Darfur: ethnic war exploding again
Efforts by pastoralist militias to bar refugees from returning to their lands in Darfur have sparked yet a new wave of fighting and displacementāwith 250,000 uprooted this year.
Efforts by pastoralist militias to bar refugees from returning to their lands in Darfur have sparked yet a new wave of fighting and displacementāwith 250,000 uprooted this year.
Egyptian politicians threatened military action as Ethiopia began diverting waters of the Blue Nile for a mammoth new hydro-electric project, abrogating a colonial-era pact.
South Sudan says Khartoum is fomenting rebellion in Jonglei state in a bid to block the South’s plans to build an oil pipeline through Ethiopia to a port in Djibouti.
Security forces mixed it up with protesters both in Sudan, hit by a wave of student unrest, and in South Sudan’s West Bahr el-Ghazal state, where 10 were killed by army troops.
South Sudan and Sudan announced a deal on the south’s access to Khartoum’s oil pipelinesābut it is contingent on further talks over disputed border enclaves.
South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and his bitter rival and former vice president Riek Machar, now leader of the SPLM-IO rebels, met in the Sudanese capital Khartoum to sign a "permanent" ceasefire agreement, pledging to form an inclusive transitional government. The parties agreed to open humanitarian corridors, release detainees, withdraw troops and militarily disengage. The transitional government is to form a national army and security forces not linked to tribalism. However, the challenges for the 36-month transition period are great. Millions in South Sudan are on the brink of famine, and more than 2.5 million have fled the country. Hundreds of thousands more—mostly members of minority ethnic groups—are internally displaced, with many sheltering in camps administered by the United Nations. Previous efforts at a negotiated peace have broken down. (Photo: Sudan Tribune)
The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan released a report identifying 43 high-ranking military personnel who may be responsible for war crimes. Since the outbreak of violence due to an internal power struggle between government leaders in 2013, more than four million civilians have fled their homes. The report documents acts of murder, torture, unlawful seizure of property, sexual violence and unlawful detention committed by members of the country's rival military factions. The report urges the Hybrid Court to begin investigating and prosecuting these individuals. The African Union is mandated to establish the Hybrid Court under the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan of 2015. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)