Government’s death toll may be ‘tip of iceberg,’ Ladsous says Global body may reassess, strengthen mandate for UN mission The United Nations peacekeeping chief said the situation in South Sudan Continue Reading
Standard Bank, Old Mutual temporarily close Juba operations Kenya’s KCB moves staff to safety and reduces branch activity The biggest banks and insurers in Africa, including Old Mutual Plc and Continue Reading
South Sudan’s leaders are in emergency talks after days of violence between rival factions in the capital left at least 272 people dead and stoked fears of a return to Continue Reading
Fourth day of violence after hundreds killed over weekend U.S. orders evacuation of non-essential personnel from Juba Gunfire rocked South Sudan’s capital for the fourth day as the deaths of Continue Reading
Gunfire rocked South Sudan’s capital for the fourth day as the deaths of hundreds of people in violence over the weekend raises the specter of the oil-producing African nation returning Continue Reading
South Sudan’s transitional government has announced it will resume oil production by July after a halt of more than two years during a bloody civil war for control of the Continue Reading
South Sudan’s oil ministry has concluded that oil production is in quick decline, and future production will not reach even half of its peak 2010 levels even if all the Continue Reading
Leaders from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan have signed an agreement designed to assuage Egyptian worries over the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Egyptian Streets reported Dec. 29. Egypt Continue Reading
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — Fifty-two soldiers and rebels have been killed in recent fighting in South Sudan’s contested state of Unity, said a military official Saturday, blaming rebels for the latest violation of a peace deal signed last month. Rebel forces have attacked positions held by government troops, killing 14 of them and wounding 42 others, military spokesman Col. Philip Aguer told The Associated Press. Government troops have killed 38 rebels and have captured two others along with 50 rocket-propelled grenades, he said. The clashes, which started Monday and continued Friday, took place in Leer and Koch, he said. The death toll of 52 was for fighting in Koch and not Leer, which government troops had to abandon under intense fire from the rebels. Aguer gave no civilian death toll from the fighting. Rebels are also mobilizing to attack government troops in parts of Upper Nile state, he […]
South Sudan, one of the world’s most corrupt and least developed countries, prepared an $850 million budget to crush a rebellion shortly after the insurgency began almost two years ago, the United Nations said. The supply of Israeli automatic rifles, Chinese missiles, Russian attack helicopters and amphibious vehicles “has been instrumental in prolonging and escalating the war,” now in its 21st month, and enabled large-scale violations of humanitarian law, according to a yet to be published interim report by the UN Panel of Experts on South Sudan. South Sudan’s pursuit of “greater air and riverine capacity” is part of a strategy against a mobile insurgency that relies on small arms, the UN says in the report, obtained by Bloomberg from a person who asked not to be identified because it hasn’t yet been made public. South Sudan army spokesman Philip Aguer said the military needed more weapons, gunships and […]
Sudan oil and gas minister Mohamed Awad Zayid has revealed that Sudanese security forces have dug trenches around oil fields on the border with South Sudan to fend off acts of sabotage. "The trenches will protect the oil fields from sabotage," Zayid was quoted as saying by the state-owned Sudan Vision daily Friday. Zayid did not mention the oil fields nor the group or country that Sudan suspects of sabotaging the vital facilities. But the nearest oil fields, located on the Sudan-South Sudan border, is Heglig, which produces more than half of Sudan’s current total of 133,000 b/d of crude oil. Article continues below… Platts Global Alert is a complete real-time information service for the global energy industry, providing breaking reports of deals done, price indicators for crude and products and more than 200 end-of-day assessments. Heglig, whose ownership is being disputed by both Sudan and South Sudan, is […]
Durability of Salva Kiir, president of South Sudan, may be closely linked to oil production in the war-torn country. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI JUBA, South Sudan, May 26 (UPI) — The political unity holding South Sudan together may hinge on battles over oil-producing regions along the country’s northern border, an analyst said. When it gained independence from Sudan in 2011, the landlocked country gained control over much of the oil-producing regions, but Sudan maintained its grip on export infrastructure. Conflict erupted in South Sudan in 2013 when Salva Kiir, the country’s president, accused former Vice President Riek Machar of staging a coup. Rebel forces two years on are waging battle for control over Paloch near the Sudanese border, the only part of South Sudan still producing oil. "Oil is South Sudan’s bread and butter," Luke Patey, a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies in Copenhagen, told […]
