South Sudan's opposition leader warns of return to civil war

October 20, 2019

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudan's opposition leader Riek Machar warned Sunday that the country could return to civil war if a coalition government is formed by a Nov. 12 deadline and he asked for another months-long delay for the crucial step in a fragile peace deal.

Machar made an impassioned plea to a visiting United Nations Security Council delegation that met with him and President Salva Kiir to urge speedier progress in pulling the country out of a five-year civil war that killed almost 400,000 people.

"Suppose we form a government on the 12th, you know what's going to happen? The ceasefire we've been enjoying for over a year will erupt," said the visiting Machar, whose opposition has said he won't return to South Sudan for good until security arrangements are in place.

The previous attempt at Kiir and Machar sharing power ended in renewed fighting and Machar fleeing the country on foot in 2016. The issues being discussed today are the same ones that led to that earlier failure, the opposition leader said.

But the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Kelly Craft, said the council was "disappointed" by Machar's warnings. The U.S. has said it would reevaluate its relationship with South Sudan if next month's deadline isn't met.

The Security Council still wants the Nov. 12 deadline met, South Sudan government spokesman Michael Makuei said: "No change of schedule nor change of program." The opposition, however, now wants a three-month delay, Makuei said.

One key outstanding issue is security. Machar and Kiir were told Sunday that it would take at least three months to train at least 41,500 fighters and troops into a unified national army along with a 3,000-member VIP protection force.

South Sudan's government has said the international community should help fund that process. The Security Council "is of the view that nothing is impossible, nothing is unsurmountable," said South Africa's ambassador to the U.N., Jerry Matthews Matjila. The remaining issues can be discussed by an inclusive government, he said.

One South Sudan expert said the international community is making a mistake. "The U.N. Security Council took the wrong approach today," Alan Boswell, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, told The Associated Press.

"Rather than fixate on Nov. 12, everyone should be focused on pressuring the parties to resolve the issues necessary to form a viable government at less risk of collapse," he said. "There are much worse scenarios than another delay."

Another expert suggested a different approach. South Sudan's government "has consistently acted in bad faith," said Klem Ryan, former coordinator of the Security Council's panel of experts monitoring sanctions against South Sudan. "They need to be treated as illegitimate through increased international isolation by the diplomatic community until such time as they show a genuine desire to meet the needs of the people of South Sudan."

The world's youngest nation erupted in civil war just two years after winning independence from Sudan as Kiir and his deputy, Machar, clashed and their supporters took up arms. Millions have since been displaced and the oil-rich country's economy has been shattered.

Recruitment of new soldiers threatens South Sudan's peace

February 21, 2019

YAMBIO, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudan's rival armed groups are forcefully recruiting civilians, including child soldiers, violating a fragile peace deal signed five months ago. The evidence from numerous accounts that opposing sides are adding fighters to their ranks is a worrying sign that threatens the country's peace, say officials.

In Yambio, near the border with Congo, all sides met recently to try to resolve their differences and strengthen the peace agreement. However, the meeting quickly turned tense as the government and opposition accused each other of recruiting new fighters, including child soldiers. The meeting highlighted the need for all fighters to be integrated into a single, unified national army, said observers.

The reports of new recruitment come from all sides. In Twic state 1,200 men were forced into the government army, according to a letter sent from community leaders to the governor in January and seen by The Associated Press.

In Upper Nile state opposition-leader Riek Machar is recruiting troops to "balance his number of forces with the government," said a high-ranking opposition member who spoke with Machar and who insisted on anonymity for his safety.

And in Western Equatoria state, another group, the National Salvation Front, is allegedly recruiting former combatants pushing them to take up arms again or hand over their weapons if they refuse, said Johnson Niwamanya, team leader for the Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangements Monitoring Mechanism, the body charged with documenting violations and overseeing the implementation of the peace agreement.

South Sudan is slowly emerging from the five-year civil war that killed almost 400,000 people and displaced millions. A peace deal signed on September 12 in neighboring Sudan has been marked by delays, missed deadlines and violations.

The latest wave of recruitment shows the fragility of the peace, as all sides are boosting the size of their forces, said an expert. "In South Sudan, manpower is political power. Politicians use peace deals to grow their own armed ranks," said Alan Boswell senior analyst with the International Crisis Group.

Officially, the government and both opposition parties deny that any recruitment is taking place. "We are not expecting war for us to recruit," said the government's deputy army spokesman Santo Domic Chol.

In addition are accusations of the continued use of child soldiers. An estimated 19,000 children are associated with armed groups in South Sudan, according to the U.N., giving the country one of the highest numbers of child soldiers in the world.

James Nando, an opposition commander in Western Equatoria who is accused of having child soldiers, told AP that he is merely caring for "orphans." While the parties say they are committed to peace, fighting continues across South Sudan, especially in the hard-hit Equatoria region.

Last week the United Nations refugee agency said 13,000 people had fled renewed violence in parts of the country after clashes erupted at the end of January between South Sudan's army and the rebel group, the National Salvation Front.

Speaking to the parties in Yambio, chairman of the ceasefire-monitoring group Desta Abiche urged both sides to speed implementation of the peace deal. By May, opposition leader Machar is supposed to return to the country to once again serve as First Vice President and all armed groups are expected to be separately housed, then trained and unified into one national army. So far there are no barracks where the forces are meant to be housed.

"We need to kick everything up because of time," said Abiche to both sides. "There are three months left to take full responsibility. Peace is possible because it's you who can make peace," but he warned: "It is also you who can cause the peace to fail."

South Sudan judge finds 10 troops guilty of violent rampage

September 06, 2018

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — A military judge in South Sudan on Thursday found 10 soldiers guilty of rape and murder in a violent rampage two years ago. Brigadier General Knight Briano found two guilty of involvement in the murder of a South Sudanese journalist and sentenced them to life in prison. The judge found three other soldiers guilty of raping foreign aid workers, four guilty of sexual harassment and one guilty of theft and armed robbery. They have been sentenced to between seven and 14 years in jail.

