Category: Sudan

AP Photo JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — A boat carrying civilians desperately fleeing heavy violence in South Sudan sank while crossing the Nile River, killing some 200 people, a military official said Tuesday, as fighting between rebels and government forces moved closer to the capital. Warfare in the world’s newest state has displaced more than 400,000 people since mid-December, with the front lines constantly shifting as loyalist troops and renegade forces gain and lose territory in battles often waged along ethnic lines. A boat fleeing violence on the Nile carrying mostly women and children sank on Saturday, killing at least 200 people, according to Lt. Col Aguer, the South Sudanese military spokesman. He also said there was fighting about 70 kilometers (45 miles) north of the South Sudanese capital of Juba. Heavy fighting erupted in Malakal, the capital of oil-producing Upper Nile state, which renegade forces briefly held before […]

Click here to view full article at hosted.ap.org

South Sudan’s army retook a strategic oil town Tuesday after a rebel incursion sent thousands fleeing and imperiled crude output in sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest oil producer. "By 4 p.m. the rebels were fleeing Malakal," said South Sudan’s military spokesman, Col. Philip Aguer. The fighting around Malakal, which began on Saturday and continued through Tuesday, caused civilians to abandon their homes and some to join rebel forces, according to Col. Aguer. "They were agitated to come and attack Malakal and take whatever property they can as an incentive," he said. Complicating Malakal’s defense, soldiers at a base outside the town in recent days have defected to join the rebels loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar in their fight against the government led by South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir. Fighting has raged since a political dispute between Messrs. Machar and Kiir last month sparked a conflict between army […]

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

Oil workers based in South Sudan’s Unity state have confirmed the looting of oil installation facilities, including computers, alleging rebels from Sudan’s Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) fighting alongside government troops in the area were responsible. In a telephone interview with Sudan Tribune on Saturday, one of the oil workers said rebels stormed the offices of oil facilities, taking important items, including food supplies meant for those guarding equipment at the sites. "When the fighting broke out on Friday, we saw many Sudanese rebels carrying heavy ammunitions to attack the areas. They manage to take control of Bentiu town from rebels with [a] few soldiers from [the] government side", said a source that spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. After falling to South Sudanese rebels aligned with former vice-president Riek Machar, government troops on Friday regained control of Unity state capital, Bentiu. JEM have […]

Click here to view full article at allafrica.com

The United States is weighing targeted sanctions against South Sudan due to the failure of leaders in the world’s youngest nation to take steps to end a crisis that has brought the country to the brink of civil war, sources briefed on U.S. discussions told Reuters. "It’s a tool that has been discussed," a source told Reuters on condition of anonymity about the possibility of U.S. sanctions against those blocking peace efforts or fueling violence in South Sudan. Another source confirmed the remarks, though both declined to provide details on the precise measures under consideration. No decisions have been made yet, the sources added. Targeted sanctions focus on specific individuals, entities or sectors of country. The U.S. government was unlikely to consider steps intended to economically harm impoverished South Sudan but would likely focus on any measures on those individuals or groups it sees as […]

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

South Sudanese troops on Friday retook the capital of an oil-producing state from rebels loyal to the country’s former vice president, a military spokesman said. Government troops retook Bentiu, the capital of Unity state, after a 2 1/2-hour battle, Col. Philip Aguer said. Aguer said the forces loyal to the former vice president, Riek Machar, had "destroyed" the town. Rebels looted the bank, stole food and set the market on fire, Aguer said. Doctors Without Borders, which is also known as MSF, said its facilities in Bentiu were also looted. "It is unacceptable that one of the only humanitarian organizations still providing assistance to the population in Bentiu has been looted," MSF General Director Arjan Hehenkamp said. The loss of Bentiu weakens Machar at the negotiating table in Ethiopia, where mediators are trying to defuse a political conflict that broke out Dec. […]

Click here to view full article at hosted.ap.org

The death toll in South Sudan ’s four-week-old conflict may be close to 10,000, as fighting continues in the world’s newest nation, the International Crisis Group said. “We believe the death toll to be approaching 10,000,” Casie Copeland, an analyst for Brussels-based ICG, said in an e-mailed response to questions. The United Nations has said the conflict has killed thousands of people and forced about 270,000 to flee their homes. The rebels estimate that as many as 6,000 people may have died. Government forces today recaptured Bentiu, capital of oil-producing Unity state, army spokesman Phillip Aguer said by phone from Juba. The army is now advancing on Bor, the capital of Jonglei state that’s currently held by the rebels, he said. Fighting began on Dec. 15 after President Salva Kiir accused former Vice President Riek Machar of trying to stage a coup, a charge Machar denies. The dispute escalated […]

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

President Salva Kiir’s government held out a possible pardon to rival Riek Machar if he agrees to end nearly a month of fighting, as South Sudanese troops advanced toward the strategic rebel-held town of Bentiu on Thursday. Military and aid officials said Mr. Kiir’s troops were within five miles of Bentiu, a hub for South Sudan’s 240,000-barrel-a-day oil industry now held by forces loyal to Mr. Machar, a former vice president. The intensifying battle in South Sudan’s oil-rich north has raised fears that fighting could disrupt an industry that funds nearly all of the country’s federal budget and foreign exchange. South Sudan is sub-Saharan Africa’s No. 3 producer behind Angola and Nigeria. "Our forces are closing in on Bentiu from two fronts," said military spokesman Philip Aguer. Meanwhile, talks between envoys for Messrs. Kiir and Machar in Ethiopia showed signs of stalling. The rebel delegation rejected the government’s offer […]

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

As fighting continued to rage across South Sudan on Thursday, a new estimate raised the death toll in the conflict significantly and a senior American official questioned the government’s insistence that a coup attempt was responsible for setting off the violence and instability there. The International Crisis Group said Thursday that the number of dead from the conflict was close to 10,000 people, a major increase from earlier estimates by the United Nations. “Given the intensity of fighting in over 30 different locations in the past three weeks, we are looking at a death toll approaching 10,000,” said Casie Copeland, an analyst at the International Crisis Group , a research and advocacy institution. The United Nations special representative for South […]

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

The United States has demanded negotiations. Uganda has threatened to intervene. China has called for an immediate cease-fire. The conflict in South Sudan has attracted attention from around the world, but nowhere are leaders watching the crisis with more interest — and more at stake — than here in the country’s longstanding rival, Sudan. Before South Sudan voted to break away from the north and form its own country in 2011, the two sides had been locked in decades of civil war that claimed the lives of more than two million people. But their division did not sever all ties. The oil that both rely on continues to flow northward from South Sudan’s fields to Sudan’s refineries, linking the two foes in a rocky but crucial economic marriage. The recent fighting in South Sudan has disrupted oil production, with foreign workers fleeing the violent clashes in […]

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

South Sudan, on the brink of civil war less than three years after winning its independence from Sudan, received a visit Monday from its former ruler as fighting spread to the oil regions that both countries depend on for survival. Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir met with his counterpart, Salva Kiir, in the South Sudan capital of Juba. Although the two were on opposite ends of a civil war less than a decade ago, they now depend on each other to produce crude and export it to the outside world. The two presidents discussed the possibility of forming a joint force to protect South Sudan’s oil fields from rebels, according to Rabie Abdelaty, the spokesman for Sudan’s information ministry. "We need to put in place a force to protect our shared interests in the oil sector," he said. South Sudan’s foreign ministry had no immediate comment on whether Mr. Kiir […]

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