ENLARGE File pictures showing South Sudan President Salva Kiir, left, and the leader of South Sudan’s largest rebel group and former Vice-President Riek Machar. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images KAMPALA, Uganda—South Sudan’s army has repelled a rebel attack on oil fields in Upper Nile state, allowing the country’s only functional crude oil facility to remain open, officials said Thursday. After capturing the Upper Nile state capital Malakal over the weekend, several thousand rebels loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar pushed toward the oil fields. But government troops backed by helicopter gunships, tanks and armored cars successfully defended one of the country’s major economic assets. “The rebels have been defeated” said military spokesman Col. Philip Aguer. “Oil fields are fully under our control”. By Wednesday evening both sides had lost dozens of fighters, but government troops beat back the rebel assault, the army and witnesses said. The rebel assault was […]
ENLARGE Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, right, next to his Sudanese counterpart Omar Bashir during a welcoming ceremony in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Monday. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia took a step Monday to defuse tensions around Ethiopia’s construction of a massive dam on the Blue Nile, which has threatened to upset the geopolitical balance in the region over how to share water from the River Nile. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and Ethiopian Prime Minister Halemariam Desalegn signed a declaration in Sudan’s capital Khartoum, pledging to better share the Nile’s waters, an Egyptian presidency official familiar with the matter said. Ethiopia has said the project is necessary to produce much-needed electricity, but the building of the dam has been controversial, with some scientists predicting it could disrupt the flow of the river into Egypt, where it provides much […]
(Bloomberg) — South Sudan’s government plans to cancel presidential elections scheduled for June 30 and extend its own term by two years amid efforts to end the conflict in the oil-producing country. “In our quest for peace, the cabinet has decided to call off the elections and extend the lifespan of the elected positions so that we give peace a chance,” Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth told reporters today in the capital, Juba. The main opposition party welcomed the move. President Salva Kiir and the legislature’s tenures will be extended until July 9, 2017, Lueth said. Lawmakers will vote next week on a constitutional amendment for the government to continue without elections, he said in a phone interview. South Sudan has been engulfed by conflict since December 2013, when a power struggle within the ruling party turned violent. After Kiir arrested rivals for allegedly plotting a coup and ethnic […]
ENLARGE South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, left, exchanges documents with rebel leader Riek Machar, right, in Arusha, Tanzania, as Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete looks on. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images KAMPALA Uganda—Warring factions in South Sudan have signed an agreement to reconcile the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement party, officials said on Thursday, in the latest effort to resolve the conflict that has ravaged the oil-rich nation for more than a year. Under the deal, signed in the northern Tanzanian city of Arusha, the parties agreed to “reunify and reconcile” the three factions within the party, the Finland-based conflict-resolution group Crisis Management Initiative said in a statement. President Salva Kiir, signed the deal with his former deputy Riek Machar —now a rebel leader—and Deng Alor Kuol, the representative of former political detainees who were arrested shortly after the outbreak of the violence in December 2013. The deal outlines the road […]
ENLARGE Internally displaced South Sudanese receive cooking oil and food aid from the World Food Program in Bor, Jonglei state, on Dec. 10. The war-ravaged nation on Monday signed an agreement with China National Petroleum Co. in a bid to bolster oil production in the country. Reuters KAMPALA Uganda—South Sudan has signed an agreement with China National Petroleum Co., or CNPC, to boost oil production in at least three blocks, officials said Monday as the war-ravaged nation attempts to heal its battered oil industry. CNPC said in a statement that it would use heavy oil recovery technologies in ”stabilizing and increasing crude output” in the three blocks in the oil-rich but restive nation. The deal highlights how quickly China wants to restore South Sudan’s oil production which has slumped by a third since the outbreak of the conflict late last year, posing a threat to a vital source of […]