One of the 11 soldiers charges was acquitted for lack of evidence. A twelfth soldier charged died while in jail during the trial. The judgment was delivered in a military courtroom filled with diplomats, aid workers and officials.

The charges stem from the attacks in the Terrain Hotel in Juba in 2016, when dozens of soldiers broke into the compound, killed a local journalist and gang-raped five international aid workers while U.N. peacekeepers nearby did not respond to pleas for help.

The soldiers found guilty were stripped of their uniforms before being transported by truck to prison.

1 million South Sudan refugees now in Uganda, UN says

August 17, 2017

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The number of South Sudanese refugees sheltering in Uganda has reached 1 million, the United Nations said Thursday, a grim milestone for what has become the world's fastest-growing refugee crisis.

Ugandan officials say they are overwhelmed by the flow of people fleeing South Sudan's civil war and the U.N. refugee agency urges the international community to donate more for humanitarian assistance.

An average of 1,800 South Sudanese citizens have been arriving daily in Uganda over the past 12 months, the UNHCR said in a statement. Another one million or more South Sudanese are sheltering in Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Congo and Central African Republic.

The number of people fleeing jumped after deadly fighting again erupted in South Sudan's capital, Juba, in July 2016. "Recent arrivals continue to speak of barbaric violence, with armed groups reportedly burning down houses with civilians inside, people being killed in front of family members, sexual assaults of women and girls and kidnapping of boys for forced conscription," the statement said.

"With refugees still arriving in their thousands, the amount of aid we are able to deliver is increasingly falling short." A fundraising summit hosted by Uganda in June raised only a fraction of the $2 billion that Ugandan officials have said is needed to sufficiently look after the refugees and the communities hosting them.

Most of the refugees are women and children fleeing violence, often along ethnic lines, since the world's newest country erupted into violence in December 2013. Ugandan refugee officials have repeatedly warned the influx is straining the country's ability to be generous to the refugees, who often are given small plots of land for building temporary shelters and planting crops when they arrive.

The largest of the settlements hosting refugees from South Sudan, Bidi Bidi, is roughly 230 square kilometers (88.8 sq. miles). The World Food Program cut food rations for some refugees amid funding shortages in June.

The U.N. says at least $674 million is needed to support South Sudanese refugees in Uganda this year, although only a fifth of that amount has been received. The money is needed to provide basic services, including stocking clinics with medicines and putting up schools. Aid agencies say classroom sizes in the few available schools often exceed 200 pupils, and other children have dropped out because the nearest schools are located miles away.

"The funding shortfall in Uganda is now significantly impacting the abilities to deliver life-saving aid and key basic services," the UNHCR statement said. Fighting persists in parts of South Sudan despite multiple cease-fire agreements. Rebel forces said Tuesday they had reclaimed their stronghold of Pagak in the northeast, less than a week after being pushed out by government forces.

Both sides have committed serious rights violations, including murder and rape, against civilians, according to U.N. investigators.

New report blames South Sudan military for civilian deaths

June 21, 2017

ABUROC, South Sudan (AP) — Albin Koolekheh watched his 4-year-old son die in his arms. He and his family were among tens of thousands of people who escaped a wave of fighting in South Sudan's civil war, only to find themselves living in a filthy camp near the border with Sudan.

A new report by Amnesty International says South Sudanese forces burned, shelled and ransacked homes between January and May, killing civilians and forcing thousands like Koolekheh from the Shilluk ethnic minority to flee.

"Even considering South Sudan's history of ethnic hostility," the mass displacement was shocking, the report says. As South Sudan faces its fourth year of civil war, the fighting shows no signs of ending. Both government and opposition forces have been accused of war crimes including mass rape and targeted killings, while the United Nations warns of ethnic violence. While the focus has been on ethnic tensions between the Dinka of President Salva Kiir and the Nuer of rebel leader Riek Machar, the new report highlights the threat to others caught in the crossfire.

When government troops attacked his hometown of Wau Shilluk in January, Koolekheh grabbed his wife and three children and left. After a day of walking through the bush, his youngest son fell sick. With no food or water, the boy died on the side of the road.

"Bullets, guns, screaming, it was everywhere," the weary 32-year-old father told The Associated Press this week. "This violence is known to the world. But what is everyone doing about it?" Now Koolekheh crouches on the dirt floor in the back room of a small shop, scrubbing metal bowls with a rag, his eyes fixed on the floor.

He and his family are sheltering in Aburoc, an ad hoc displaced person's camp. At the peak of the fighting, 25,000 people were living in this bleak shantytown. Now roughly 10,000 remain, the rest gone to Sudan or nearby villages.

Makeshift houses with plastic roofs are scattered across muddy fields. Food is scarce and disease is rife. A cholera outbreak threatened the population in May. Yet many have no choice but to call this town home. This is their third or fourth attempt at finding refuge in less than six months after being uprooted over and over by violence.

Satellite imagery collected by Amnesty International shows the destruction of homes and other civilian buildings, including a temple, in the central areas of Wau Shilluk. The group's report says government troops often deliberately killed civilians, shooting them in the back when they tried to flee.

"These accounts are unfounded," said a South Sudan military spokesman, Col. Santo Domic Chol. He said it isn't within the military's mandate to kill civilians and chase them from their homes. Yet stories abound of families fleeing for their lives.

When government forces attacked the nearby opposition-held town of Kodok three months ago, Victoria Adhong said she fled and will never go back. Although Aburoc is currently peaceful, Adhong, the acting governor of Fashoda state, said it's hard to feel safe when the "enemy's next door."

Another of the displaced, Elizabeth Adwok, said she fled Kodok with her seven children amid gunfire. They arrived in Aburoc in April and have struggled to find food, with little in the market and prices high.

"We're not here because we like it," Adwok said. "But we have nothing." The International Committee of the Red Cross, one of the few organizations with a presence in Aburoc, warned that with the onset of the rainy season things will only get worse.

