Day: January 25, 2023

The U.S. embassy in Juba has condemns “in the strongest terms” the recent targeted attacks on humanitarian workers and their compounds in South Sudan, including those that have led to the deaths of three South Sudanese humanitarian workers and injury to others.

The embassy, in a statement issued Thursday, urged South Sudan’s leaders to act with urgency to end subnational violence and hold accountable those responsible for attacks targeting civilians and humanitarian organizations, as well as for abductions and other human rights violations.

“We stand with all those who work for peace and stability in South Sudan,” partly reads the statement extended to Sudan Tribune.

The acting United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan, Peter Van der Auweraert also condemned last week’s attack on humanitarian workers and assets in the Greater Pibor Administrative Area (GPAA).

On 18 January, several armed attackers reportedly broke into an international non-governmental organization compound in Pibor and beat up one humanitarian worker who eventually required medical attention.

The attackers, a statement from the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA) said, targeted the NGO looking for cash and other assets and stole valuables.

“Such attacks while humanitarians are providing critical services to most vulnerable people are beyond comprehensible,” said Van der Auweraert.

“The whole humanitarian community is united in its call for the immediate end of these repeated acts of violence against civilians and humanitarians,” he added.

The incident, OCHA said, follows the killing of two aid workers in the Abyei Administrative Area another humanitarian in Jonglei State this month.

South Sudan is reportedly one the most dangerous places for aid workers, with nine humanitarian workers killed in the line of duty and 450 incidents reported in 2022, and already three humanitarian workers killed in 2023.

In 2022, nine humanitarian workers were killed in the line of duty in South Sudan and three aid workers lost their lives on duty at the start of this year.

An estimated 9.4 million of the most vulnerable people in South Sudan will need urgent life-saving assistance and protection in 2023, compared to 8.9 million in 2022, the UN said.

Source: Sudan Tribune

A spokesman for the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) accused an unnamed country of working to destabilize the ongoing efforts to restore civilian rule through the establishment of the Democratic Bloc coalition.

The FFC Forces organized a panel discussion with a group of lawyers to explore their views on the political process and brief them on the latest developments.

In a response to the interventions and questions, Gaffar Hassan, an FFC Spokesman, said that the Democratic Bloc group impersonates the name of Freedom and Change to give the illusion that the forces of the revolution are divided and weak.

Hassan gave a historical account of the groups that make up the large coalition, saying that the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) left the FFC following a disagreement over priorities in the negotiations that were underway with the Transitional Military Council after the collapse of the Bashir regime.

“The Revolutionary Front was part of the Sudan Call Alliance, but withdrew from it after a disagreement over the priorities of negotiations: civilian rule first or peace,” he said.

During the peace talks in Juba, they agreed to rejoin the FFC after the signing of the peace agreement, but only the SRF regained the revolution forces, while Minawi and Jibril remained outside, he added.

He went further to say that the non-signatory coalition has nothing to do with the FFC, but is the creation of a foreign country.

“The Democratic bloc was created by a foreign country, and all the people are aware of that, in order to create troubles and unrest inside the country,” he said

“For this purpose, they even brought people from abroad,” he stressed.

One month after the signing of the framework agreement to end the coup and restore a transitional civilian rule, JEM leader Gibril Ibrahim, SLM leader Minni Minnawi and Gaffar Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani announced the establishment of the FFC Democratic Bloc on November 3, 2022.

On November 21, returned to Khartoum Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani the elderly leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) on a private plane that the Egyptian government has paid for.

He had been for several years in Cairo where he was receiving health care there.

The FFC declined to take part in a seven-day meeting in Cairo on the Sudanese crisis. The Democratic Bloc leaders hailed the initiative and expressed readiness to participate in the forum.

In a related development, Hassan dismissed recent statements by the JEM leader about an agreement to replace the framework agreement with another deal.

“The political process is ongoing and irreversible. There is no new political agreement, the framework agreement signed on December 5 is the only one and the workshops on outstanding issues are taking place.”

Source: Sudan Tribune