The former head of U.S. security company Blackwater USA, Erik Prince, was hired by South Sudan to help repair damaged oil facilities and boost output cut by a year of civil war. Prince’s Frontier Services Group Ltd. (500) , a Hong Kong-listed logistics and transportation company, is being paid 18.7 million euros ($23.3 million) by South Sudan’s Ministry of Petroleum to transport supplies to and perform maintenance on the production facilities at the oil fields , Chief Executive Officer Gregg Smith said by phone from New York yesterday. About 30 employees including pilots, engineers and logistics technicians have been using helicopters and airplanes to reach South Sudan’s oil fields since September, Smith said. “This is not supporting the army,” Smith said. “The contract is clearly with the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining to support the oil field services and to make sure the production of oil keeps flowing.” South […]
WASHINGTON, DC, Oct. 21 10/21/2014 By Nick Snow OGJ Washington Editor The Chinese government and China National Petroleum Corp. are reviewing their relationships with Sudan and South Sudan following years of growth that changed both sides, a researcher said at Johns Hopkins University’s School for Advanced International Studies . “Sudan was a launching pad for CNPC to become a global corporation through financial and resource benefits,” said Luke Patey, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies and author of “ The New Kings of Crude: China, Oil, and Civil War in Sudan and South Sudan .” “For much of the 2000s, CNPC took 40% of its oil from Sudan through subsidiaries as well as through the main subsidiary,” Patey said during an Oct. 20 event hosted by the SAIS China-Africa Research Initiative. “Things started to go bad for CNPC when the two Sudans signed a comprehensive […]
Home | News & Analysis | Latest News Headlines | South Sudan’s Nov Dar Blend crude oil exports to fall 8.6% on month: sources Singapore (Platts)–20Oct2014/538 am EDT/938 GMT An estimated 4.2 million barrels or 140,000 b/d of South Sudan’s Dar Blend crude oil is expected to be exported in November, down 8.7% from 4.6 million barrels due to be exported in October, trade sources said Monday. A total of five cargoes — two of 600,000 barrels and three of 1 million barrels — are scheduled for lifting in November, the sources said. Dar Blend is a heavy, acidic crude produced at the Block 3 and Block 7 oil fields in South Sudan’s Upper Nile State. Malaysia’s Petronas, which holds a 40% interest in Dar Petroleum Operating Company, on Monday issued a tender offering 1 million barrels of Dar Blend crude for loading over November 25-26. The tender will […]
Fighting has erupted around Renk, a key border town in Upper Nile state. South Sudan says opposition forces supported by the Sudanese government are making a push towards oil fields further south. According to a source within the government, forces loyal to former Vice President Riak Machar launched attacks on government troops near Agon-Bar, northeast of Renk on September 18. The rebel attack initially forced government troops to withdraw from the area. The South Sudanese troops then counterattacked, forcing the rebels to withdraw toward the Sudanese border. Renk sits near several oil fields in Upper Nile state, the largest of which is Palouge. The state is responsible for around 80 percent of South Sudan’s oil production. Fighting has since spread to oilfields near Palouge, according to sources in the area. A Member of Parliament, who is from the region and asked for his name not to be used, accused […]
United Nations peacekeepers secure a section of Juba airport in South Sudan on Aug. 12. China has deployed soldiers to South Sudan to protect Chinese workers. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images KAMPALA, Uganda—China began deploying 700 soldiers to a United Nations peacekeeping force in South Sudan to help guard the country’s embattled oil fields and protect Chinese workers and installations, a spokesman for the African nation’s president said Tuesday. The airlift of the Chinese infantry battalion to the South Sudanese states of Unity and Upper Nile, the site of the only operating oil fields still under the control of the central government in Juba, was expected to take several days, spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said. While Beijing’s troops will operate under U.N. command, their posting to South Sudan marks a sharp escalation of China’s efforts to ensure the safety of its workers and assets in Africa and guarantee a steady flow […]