"Access to food, water and health care is extremely limited," said Matthieu Desselas, head of the office in Kodok. But for the thousands of civilians already so far from their homes, this town is their last hope.

"It's the only place left for me in South Sudan," Koolekheh said. "I'll stay here until there's peace."

South Sudan soldiers face trial for deadly hotel rampage

May 30, 2017

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudanese soldiers accused of a horrific attack on foreign aid workers during the country's civil war are facing trial almost a year later, with the possibility of a death sentence.

Twelve of the 20 soldiers accused of rape, torture, killing and looting during the attack on the Terrain hotel compound were in court Tuesday. The assault came during fresh fighting in the capital, Juba, in July.

An investigation by The Associated Press last year showed that dozens of soldiers broke into the compound and terrorized residents and staff while the nearby United Nations peacekeeping mission did not respond to pleas for help. Five foreigners reported being gang-raped, and one local journalist was shot in the head and killed as others were forced to watch.

The U.N. secretary-general later fired the commander of the U.N. peacekeeping mission over its response to the attacks on the hotel compound and elsewhere. The trial is a test of South Sudan's ability to hold its soldiers accountable. It is expected to last several weeks, with the next court date scheduled for June 6.

If convicted of rape, the soldiers could face up to 14 years in prison. If convicted of murder, they could be sentenced to death. It was not immediately clear how the soldiers would plead. The prosecution said it "absolutely" has the necessary evidence to convict the accused, citing testimony from witnesses and victims including an American man who was shot in the leg.

"We expect the same as from any normal trial," said Michael Woodward, the British former manager of the Terrain and the only witness to testify Tuesday. "We want justice for the victims, compensation for what was looted and we want this to serve as an example for people who commit similar crimes."

South Sudan's military marked the start of the trial by announcing it is committed to "human rights, the rule of law and the transparency of the legal system." The start of the trial comes shortly after a new U.N report that exposed potential war crimes by the army in soldiers' targeting and killing of dozens of South Sudanese civilians. The international community has repeatedly expressed concern about impunity for widespread abuses in the civil war, which is well into its fourth year and has left tens of thousands dead.

'I cannot go back': South Sudan refugee clan begins new life

April 28, 2017

IMVEPI, Uganda (AP) — Eighty-year-old Alfred Wani walks across the wooden bridge over the Kaya River, the border between South Sudan and Uganda, clinging to his Bibles and family photo album, with his wife, three goats and 27 relatives in tow. Missing are a few sons (off fighting) and his cattle (stolen).

Alfred is one of more than 800,000 South Sudanese who have fled to Uganda since July. The civil war in South Sudan has killed tens of thousands and driven out more than 1.5 million people in the past three years, creating the world's largest refugee crisis.

The Bidi Bidi refugee camp in Uganda is now the biggest in the world, but Alfred is not going there. It's full. Imvepi is his destination, where the Ugandan government will issue him with a 50-square-meter (60-square-yard) plot of land and hope for a better life.

But that will take a week, two more camps and three more truck and bus rides with his clan and their salvaged belongings. Alfred walks two hours by foot to the first U.N. processing center for South Sudan refugees in the small Ugandan village of Busia. There, Alfred, a blind man named Ringo with two canes and countless others spend the night before being transferred by minibus to the Kuluba transit camp, 45 minutes down the road. It's set up to accommodate and dispatch more than 1,000 refugees a day.

Michael Lowe, Alfred's 28-year-old son, directs the women of their family to carry their belongings into the white tent they will share with Ringo and his wife, Charly Kenisha, for the next 48 hours. During that time, a well-oiled routine will take them through the hands of charities like the International Rescue Committee and Medical Teams International, who will do medical exams and vaccinations.

Alfred sits in a prized wooden chair carried from South Sudan while the grandchildren play. He opens his photo album. "These are my sons." He points at a fading color image showing five of his eight sons. Six are still fighting in South Sudan. "And this is my favorite photo . me and my bicycle."

Alfred, a farmer, shares a few regrets: "If I was young again, I would raise more cattle, and build a good house in concrete, and also pay for my kids' school. I didn't go to school and neither did my children."

In the morning, all the family's belongings are repacked and reloaded onto a truck for transport to Imvepi. More than 1,500 people will be transported in buses adorned with the word "Friends" on the side.

Sixty kilometers (36 miles) and two hours later, the convoy arrives at Imvepi, which is growing at a rate of over 2,000 refugees each day. Already a bustling town has emerged at the entrance to the processing camp, with locals offering vegetables, fish, clothing and cellphone credit at highly inflated prices.

In the morning, Alfred wakes up in pain. The night has been difficult, with no sleep and a bout of diarrhea. He spends the morning at the clinic, which makes it too late for his clan to move today. They will spend one more night in tent 7A. The clan includes eight heads of families, some orphans and several widows from the war or disease: A representative sample of South Sudan's rural society, squeezed into a tent.

As the line of trucks starts to fill up the next morning with goods and 500 people for the final leg of their journey, the clan sits amid their belongings under the broiling sun. More than 50 people in each pickup truck are driven the 15 kilometers (9 miles) to their plots of land on newly cleared dirt roads.

Peeking through the cover of the truck, Alfred can see the white tents that have mushroomed across the land, smell the smoke of their kitchen fires and hear the laughter of children. Soon he will be able to once again sit in his wooden chair, his trademark cowboy hat on his head, and call it home.

The next day, from his chair under an acacia tree, Alfred shouts his commands as his sons set up a tent. The sons cut branches from surrounding trees to build the frame of Alfred's dwelling. As the women and children settle in, Alfred and his wife, Kassa, reminisce.

"We met at home 70 years ago. No, 60! And this is my only wife," Alfred says. Alfred and Kassa have to move inside the unfinished tent with the others when a fierce storm moves in. They all cling to each other, 10 people on 5 square meters (54 square feet) of dirt floor.

