Category: Sudan

The Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussein al-Shahristani on Monday expressed his country’s willingness to supply Sudan with crude oil and assist in the construction of a new oil refinery. Shahristani said in a statement released by his office as carried by Iraqi media that Baghdad is keen on supporting the Sudanese people and will stand by their side politically and economically. The Iraqi official made the statement after his meeting with the head of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) Gen Mohamed Atta Al-Mawla Abbas who heads a government delegation that includes the minister of oil Makkawi Mohamed Awad, director of the oil marketing company and a number of experts. Abbas visited Iraq as an envoy from Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir. "The two sides discussed ways of strengthening relations between the two countries and the mechanism of exporting Iraqi oil to Sudan. The […]

Click here to view full article at allafrica.com

PMartha Akuoch survived two offensives in the South Sudanese civil war, but the third pitched battle in the city of Malakal was more than she could take. She packed up and crossed the border into Sudan with her six children. “The rebels would come into homes, kill men, boys, take mobile phones, money, and now they are even killing women,” said Ms. Akuoch, 43, a secondary-school teacher who left her husband behind in South Sudan. “Even inside the church,” she added. So, like most of her neighbors, she decided it was time to leave Malakal, the capital of the oil-rich Upper Nile State. About 14,000 people have crowded into this remote Sudanese outpost, just a small […]

Click here to view full article at www.nytimes.com

South Sudan said on Friday that it is evacuating foreign oil workers from the oil fields in Upper Nile state, allegedly to avoid being caught in the crossfire, should the rebel launch attacks in the area. "The government has since Monday, been receiving numerous requests from the foreign oil workers, through their governments and the representatives of the companies they work for, to consider evacuating them from the area urgently, because of the developing security situation", Francis Ayul, Upper Nile State minister of mining and petroleum told Sudan Tribune on Friday. "Based on genuineness of the request, and considering the current security situation in the state, the state government in consultation with the central government responded to the requests and approved the immediate evacuation of all foreign workers involving in the engineering work." Minister Ayul said the evacuated foreign workers would be kept in the country’s capital, […]

Click here to view full article at allafrica.com

South Sudanese rebels and government forces fought for control of the capital of oil-rich Upper Nile state, the only region in the world’s newest nation that’s still producing crude two months after violence erupted. Both sides claimed control of the town of Malakal after fighting started yesterday in violation of a cease-fire they signed on Jan. 23 in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa . Sounds of shelling could be heard from a United Nations compound in Malakal as early as 8 a.m. today, Grace Cahill, a spokeswoman for Oxfam, said by phone from Juba, the South Sudanese capital. Some of the internally displaced people seeking shelter inside the compound have left “because they felt they weren’t protected enough, while others came in to receive treatment last night,” Cahill said. Fighting that started Dec. 15 has left thousands of people dead and forced at least 860,000 more to flee their […]

Click here to view full article at www.bloomberg.com

South Sudan rebels Tuesday attacked the capital of the state that is home to the country’s only functioning oil fields, further fraying a tattered cease-fire and threatening to choke off a trickle of crude exports from the beleaguered nation. The attack on Malakal, the capital of South Sudan’s Upper Nile State, ended a lull in fighting that had lasted nearly a month. It also came as rebels and government representatives failed to restart peace talks aimed at ending the nearly three-month-old conflict. The two sides remain far apart on important issues, such as the release of prisoners and Uganda’s military support for the South Sudanese government. Early Tuesday, heavily armed rebel fighters loyal to South Sudan’s former vice president, Riek Machar, attacked with machine guns and heavy artillery in a surprise assault, government military spokesman Col. Philip Aguer said. The ambush forced government troops to retreat northward, toward […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

Less than a month after the cease-fire was signed, a rebel leader’s hometown was attacked. Goran Tomasevic/Reuters NAIROBI, Kenya — The ranks of displaced people have swelled to nearly 900,000, close to a tenth of the entire population. Humanitarian groups warn that millions could go hungry if fields remain unplowed before the coming rainy season. Aid workers themselves are on the run, hiding ever deeper in the bush to escape attack. Fighting has continued in South Sudan, both rebels and government officials say, in spite of the cease-fire agreement last month that was meant to bring peace to the young nation while a broader political solution was found. Negotiators from the two sides will meet again in Ethiopia this week. But in a sign of the continuing hostilities, the hometown of Riek Machar, a former vice president […]

Click here to view full article at www.nytimes.com

The South Sudanese government and rebel forces signed a cease-fire agreement Thursday, a step toward ending more than a month of fighting that threatened to tear apart the world’s youngest nation. There were few immediate details about the deal, but negotiators said it hewed to a draft agreement distributed to media earlier in the week. Under the draft agreement, both sides agreed to freeze their troops in place and cease military operations, including ammunition resupplies. It also required them to protect civilians from violence, stop hostile statements in the media and open up corridors for humanitarian aid. Thursday’s pact marks the first sign of a potential peace in South Sudan since fighting broke out in mid-December. At the time, President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy of attempting a coup. A rebellion then erupted, eventually drawing into the conflict neighboring Uganda, which has sent troops to help South […]

Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

At stake is one of the African continent’s most lucrative deposits of oil, generating billions of dollars for the world’s youngest nation and its partners. “The big powers, especially the Chinese, have a huge stake in this,” said Leben Moro, a professor at the Center for Peace and Development Studies at the University of Juba in South Sudan’s capital. “The oil could be a savior, but if there is more fighting over the oil, it could become a curse.” A dispute over political power, not oil, triggered clashes in Juba last month. But the conflict quickly turned into a fight over South Sudan’s strategic oil-rich regions. The capitals of two of these areas, Bentiu and Malakal, have changed hands more than once. Battles also have been fought in Bor, the capital of a region with untapped oil reserves that are potentially lucrative. “The opposition hopes that by capturing the […]

Click here to view full article at www.washingtonpost.com

As the conflict between South Sudan ’s government and rebels worsens, President Salva Kiir has found succor from an unexpected source: Sudan, the country that southerners fought against for two decades to win independence. Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir’s motivation in helping his former enemies is based on the need to maintain oil flows from the south, according to analysts including Magdi El Gizouli at the Nairobi-based Rift Valley Institute. His government is also concerned that instability along its border will hamper the battle against its own rebels, he said. “For the first time in history they are interested, even more than the South Sudanese themselves, in retaining stability in South Sudan in some form under a government that is ready to do business, and Kiir is ready to do business,” El Gizouli said Jan. 15 by phone from Freiburg, Germany . Since South […]

Click here to view full article at www.bloomberg.com

South Sudanese rebels said they captured Malakal, the capital of oil-rich Upper Nile state, as talks aimed at securing a cease-fire in the nation’s four-week-old conflict continued for a second day. Opposition forces loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar seized Malakal today after 72 hours of “heavy fighting,” rebel spokesman Brigadier-General Lul Ruai Koang said in a phone interview. The fighters now plan to recapture Bentiu, capital of neighboring Unity state, “within days,” he said. The rebels lost control of Bentiu on Jan. 10 when government forces advanced on the town. South Sudanese President Salva Kiir ’s spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said fighting was continuing in Malakal after the rebels “pushed our forces” back to the airport. “It’s not yet clear who’s in control,” he said. Government and rebel negotiators held another round of talks in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa , aimed at ending hostilities that broke […]

Click here to view full article at www.bloomberg.com