Map of key oil infrastructure in Sudan and South Sudan Since its independence in 1956 from joint British and Egyptian rule, Sudan has experienced several armed conflicts that have affected the country’s economic development, particularly its natural resources. The longest conflicts in the unified Sudan were the two civil wars fought between the Northern Sudanese government in Sudan (1955-1972) and the government in Southern Sudan (1983-2005). The second civil war ended with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that was in place from 2005 to 2011.The CPA set standards for sharing oil revenue (50:50 split) and a timetable toward a referendum on the South’s independence. A referendum took place in January 2011 in which the people of the South voted to secede from Sudan. In July 2011, Sudan became two countries: Sudan (Khartoum as the capital) and South Sudan (Juba as the capital). The border separating Sudan […]
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) , the U.S.’s largest oil company, ended exploration plans with Total SA (FP) in South Sudan, Total and the government said, a sign of faltering investor confidence in the African nation as a civil war enters its eighth month. Exxon in April didn’t renew an agreement with Total to negotiate for joint-exploration over parts of a 120,000 square-kilometer (46,300 square-mile) concession in Jonglei state, Total spokeswoman Anastasia Zhivulina said in an Aug. 12 e-mailed response to questions. Total is still bidding to explore in partnership with Kuwait’s state-owned Kuwait Foreign Exploration Petroleum Co. she said. Exxon spokesman Patrick McGinn said by e-mail that the company doesn’t comment on specific ventures. “Losing the American oil company’s interest is definitely a blow for the future prospects of South Sudan ’s oil industry,” Luke Patey, a researcher on the country’s industry at the Danish Institute for International Studies, […]
The notion of resource curse has engulfed African countries, which are rich in natural resources and heavily depend on revenues from these resources. The resource curse is characterized by poverty-stricken, corruption and violent. Relatively small group ( Elite ) captures vast wealth while leaving the entire society without basics need such as clean drinking water, electricity, shelter and consumption goods that define the absolute minimum resources necessary for long-term physical well-being. Political instability triggered the oil resource curse; the evident suggests that countries with bad institutions are likely to experience the natural resource curse. One of solution to get out from oil curse is to improve institutions, good governance, accountability and transparency. South Sudan can voluntarily signed up to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) promoted by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2002 that became an independent NGO in 2007. The main point of this is […]
Juba — South Sudan government admitted on Sunday that the ongoing conflict has affected the country’s oil production, with production now at just 165,000 barrels per day. Petroleum minister, Stephen Dhieu Dau, told Sudan Tribune that the country continues receiving revenues from oil produced in Upper Nile state, where production rate is reportedly on the decline since no additional explorations takes place in the area. "The oil production is continuing in Upper Nile. The current output is not bad, but there is a drop. At the moment the level of output stands at 165,000 barrel per day from 245,000 barrels per day before the current crisis erupted last year", said Dau. "This [oil] is produced in Paloch", added the petroleum minister. He commended government troops for providing protection and defense to the only remaining oil wells in the country, despite several attempts by rebels to control it. "There is […]
At the beginning of the rainy season every year, Nyaaker Onwar, 34, would plant the sorghum and vegetables, while her husband and eldest son herded the cows and caught fish from the White Nile. They ate what they produced, and when the harvest was bountiful, they sold the rest in a nearby market town. In February, armed men looted their cows, burned their fishing boat and kidnapped some of their relatives. Ms. Onwar fled with her husband and seven children to this village through rain and deep mud. She has been here for weeks with thousands of people displaced by South Sudan’s civil war. When she arrived, she was hungry, with no money and few options. “We had to sell our clothes to buy food,” she said. Five months of war in South Sudan has led to the deaths of thousands and the displacement […]