Alfred whispers: "Are we going to get a solid house and not a tent?" Tens of thousands of the refugees already have built the type of brick homes that Alfred now desires to replace the mud hut in South Sudan he was forced to abandon.

The couple does not hold out hope of returning home to South Sudan. "I saw the killing, I saw burning houses, I saw the dead with their throats slashed," Alfred says, clutching his cowboy hat tightly. "I cannot go back and see it again."

South Sudan promises 'unimpeded' aid access amid famine

February 21, 2017

WATAMU, Kenya (AP) — South Sudan's president said Tuesday his government will ensure "unimpeded access" for all aid organizations, a day after famine was declared for more than 100,000 people in the country suffering from years of civil war.

The United Nations and others have long accused the government of blocking or restricting aid delivery in the East African nation. President Salva Kiir's remarks to the transitional national assembly came after the famine was declared in parts of oil-rich Unity state. More than 100,000 people are affected, according to South Sudan's government and U.N. agencies. They say another 1 million people are on the brink of starvation.

South Sudan has repeatedly promised to allow full humanitarian access across the country, but with little effect. Some in Kiir's government have expressed hostility toward the international community, accusing it of meddling in the country's affairs.

Human Rights Watch researcher Jonathan Pedneault wrote Tuesday that the famine is a man-made result of "conflict, warring parties blocking access for aid workers and large-scale human rights violations."

Also Tuesday, the European Commission announced an 82 million euro ($87 million) emergency aid package for South Sudan, saying this is the first famine declared in the country since it gained independence from Sudan in 2011.

"The humanitarian tragedy in South Sudan is entirely man-made," EU Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Commissioner Christos Stylianides said in a statement. Crucially what matters is that all parties allow humanitarian organizations to have immediate and full access to do their job and deliver aid."

Tens of thousands have died in the civil war that began in December 2013 and has continued despite a peace agreement in 2015. More than 1.5 million people have fled the country. South Sudan also is experiencing severe inflation, which has made food unaffordable for many families.

EU warns of possible new sanctions in South Sudan

December 12, 2016

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union says it stands ready to impose fresh sanctions against anyone who incites ethnic hatred, obstructs the peace process or stops U.N agencies from doing their work in South Sudan.

EU foreign ministers said in a statement Monday that they are "profoundly disturbed" by intensifying conflict five years after South Sudan gained independence. They called on the transitional government to protect civilians, and for all parties to respect international law and bring an end to human rights violations.

The U.N. recently warned that South Sudan is at risk of genocide and that ethnic cleansing is being carried out in several parts of the country. Tens of thousands have been killed and more than 2 million people displaced by the civil war.

Kenya accuses UN of targeting general fired in South Sudan

November 04, 2016

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Kenya accused the U. N. secretary-general on Thursday of instigating an investigation of deadly attacks in South Sudan with the "preordained" outcome of blaming the Kenyan commander of the U.N. peacekeeping force, who was fired over events that occurred just three weeks after he assumed the post.

Kenya's U.N. Ambassador Macharia Kamau told a news conference that Lt. Gen. Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki was sacked by U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon as "a scapegoat" for the systemic failures of the U.N. peacekeeping system.

He said the investigation was demanded "by certain current and future members" of the Security Council who wanted to protect their interests during the July attacks in South Sudan's capital, Juba. He refused to identify them.

The investigation sharply criticized the U.N. peacekeeping force's response to attacks on a U.N. compound in Juba housing 27,000 displaced people. Over three days in July, at least 73 people were killed, including two Chinese peacekeepers and more than 20 internally displaced people who had sought U.N. protection. The investigators also criticized U.N. peacekeepers for failing to respond to an attack on a private compound just over a kilometer away where U.N. staff, aid workers and local staff were robbed, beaten, raped and killed by armed government soldiers.

Kenya's Foreign Ministry, expressing "dismay" at Ondieki's firing and the way the investigation was conducted, announced Wednesday that it was withdrawing its 1,000 troops from the U.N. peacekeeping operation in South Sudan and will not contribute to beefing up the force by 4,000 troops.

"Kenya had warned that any unfair or prejudicial action taken on the basis of this investigation would compel Kenya to re-evaluate completely its engagement in South Sudan," Kamau said. "The secretary-general, in his lame-duck season, seems to have found the courage that has eluded him throughout his tenure by choosing to ignore Kenya's plea."

Ban's 10 years as U.N. chief ends on Dec. 31 and Antonio Guterres will take over as secretary-general on Jan. 1. South Sudan, the world's youngest country, has been riven by ethnic violence since shortly after gaining its independence from Sudan in 2011. Civil war broke out in 2013 when government forces loyal to President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, battled rebels led by his former vice president Riek Machar, who is a Nuer. Tens of thousands have been killed, more than 2 million displaced, and despite an August 2015 peace agreement, fighting has continued.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric rejected Kamau's accusations, saying there was "no preordained conclusion" to the investigation led by retired Dutch Maj. Gen. Patrick Cammaert. He said the investigators looked at "leadership, command decisions taken on that day," and the secretary-general fired Ondieki on the basis of their findings, which "deeply distressed" him.

"The decision to ask for his removal is an initial decision," Dujarric said. "Other decisions might be taken, but obviously the secretary-general stands by the report that Mr. Cammaert did and the way it was done."

U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said "there is, of course, the system-wide accountability. We all have a degree of responsibility." As for the firing of Ondieki, he said, "I don't want to add salt to the wound. I think that conclusions were irrefutable."

Ladsous spoke to reporters after briefing the Security Council at a closed meeting. A council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because the session was private, said the United States proposed a press statement welcoming the report and the U.N.'s transparency, but there was no agreement because China was not willing to accept any reference to the report.

In the attacks on the U.N. compound, the report said confusing senior leadership and the lack of leadership on the ground, where the Chinese battalion commander had been appointed as the incident commander, "contributed to incidents of poor performance among the military and police contingents at UN House."

