Category: East Africa

South Sudan’s warring factions held preliminary meetings Friday ahead of the official start of negotiations in neighboring Ethiopia, mediators said. Dina Mufti, a spokesman for Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry, said the introductory meetings were necessary to bridge the groups’ differences ahead of direct talks expected to start Saturday. The meetings are being held at Addis Ababa’s Sheraton Hotel. Meanwhile, both sides continue to fight in the world’s newest country and the U.S. Embassy in Juba, the capital, said Friday the Department of State ordered a "further drawdown" of embassy personnel because of the "deteriorating security situation." An evacuation flight was being arranged Friday, the statement said. South Sudan’s government has declared a state of emergency in Unity and Jonglei, two states whose capitals are under rebel control. On Thursday the central government warned that rebels loyal to ousted Vice President Riek […]

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South Sudan’s warring factions held preliminary meetings Friday ahead of the official start of negotiations in neighboring Ethiopia, mediators said. Dina Mufti, a spokesman for Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry, said the introductory meetings were necessary to bridge the groups’ differences ahead of direct talks expected to start Saturday. The meetings are being held at Addis Ababa’s Sheraton Hotel. Meanwhile, both sides continue to fight in the world’s newest country and the U.S. Embassy in Juba, the capital, said Friday the Department of State ordered a "further drawdown" of embassy personnel because of the "deteriorating security situation." An evacuation flight was being arranged Friday, the statement said. South Sudan’s government has declared a state of emergency in Unity and Jonglei, two states whose capitals are under rebel control. On Thursday the central government warned that rebels loyal to ousted Vice President Riek […]

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Rebel forces who attacked the South Sudanese city of Bor appeared on Wednesday to have driven government forces out of parts of the city, a strategic location seen as a gateway to Juba, the capital, after a day of fierce fighting. “Yesterday our forces did a partial withdrawal from the town but they are still fighting in the suburbs of Bor,” Col. Philip Aguer, a South Sudanese military spokesman, said on Wednesday. The mayor of Bor, Nhial Majak Nhial, said by telephone, “The government is in control of the southern parts of the city,” and added that many residents had fled after rebel forces killed civilians. As the fighting raged, talks to end the conflict were expected to start on Thursday in Ethiopia. Redwan Hussein, the Ethiopian information minister, said that both sides were expected to arrive Wednesday. But, he added, “Talks are not expected […]

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JUBA, South Sudan — Few moments conjure as much fear in South Sudan as the massacre of Bor. Long before South Sudan became a nation, while it was still in the throes of one of Africa’s longest civil wars, fighters tied to a leader named Riek Machar stormed through the city of Bor in 1991, killing 2,000 fellow southerners in an attack that would lay bare the deep divisions in this impoverished land. Since then, the people of South Sudan have had periods of peace, compromise and even shared jubilation at the birth of their nation in 2011. Mr. Machar himself became vice president, apologizing for the massacre. But there was never a real and lasting reconciliation between the factions threatening to pull this new nation apart, and on Tuesday fighters allied with Mr. Machar charged into Bor once again. “This was a fire waiting to be ignited,” said […]

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Breaking news Anti-government rebels in South Sudan attack strategic town of Bor, capture key crossroads near UN base More to follow.

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South Sudan ’s army says it’s confident it can protect the “heart” of the country’s oil production area from rebel attacks. Production in the Paloch area in Melut County, Upper Nile State, is secure, Major General Gregory Vasili, an oil defense force commander, told reporters on a tour organized by South Sudanese authorities yesterday. Upper Nile is producing about 200,000 barrels of oil a day and normally accounts for 80 percent of the country’s oil output, said Paul Adong Deng, managing director of the state-own Nile Petroleum Corp, on the tour. The United Nations estimates that more than 1,000 people have been killed in violence that has spread since fighting on Dec. 15 between soldiers in the presidential guard in the capital, Juba, bringing the country to the edge of civil. President Salva Kiir , an ethnic Dinka, accuses Riek Machar , who is from the Nuer group and […]

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Regional leaders in East Africa announced Friday that they had made progress on a peace deal to help end the crisis in South Sudan, but there was no indication that either side in the conflict was abiding by a cease-fire. Clashes between the rebels and the military continued as government forces launched a major offensive to retake a city in an oil-producing region. Soon after, the military announced that it had seized control of the city, Malakal, the capital of Upper Nile State and the scene of intense fighting in recent days. “The push against Malakal began at 6:30 a.m. and was done by noon,” said Col. Philip Aguer, a spokesman for the military. Having recaptured the strategic city of Bor this week, the government seemed to have the upper hand, however fleetingly, in the seesaw battle for control of this two-year-old country. Clashes began […]

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Days of clashes in South Sudan have hit the country’s largest source of revenue as oil production was halted in Unity state after foreign workers fled the oil fields over fears of more fighting in the region. "Unfortunately, the workers have closed the oil. Nobody closed it from us here," said former army General James Koang Chuol, who defected last week and took control of Bentiu, the capital of Unity state. "It is those technicians, fearing what is going on in South Sudan… yesterday they evacuated the area," he said, adding that production has been declining all week. A spokesman for the South Sudanese army said Wednesday that government forces are preparing to launch an imminent offensive to recapture the town. Foreign workers are key to the functioning of South Sudan’s oil industry, which provides the country with its only significant export and is the main source […]

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More than 120,000 people have been displaced by continuing violence in South Sudan, the United Nations said, as African leaders met Friday to find a political solution to a crisis that has exposed ethnic rifts within the country. Regional leaders under a bloc called IGAD are meeting Friday in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi to discuss South Sudan. That summit is expected to produce a roadmap for peace talks between South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar, Kiir’s political rival who is accused of orchestrating a failed coup that the government says sparked unrest across the oil-producing East African country. "We in Kenya and the region are concerned with the loss of lives and resultant humanitarian crisis and would like to see the government taking the initiative to end hostilities," Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said late Thursday. The […]

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The United Nations voted Tuesday to send thousands more peacekeepers to South Sudan as the organization said it had found evidence of mass killings along ethnic lines in the country. The U.N. Security Council voted to nearly double its international troops in the country to about 13,800, including 12,500 military and 1,323 international police. Before the council voted, Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the organization had found at least one mass grave in South Sudan as well as evidence of ethnically targeted killings and arbitrary detentions. On Tuesday, the U.S. military’s Africa Command moved a KC-130 transport plane and around 50 troops from Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, to Entebbe, Uganda, the Pentagon said. The move will allow the Pentagon to send more military personnel to South Sudan more quickly if they are needed to help protect U.S. personnel and facilities in the country, defense officials […]

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