In its first use of economic sanctions against combatants in the bloody fighting in South Sudan , the Obama administration on Tuesday ordered asset freezes and travel bans on two individuals, one on each side of the conflict. The sanctions, which were announced by Secretary of State John Kerry , were imposed under an executive order President Obama signed a month ago in response to the violence that has killed thousands and displaced more than a million people. The announcement came as President Salva Kiir of South Sudan and Riek Machar, the rebel leader, agreed to face-to-face talks in Ethiopia, which are tentatively scheduled to be held on Friday. One of the targets of the sanctions was Marial Chanuong, the commander of the government’s presidential guard force, who Mr. Kerry said led attacks against civilians in and around Juba, the South Sudan capital. The other was Peter […]
South Sudanese government forces seized the stronghold of the country’s rebel leader and the capital of oil-rich Unity state from insurgents, drawing criticism from the U.S. for violating a January truce. Government forces yesterday retook Unity’s capital, Bentiu, and Nasir, the town in neighboring Upper Nile state used as a base by former Vice President Riek Machar, army spokesman Philip Aguer said by phone today from the national capital, Juba. Rebel spokesman Mabior Garang confirmed the army had recaptured the towns. “It’s not a fragile takeover,” Aguer said. Nasir is “very crucial because that was the headquarters of Riek Machar.” The government expects attacks on the oil-producing state to cease as a result, he said. Fighting erupted in the world’s newest nation on Dec. 15 with President Salva Kiir accusing Machar of leading a coup, a charge Machar denies. Violence has left thousands of people dead and forced more […]
South Sudan troops trying to recapture the oil hub of Bentiu from rebels have been forced back amid heavy gunfire, a BBC correspondent says. Government troops advanced towards the town Continue Reading
Rebels allied to former Vice President Riek Machar who seized the city of Bentiu last week killed hundreds of civilians seeking shelter there, after determining their ethnicity or nationality, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan said. “These atrocities must be fully investigated and the perpetrators and their commanders shall be held accountable,” Raisedon Zenenga, the officer in charge of the mission, said in a statement on its website late yesterday. Rebel forces said on April 15 that they had gained control of Bentiu, the capital of oil-rich Unity state, after clashes with government forces. The conflict in the world’s newest state, between factions loyal to President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Machar, erupted in December and has left thousands of people dead and driven a million from their homes, according to the UN. The UN mission said opposition forces entered a mosque in Bentiu where hundreds of […]
At least 58 people were killed Thursday when a group of armed civilians pretending to be peaceful protesters delivering a petition to the United Nations in South Sudan forced their way into a U.N. base sheltering some 5,000 civilians and opened fire, the world body said. Among those killed in the attack on the base in Bor in northern Jonglei state were 46 internally displaced persons and 12 attackers, according to the U.N. Mission in South Sudan. No U.N. staff were killed, they said. Another U.N. spokesperson said about 100 had been injured. Two U.N. peacekeepers were wounded repelling the armed intruders, the U.N. said. The United Nations has reinforced security at Bor, and South Sudan’s government has sent troops to secure the base. More than 1 million people have fled their homes since fighting erupted in the world’s youngest country in December between troops backing President Salva Kiir and soldiers loyal to his sacked Vice President […]
The current conflict in South Sudan has now lasted nearly half a year, killing thousands and displacing hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese. Oil, South Sudan’s only major source of revenue, has neither been the reason for nor the focus of the conflict up to this point. But this is rapidly changing as the flow and whereabouts of the oil revenue, as well as the security of the oil fields themselves, moves to the very centre of the conflict. Although production is only at half-capacity, oil revenue continues to fill Juba’s coffers with roughly $15 million a day. The income from the oil sector is the main financial support for the government of Salva Kiir in Juba and its armed fight against former vice president Riek Macher and rebel groups. Riek Machar has, in recent weeks, been struggling to maintain his fight against the government, in part due to […]
The displaced inhabitants of camps in Gireida locality, South Darfur, face an acute shortage of drinking water as a result of a lack of fuel. One of the camp sheikhs told Radio Dabanga that the crisis in the camp has entered its third month. This is in spite of the fact that the authorities levy fees from all the displaced families to provide fuel. He said that two tins of water from the station within the city now cost SDG 1.5 ($0.26). The sheikh appealed to the authorities to speed-up resolving the problem because the displaced lack the resources and the financial means to fetch water. Copyright © 2014 Radio Dabanga. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media ( allAfrica.com ). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. […]