This included "at least two instances in which the Chinese battalion abandoned some of its defensive positions" and an "inadequate" performance by Nepalese police to stop looting by some displaced people and control the crowd, it said.

Kamau said "the sources used to inform the investigation, according to our information, were people who were ... in the direct line of command and related colleagues to the force commander. "These individuals, who had been in position years and months before the force commander arrived, have reason to miscue information in a manner that protects them and apportions blame elsewhere," he said.

Kamau said "the investigation could not and should not have been just about the force commander." Instead, the investigation should have centered on response to events, the failure of the peacekeeping system, and the need for collective responsibility and accountability from the U.N. peacekeeping department in New York to the joint operations command at the U.N. mission in Juba, Kamau said.

Associated Press writer Michael Astor contributed to this report from the United Nations.

South Sudan rebel leader says he could return next month

October 21, 2016

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar says he could return to the turbulent country as early as next month, even if he has to enter the way he fled — on foot. He has begun speaking out again after a long silence, during which he trekked 40 days through the bush into neighboring Congo as South Sudan's capital erupted in renewed fighting. In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press in South Africa, Machar said his country's peace deal had "collapsed" and a new political process is needed to revive it.

But he did not commit to rejoining the peace deal on the same terms. Under the agreement signed in 2015 that sought to end a bloody two-year civil war, he had been vice president in a fragile national unity government under his rival, President Salva Kiir.

Machar says he has the right to be president, and that he has enough forces to "liberate" the capital, Juba. He called for his supporters to "wage a popular armed resistance against the authoritarian and racist regime" in his first public comments in exile last month. On Thursday he backed away from that call to arms, saying his statement was "resisting the war being forced on us."

Machar fled South Sudan in July when fighting erupted among security forces, and he last spoke with Kiir on July 15, less than a week after the gunfire began. The government quickly replaced him as vice president. Fighting has continued in several parts of South Sudan since then.

In one of his first interviews in exile, Machar on Thursday warned of coming atrocities by South Sudan's government, including possible genocide. On Wednesday, Kiir announced that tribalism had become a growing factor in the conflict and that the army supporting him was mostly his fellow Dinka.

"What is that going to do?" asked Machar, an ethnic Nuer. He said he is afraid South Sudan will see more attacks like the one by South Sudanese soldiers in July on the Terrain compound popular with foreigners, where Americans were singled out and aid workers and others were raped, forced to watch a local journalist be shot dead and subjected to mock executions.

If South Sudan's government can do that to foreigners from powerful countries, Machar asked, what does the world think it will do to its own people? Machar also described how he fled the country in July in a 500-mile (804-kilometer) march through the bush into Congo. There, he said, the United Nations peacekeeping force extracted him, even as South Sudanese helicopter gunships continued to target him beyond their border.

"I went through an ordeal," Machar said, describing an epic, zig-zagging hike in which he and supporters were reduced to eating wild fruit and snails. Five of his soldiers died, he said, likely from poisoning after eating raw cassava.

Now Machar is in a hit-and-miss pursuit of world leaders for talks on how to revive South Sudan's peace deal. After a stay in Sudan, where he failed to meet President Omar Bashir, he now hopes to meet South African President Jacob Zuma.

During his time in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, Machar said Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni requested a meeting to discuss a political process. Museveni asked if Machar would participate in a dialogue. "I said I would," the rebel leader said.

South Sudan's government has given contradictory statements over whether it would allow Machar back or negotiate with him. On Thursday, government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said he would not be allowed in South Sudan "as a political leader," saying he has lost support among some in the opposition.

Analysts say some diplomats have tried to get Machar to accept exile, but he rejected the idea — "Why would I?" — saying he had a responsibility to return home. And Machar said he would support a U.N.-imposed arms embargo on South Sudan, saying that "it is the government that is buying arms." He would not say whether his forces are getting arms from outside.

Lynch reported from Juba, South Sudan.

South Sudan rebel chief urges armed resistance to Juba govt

September 24, 2016

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A top South Sudanese opposition leader called Saturday for armed resistance to the government in Juba — a stance that suggests the troubled Central African nation could face a renewed civil war in the near future.

Leader Riek Machar and top officials of the opposition SPLM-IO party issued a statement saying their forces would reorganize to "wage a popular armed resistance against the authoritarian and racist regime of President Salva Kiir." It's the first political statement by Machar since he fled South Sudan in August.

The statement, obtained by The Associated Press, came after a meeting Saturday of Machar and his supporters in Khartoum, Sudan. His call for armed resistance adds to South Sudan's spiraling problems. South Sudan gained independence in 2011 but fell into a civil war in 2013 in which at least 50,000 civilians died and more than 2 million were displaced. A peace deal was forced on both Kiir and Machar last August, but fighting in the capital, Juba, in July put that deal in doubt.

"We have been driven back to the bush," James Gadet, a spokesman for Machar, told the AP on Saturday in a call from Nairobi, Kenya. Gadet called for the removal of Taban Deng Gai, who was controversially named to replace Machar as the country's First Vice President. He says the South Sudan government must stop attacking civilians and a regional protection force must be deployed in the country or there will be "an escalation of the civil war," which he says began again on July 8.

"(We) call on the international community to declare the regime in Juba a rogue government," the document says, adding that international agencies monitoring the peace deal should "suspend their activities" until the agreement is "resuscitated."

Some critics blame American foreign policy in South Sudan, saying the U.S. has given Kiir a "blank check" to pursue a militant policy. "It's not at all surprising to see Machar call for continued armed struggle, in light of the U.S. policy to back Taban Deng as First Vice President and the clear absence of a viable political process," Kate Almquist Knopf, director of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, told the AP.

Machar has demanded that the government accept the U.N. Security Council's decision to send an additional 4,000 peacekeepers to increase the size of the existing U.N. force of 12,000 in South Sudan. The Kiir government has resisted the U.N. decision, saying it violates South Sudan's sovereignty. State Department officials say if South Sudan doesn't accept the additional peacekeepers, the U.S. would support an arms embargo on the country.

