Author: Web Desk

The United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) has expressed grave concern over the forced relocations of UN troops as well as closure of Kiir Adem and Abar team site in Aweil North and Aweil East counties of Northern Bahr el Ghazal state.

This comes after petitioners, on 11 August 2021, demanded the withdrawal of UNISFA troops gathered outside Sector 1 HQ in Gok Machar and forcibly entered the camp. This resulted in the destruction and looting of UN assets.

Similarly, on 13 August, petitioners with identical demands gathered outside War Abar (TS 12) team site but to prevent escalation of the situation, UNISFA was forced to relocate from TS 11 and TS 12 to Sector HQ in Gok Machar.

The community of Aweil North County also demanded complete withdrawal of UN peacekeepers in Abyei and the Joint Border Verification and Monitoring Mechanism (JBVMM) team from Sector HQ in Gok Machar “within 48 hours”.

There were also several threats of violence against UNISFA and the JBVMM team, with communities accusing UNISFA of “biased patrolling” in the SBDZ and siding with Sudan “to annex part of their territory.”

In September 2012, Sudan and South Sudan agreed to the establishment of the SBDZ to be monitored by the JBVMM.

UNISFA said it has regularly engaged with the Government of South Sudan on this matter and requested for sensitization of local authorities and communities on JBVMM’s mandate and the rationale for its presence in the team sites.

This engagement, it noted, was either through face-to-face meetings with Government representatives on 28 July and on 11 August 2021, or through formal written communications on 23 July and 11, 15, 19 and 23 August 2021.

UNISFA was established in 2011 by the UN Security Council to monitor the Abyei border. It is mainly composed of Ethiopian forces of around 4,200 troops and 50 police personnel.

Source: Sudan Tribune

JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN – South Sudanese are reeling from fuel shortages and soaring food prices after Kenyan and Ugandan truck drivers went on strike nearly two weeks ago, stifling commerce along the Uganda/South Sudan border.

Hundreds of motorists camped at the Trinity gas station in Juba for hours on Monday, waiting in long queues to fill up their tanks with diesel or gasoline.

“You hear people are busy, they want to get the fuel, they are struggling to get it at any cost,” Juba motorist Steven Leju told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus program.

The strike began when truckers halted their routes in response to the killings of two Kenyan truck drivers by assailants along the Juba-Nimule highway in August.

The drivers say they want South Sudan’s government to improve security along the highway before they resume transporting goods into that country.

South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it is committed to providing security along the highway. The government said escorts will be provided by the South Sudan People’s Defense Force and South Sudan Police Service and that “obstacles that cause [a] delay on the highway to Juba will be removed.”

A frustrated motorist, who asked to be identified only as Leju, said the government had better act quickly. “I believe that if government gives security, then fuel will come,” Leju said.

Rising fuel prices

Fuel prices rose to between 700 and 800 South Sudanese pounds (roughly $5.50) per liter Monday from 300 pounds (about $2.30) late last week.

Juba resident Justine Wota, one of hundreds of commuters who endured a long wait to get fuel, said prices are climbing by the hour.

After waiting since before dawn, “then you have to go to the fuel station and the price has changed,” Wota told South Sudan in Focus.

Lack of food

Meanwhile, goods sold at markets are becoming scarce and prices are rising.

Rita William, a trader at Juba’s Freedom Market, told South Sudan in Focus that the fresh vegetables she was expecting from Uganda are stuck at the Elegu border post.

She enlisted automobile transportation to bring carrots to Juba, which caused delays and additional costs.

“Most of our things are getting spoiled because things we loaded since Thursday, we have not received them,” she said.

William Muhereza, chairperson of Freedom Market, called on South Sudanese nationals to engage in small scale farming to cushion their livelihoods against emergencies like the strike.

The government should be better prepared to deal more quickly with disruptions, he said.

“We expect the road to be maximum secured as far as security is concerned,” he said. “That is the only road which feeds South Sudan. Without that road, South Sudan cannot exist. If that road is cut off, automatically there will be no food, or fuel, or anything.”

Source: Voice of America

Norway’s $1.4 trillion wealth fund has excluded India’s top oil producer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) from its portfolio due to concerns over the company’s business dealings in South Sudan, the fund said in a statement.

Exclusions are based on advice from the fund’s ethics watchdog.

For ONGC, the primary concern was over its participation in two joint ventures in oil-dependent South Sudan with local Nile Petroleum Corporation, the watchdog said.

The country is facing violent clashes between rival factions which continues even after the end of a civil war in 2018.

“The council considers that ONGC through its operations has accepted a risk of contributing to serious abuse committed to enable oil production in the country,” said the watchdog, formally known as the Council on Ethics.

“The council also takes into consideration that actors who are directly or indirectly responsible for grave violations are providing services to the joint ventures and are responsible for the security at the oil fields that the joint ventures operate,” it added.

The oil and gas producing company was not immediately available to comment.

Set up in 1996 to preserve Norway’s oil revenues for future generations, the fund reportedly holds around 1.4% of globally listed shares and its decisions are often followed by other investors.

Source: Sudan Tribune

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned the increase in the harassment of journalists and media outlets in South Sudan, amid civil society calls for President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar to resign.

The statement comes in the wake of report that security officials raided Radio Jonglei on August 27, closed down the station and briefly detained three journalists.

The official reason for the raid was to prevent the station from continuing to broadcast because its journalists were suspected of sympathising with the People’s Coalition for Civil Action (PCCA) and were accused of broadcasting a call for a protest that was supposed to have taken place on 30 August.

The radio station’s director said he received several calls from security officials summoning him for a meeting and ordered a halt to coverage of political stories.

“The wave of arrests and threats against journalists in recent weeks is worrying,” said Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF’s Africa desk.

“The undisguised hostility of the authorities towards the media highlights how difficult it is for journalists to cover politics in South Sudan, where at least ten have been killed since 2014. We call for an immediate end to the harassment of South Sudanese reporters and media,” he added.

The raid on Radio Jonglei is the latest in a series of reprisals against journalists since July, when Alfred Angasi, a news presenter with the state-owned South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC), was arrested and held arbitrarily for more than two weeks for refusing to read part of a presidential decree during a news programme. He has since been released from detention.

According to RSF, online news and information are closely monitored and even censored in South Sudan, which is ranked 139th out of 180 countries in its 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

Source: Sudan Tribune

Sudanese and Qatari armies will hold joint military drills in the near future said the Military Media in a statement released on Saturday.

The announcement was made after the return on Saturday of the Sudanese army Chief of Staff Mohamed Osman al-Hussein from Doha where he held talks with Qatari military officials.

The Military Media said al-Hussein “concluded a successful visit to the State of Qatar”.

The chief of staff invited his Qatari counterpart to attend the joint military exercises that will take place in Sudan soon, and praised the outcome of the visit, further said the statement without further details.

Last Tuesday, al-Hussein and Lt-Gen Ghanim bin Shaheen Al-Ghanim, Chief of Staff of the Qatar Armed Forces discussed ways to strengthen relations between the two armies.

Based on a military cooperation agreement, the two armies held about eight military exercises almost in the Red Sea region.

In May 2020, the two armies carried out military drills in the Jabait area.

Source: Sudan Tribune