Members of the White Army, which is a Nuer militia, as they prepare to travel from… Members of the White Army, which is a Nuer militia, as they prepare to travel from Nasir to fight at Malakal and Paloch, on March 26, 2014. Close Close Open Photographer: William Davison/Bloomberg Members of the White Army, which is a Nuer militia, as they prepare to travel from Nasir to fight at Malakal and Paloch, on March 26, 2014. Dozens of South Sudanese men chanted war songs, blew whistles and brandished AK-47 rifles with a longing for ethnic revenge. All members of the Nuer ethnic group, the troops of the so-called White Army who gathered by the Sobat River in eastern South Sudan are the strike force in rebel leader and former Vice President Riek Machar’s campaign against the government in Juba, the capital. They’re planning to march on […]
South Sudanese rebels plan to capture key oil installations to force President Salva Kiir to step down and end more than three months of conflict in the world’s newest nation, former Vice President Riek Machar said. Fighters allied with Machar, known as the White Army, are “mobilizing” to attack the Paloch oil fields that are the main source of revenue for the country’s military, the 60-year-old rebel leader said in a March 27 interview at his bush hideout in Upper Nile state. Machar fled the capital, Juba, in December after the government says he attempted a coup against Kiir. “We want to take control of the oil field,” said Machar, dressed in green military fatigues and wearing gold-rimmed sunglasses. “This is our oil. We must take control of Paloch to deny Salva Kiir revenue to buy more arms.” Upper Nile is South Sudan ’s only remaining crude-producing state after […]
South Sudanese troops recaptured Malakal, the capital of the state that is home to the country’s only functioning oil fields, ending more than a month of rebel occupation amid faltering regional efforts to broker a truce in the nearly four-month-old conflict. Government troops seized control of Malakal, located 400 miles north of the capital Juba, after a two-day gunbattle with rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar, military spokesman Col. Philip Aguer told The Wall Street Journal. Malakal, the capital of Upper Nile state, has changed hands several times since the conflict between rebel fighters and government troops erupted in mid-December, raising concerns over the safety of the vast oil fields in the beleaguered nation. "Our forces have finally taken full control of Malakal, the rebels are in disarray," Col. Aguer said, adding that rebels had virtually "destroyed and looted everything" during their monthlong occupation. Review events […]
Politically-fueled ethnic violence in South Sudan since mid-December has led to the brutal killing and abuse of thousands of civilians and sparked a government campaign to vilify the United Nations and harass UN personnel, the UN peacekeeping chief has said. Herve Ladsous told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that despite a January 23 ceasefire agreement, forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and rebel soldiers loyal to dismissed former vice president Riek Machar "continue to prioritise the pursuit of military gains over talks towards a comprehensive political settlement." Fighting that broke out December 15 among presidential guards in the capital Juba quickly spread across the country and took on ethnic dimensions between the more populous Dinka tribe who support Kiir and the Nuer tribe loyal to Machar. He said prelimiary inquiry reports indicate that atrocities and very severe human rights violations were committed by both sides in the conflict, and he warned that the longer the fighting goes on "the […]
Heavy artillery and machine gun fire is echoing throughout the capital of South Sudan after violence broke out. Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth said Wednesday that the fighting broke out over an administrative pay issue but that the problem had been contained. Fighting, however, could still be heard around the military barracks where violence first broke out in mid-December and escalated into country-wide conflict that continues today. Soldiers are being quickly ferried around the city on the backs of trucks. Shops on a main street in the city have closed amid a general increase in security personnel. In Ethiopia, a leader for opposition forces said that mutineers in the army on Wednesday had pledged their allegiance to the country’s former vice president, who commands rebel forces. © 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