South Sudan faces 'unprecedented' level of hunger, UN says

September 09, 2016

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — The United Nations says hunger in South Sudan has reached "unprecedented" levels, with nearly 5 million people suffering from severe food insecurity. The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization said Friday that without a return to stability that will allow agricultural production to continue, "the situation could rapidly become catastrophic."

The World Food Program has said both South Sudan's government and the opposition have held up food shipments in parts of this East African country, which is trying to recover from civil war. Roughly $30 million in supplies were looted from warehouses of the two U.N. agencies during clashes between government and rebel forces in July,

South Sudan is experiencing severe hyperinflation, and the World Food Program said the price of food spiked by 778 percent after the July fighting.

Under pressure, South Sudan agrees to 4,000 new peacekeepers

September 04, 2016

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudan has agreed to the deployment of a 4,000-strong regional protection force approved by the U.N. Security Council after first rejecting the peacekeepers as a violation of its sovereignty.

Sunday's announcement came after the Security Council met with South Sudan President Salva Kiir during a rare visit to the turbulent East African country. The threat of an arms embargo loomed over the meeting, as the council has said it would pursue one if South Sudan didn't accept the additional peacekeepers. The U.N. already has 12,000 peacekeepers in the country, and South Sudan has been wary of giving it more authority.

"The Security Council came to achieve what we have secured," U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said. Protecting civilians has become an even more critical issue after fighting erupted in the capital, Juba, in July, killing hundreds and sparking fears of a return to civil war in the already devastated country.

Both civilians and foreigners, including aid workers, were targeted in the July chaos by South Sudanese soldiers who raped women and girls, conducted mock executions and forced people at one hotel compound to watch a local journalist be shot dead.

Challenges already lie ahead for the 4,000 additional peacekeepers, who are tasked with protecting civilians in Juba and perhaps beyond. U.N. officials say the new force needs more than two months to deploy.

And Senegal's ambassador to the U.N., Fode Seck, said there has been difficulty getting enough troops pledged by regional countries that will make up the force. The council meets with African Union officials in Ethiopia on Monday.

In his meeting with the council, Kiir said none of South Sudan's immediate neighbors could contribute troops to the force, a senior U.N. official and a council diplomat said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was intended to be private.

South Sudan also committed to implementing a hybrid court to investigate war crimes, according to Sunday's joint statement by the government and the Security Council. Both government and rebel forces have been accused of widespread abuses in the civil war that began in December 2013 between supporters of Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and former Vice President Riek Machar, a Nuer. Tens of thousands of people have died.

Ethnic tensions remain. Kiir told council diplomats that the U.N. peacekeeping mission's neutrality has been compromised because its camps that shelter tens of thousands of South Sudanese mostly are protecting supporters of the opposition, the U.N. official and council diplomat said.

Kiir also said his rival, Machar, who fled the country after the July fighting and is now in neighboring Sudan, can't return to the country until the next election cycle, the U.N. official and diplomat said.

"Fundamentally, it's going to be the tribes themselves and the political leadership of this country that are going to have to come together," Power told reporters.

South Sudan government recruited child soldiers, UN says

August 19, 2016

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudan's government has recruited child soldiers in the past week to prepare for a renewed conflict, according to an internal United Nations document obtained by The Associated Press.

The document says a senior politician appointed by President Salva Kiir led the recruitment of an entire village of boys using intimidation. Some were as young as 12 years old. It was not clear how many children were involved.

Armed groups in South Sudan often coerce children to join their ranks by threatening to confiscate their family's cattle, a key source of wealth and status in this pastoral society. The U.N. document indicates that the recruitment of children took place shortly after the U.N. Security Council a week ago approved sending an additional 4,000 peacekeepers to the East African country to protect civilians after renewed fighting in the capital, Juba, last month.

Separately, UNICEF on Friday announced that at least 650 children have joined armed groups in South Sudan this year alone. Around 16,000 child soldiers have been recruited since civil war began in December 2013.

Army spokesperson Lul Ruai Koang said youth who join the military are not forced. He said he was not aware of the recent recruitment of children. South Sudan's military and opposition forces have made repeated promises to address allegations of child recruitment, but both sides have continued recruiting since July's outbreak of violence, according to Justin Forsyth, UNICEF's deputy executive director.

"They believe they can easily control and manipulate young minds," Forsyth said. The children then "can commit atrocities, and they will do what they are told." Child soldiers are defined as anyone recruited to join armed groups under the age of 18, and the International Criminal Court considers the recruitment of those under 15 to be a war crime.

In an interview this month in Unity state, one former child soldier said he had expected to do cooking and cleaning in the army when he joined at age 16 but instead was sent to fight on the front lines.

"If you go to the front line, two things would happen: either you will kill someone or you will be killed," he said. He was released from the army a few months ago, one of more than 1,000 child soldiers who have been demobilized from different armed groups as part of a UNICEF program.

"I was not happy because I was given a gun when I was so young," the teen said. "If you are afraid, the commander will beat you." Since the outbreak of civil war, children have been recruited at an expedited rate to protect their communities, according to Joseph Manytuel, the governor of Northern Leich state.

"When you are in a crisis, whoever is ready to join will not be left alone," Manytuel told the AP from Bentiu earlier this month. Last year, President Barack Obama issued a partial waiver to South Sudan from the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008, allowing the U.S. to continue military assistance to support South Sudan's peace process.

Witnesses say South Sudan soldiers raped dozens near UN camp

July 27, 2016

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudanese government soldiers raped dozens of ethnic Nuer women and girls last week just outside a United Nations camp where they had sought protection from renewed fighting, and at least two died from their injuries, witnesses and civilian leaders said.

The rapes in the capital of Juba highlighted two persistent problems in the chaotic country engulfed by civil war: targeted ethnic violence and the reluctance by U.N. peacekeepers to protect civilians.

