence from Facebook and Instagram to confirm how official’s spent the profits they made from controlling South Sudan’s natural resources. According to Clooney, the two-year investigation revealed South Sudanese officials have amassed wealth from arms deals, oil and gambling, all the while subjecting their own people to unspeakable atrocities.

Pictures posted on Instagram and Facebook show relatives and subordinates of South Sudanese President, Salva Kiir Mayardit, and his opponent, Riek Machar, live outside of their own war-torn nation in lavish mansions or five-star hotels and drive luxury vehicles. Social media postings by President Kiir’s children also show them living large outside of South Sudan, riding jet skis with friends, partying on boats, and clubbing and drinking with friends.

Read the full ABC News article here.