At least one assault occurred as peacekeepers watched, witnesses told The Associated Press during a visit to the camp. On July 17, two armed soldiers in uniform dragged away a woman who was less than a few hundred meters (yards) from the U.N. camp's western gate while armed peacekeepers on foot, in an armored vehicle and in a watchtower looked on. One witness estimated that 30 peacekeepers from Nepalese and Chinese battalions saw the incident.

"They were seeing it. Everyone was seeing it," he said. "The woman was seriously screaming, quarreling and crying also, but there was no help. She was crying for help." He and other witnesses interviewed insisted on speaking on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals by soldiers if identified.

A spokeswoman for the U.N. mission, Shantal Persaud, did not dispute that rapes took place close to the camp. She did not immediately address why peacekeepers didn't act to prevent the rapes, saying she was looking into the issue.

The reported assaults occurred about a week after rival government forces clashed in Juba, forcing opposition leader Riek Machar from the city and killing hundreds of people. As a cease-fire took hold, women and girls began venturing outside the U.N. camp for food.

The camp houses over 30,000 civilians who are nearly all ethnic Nuer, the same ethnicity as Machar. They fear attacks by government forces who are mostly ethnic Dinka, the same as Machar's rival, President Salva Kiir.

As the women and girls walked out of the U.N. camp, they entered an area called Checkpoint, in the shadow of a mountain on Juba's western outskirts. That stretch of road along one side of the camp saw some of the heaviest fighting and is lined with wrecked shops and burned tanks. It is now inhabited by armed men in and out of uniform.

In interviews with the AP, women described soldiers in Checkpoint allowing them to leave to buy food but attacking them as they returned. "When we reached Checkpoint, the soldiers come out and called the women and said, 'Stop, please, and sit down,' so we stopped and sat down, and they took one woman inside a shop," a woman said. "Four men went inside the shop and they raped the woman while we three stayed outside."

In another incident, one woman said a group of soldiers pulled two women and two underage girls from their group and gang-raped them in a shop, with more than 10 men to each victim. One girl later died, she said.

"I saw the men taking their trousers off and the ladies crying inside," said a middle-aged woman. As she spoke, she began to cry. "They said, 'This one belongs to me, this one belongs to me,'" she added.

Multiple Nuer women said soldiers threatened them because of their ethnicity or accused them of being allied with Machar. The women identified the soldiers as ethnic Dinka because of the language they spoke.

"One soldier came and he turned the gun to us. He said, 'If I kill you now, you Nuer woman, do you think there is anything that can happen to me?'" one woman said. She said the soldier slapped her before another soldier intervened, allowing her to escape.

The number of rapes that took place outside the U.N. camp was unclear. The AP interviewed more than a dozen witnesses of rapes or people who spoke with victims, both one-on-one and in small groups. The Protection Cluster, a group of aid workers that monitors violence against civilians in South Sudan, noted a "significant spike in reported cases was observed on 18 July when large numbers of women began leaving (the camp) to travel to markets in town in search of food."

The Protection Cluster said at least two victims are known to have died as a result of their injuries. Civilian leaders in the U.N. camp have given estimates ranging from 27 to over 70 rapes from the time that women started venturing out for food. The United Nations says it received reports of dozens of cases. A South Sudanese rights group, the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, said it is investigating 36 reported rapes.

Hospitals inside the camp received four rape cases last week, including an underage girl who said she had been gang-raped by five men and a woman who said she had been gang-raped by five men and beaten, according to medical staff who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The number of victims reporting to clinics is believed to be lower than the actual total because of the stigma in Nuer culture attached to rape. The rape of civilians has been a near-constant in South Sudan's civil war which began in 2013, with both sides accused of using sexual assault, based on ethnicity, as a weapon of war.

Army spokesman Lul Ruai Koang did not deny that rapes occurred after the latest fighting but said the military has yet to receive any formal complaints from victims. Witnesses and aid workers accuse the armed U.N. peacekeepers, who are mandated to protect civilians with lethal force if necessary, of failing to act.

The U.N. spokeswoman, Persaud, said the recent rapes were not limited to Checkpoint. "For a fact, uniformed soldiers were involved, heavily involved, in horrific acts of violence against civilians," Persaud said.

This is not the first time that U.N. peacekeepers have been accused of failing to act. Last year, over 1,300 women and girls were raped by government forces and allied militias during a scorched-earth campaign in Unity state, according to the Protection Cluster. Doctors Without Borders accused the U.N. mission of "complete and utter failure" to protect civilians there. The medical aid organization also blamed the peacekeeping mission over a government attack on the U.N. camp in the town of Malakal in February that killed about two dozen civilians. A U.N. investigation found confusion in command and control by U.N. forces.

In the latest clashes in Juba, residents of the U.N. camp accused peacekeepers of running away when the camp was shelled. Two Chinese peacekeepers were killed. Aid workers said they asked the U.N. to increase patrols July 17-18 along the camp where women were most vulnerable, but that patrols in the area did not begin until July 21.

The U.N. said in a statement it had increased patrols outside the camp in response to reported rapes. One local woman, Christmas David, who said she was beaten by government soldiers but not raped, said the limited patrols were not enough.

"When the U.N. is moving, (the government soldiers) just stop the women and tell them to sit down," she said. "When the peacekeepers leave the road, then they do the things."

South Sudan government rejects foreign troops, backs protest

July 20, 2016

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudan's government on Wednesday organized a protest against the deployment of foreign troops to secure its capital after recent clashes between opposing army factions left hundreds dead.

The African Union this week called for a "regional protection force" to bolster a 12,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission in the East African country and separate warring parties. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has supported reinforcing the mission.

The spokesman for South Sudan's former rebel leader Riek Machar, now first vice president, says Machar has also called for a "third force" to secure the capital, Juba, after President Salva Kiir's forces bombed his house during the fighting that raised fears of a return to civil war.

The spokesman, James Gatdet Dak, said Machar fled Juba and will not return, despite Kiir's invitation, until such an outside force is in place. Hundreds marched Wednesday denouncing the intervention of foreign troops.

"If the international community continues to bring in all their alleged military in South Sudan, we will fight them whether they come by air or by road," protest organizer Ajongo Ajongo said. "We will be malicious. South Sudan will become even worse place than Afghanistan. Let the peace come from us. Don't impose things on us. It will be regrettable."

Army spokesman Lul Ruai Koang said that "any deployment of a foreign force that is not authorized by the political leadership is going to be resisted." The recent violence has threatened a fragile peace deal reached in August between Kiir and Machar, who fought a civil war since December 2013 that killed tens of thousands and inflamed ethnic tensions.

Tens of thousands of Juba residents have been displaced, with many sheltering in crowded U.N. compounds.

S.Sudan fighting forces 40,000 to flee in 4 days

15 July 2016 Friday

A fragile ceasefire appeared to be holding in South Sudan's capital Juba after four days of gun battles that have left hundreds of people dead and sent nearly 40,000 fleeing.

It was too early to tell on Tuesday whether the ceasefire called by both President Salva Kiir, and his longtime opponent Vice President Riek Machar, would last, but the lull allowed civilians to leave their homes.

There were no helicopter gunships in the sky, no tanks on the streets, no artillery barrages and soldiers in their machine gun-mounted pick-up trucks appeared to have stayed in their barracks.

The calm was welcomed by Juba residents who have stayed mostly indoors for days as fighting intensified between Kiir's government forces and former rebels loyal to Machar.

Traders returning to once-busy markets found their shops and stalls looted.

Volunteers and officials from South Sudan's Red Cross set about the grim task of collecting bodies of the dead.

There has been no estimate so far of civilian or military casualties from the heavy clashes Sunday and Monday but Adama Dieng, the United Nations' Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, said some civilians, "were reportedly targeted based on their ethnicity."

Kiir is from the Dinka tribe and Machar a Nuer. South Sudan's civil war has been characterised by ethnic massacres between the two groups -- including in Juba -- as well as rape, sexual slavery, murder and the use of child soldiers.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/todays-news/174878/ssudan-fighting-forces-40000-to-flee-in-4-days.

Getting out of South Sudan can be a harrowing journey

July 14, 2016

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — As the fighting raged in our neighborhood in South Sudan's capital of Juba, we crammed under a bed. Bullets flew over our rooftop. A shell landed nearby, sending shrapnel flying and shaking the house.

I knew I had to get out. The gunfire had begun Friday evening between opposing army factions. By Sunday morning, some of the shooting was only a few hundred meters (yards) from my house in Juba's Tongping neighborhood, near the army headquarters.

I felt unsafe and, like many others, I feared a return to the civil war that had recently shattered South Sudan. I decided to leave for my home in neighboring Uganda. On Monday night, both President Salva Kiir and his former rebel rival, First Vice President Riek Machar, had ordered their supporters to stop the fighting. When I left Tuesday morning, it seemed that the cease-fire had taken hold. That was our chance to leave.

Hundreds of people had been killed in the fighting. On Monday evening, I saw a military truck carrying the bodies of dead soldiers. Others reported seeing bodies in the streets. Would the quiet hold? Some in the capital weren't waiting to find out. Tens of thousands of people fled their homes to U.N. bases and other sites, but others were leaving the country, scared that the fighting would once again spark ethnic violence.

We set off, a mix of 20 foreigners and South Sudanese in a three-vehicle convoy, along the Juba-Nimule road, the 200-kilometer (124-mile) artery which connects South Sudan to the Ugandan border. It normally takes three hours to drive to the border, but it took us more than six hours because of the many roadblocks along the way.

The signs of violence were everywhere. I saw six cars that had been shot at and abandoned by the road. Three vehicles were completely burned. Later, people I met at the border said the vehicles had been shot and burned the previous day.

And people had been killed along the way. Victor Ochieng, a young Ugandan man who had been working in South Sudan, told me how someone seated next to him died from his bullet wounds. "When the attackers started shooting from all sides of the bush, our driver continued to drive, even when one of the tires was hit and it became flat," he said. "By the time we reached the border, the man next to me had died from bleeding."

The roadblocks, manned by the military and other security forces, were a threat as well. The forces stole and extorted money from people trying to leave South Sudan. Soldiers searched all our bags and vehicles. They didn't say what they were searching for; they just took cell phones, money and jewelry.

I hid my mobile phones under the car seat, and I gave some of my money to a woman in our convoy who hid it under sanitary napkins she was wearing specifically for this purpose. Each one of us paid an equivalent of more than $150 to forces at these impromptu checkpoints.

At one roadblock, soldiers who saw my Ugandan passport said, "You foreigners have been making money in South Sudan. Now that there is war, you are trying to take away your loot to a safe place. Unless you give me 200 South Sudanese pounds ($32), you won't leave South Sudan today."

Another soldier told one of my colleagues, "We South Sudanese soldiers are not even paid. Do you think it is fair for you to have money and even take it out of this country when we soldiers are not even paid and our children are suffering?"

We managed to make it across the border, but security forces were barring South Sudanese from leaving the country. Three people traveling with us were sent back to Juba at different checkpoints. Two young women who had bribed their way right to the border were turned away and not allowed to leave South Sudan. They were sent back because the identity documents they presented were South Sudanese.

At the town of Nesitu, soldiers ordered a minibus carrying South Sudanese to return to Juba. "Where are they going? What are they leaving the country for?" a soldier said loudly. It appeared that some soldiers were acting on their own to bar South Sudanese from leaving in an effort to control the image of a county where, once again, things had gone bad.

But a police officer who spoke to me, insisting on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, told me that security forces had received orders to stop South Sudanese, especially men, from leaving the country.

Now that I am home in Uganda, I feel relieved. I am happy to be back with my wife and children. But I am worried about colleagues, friends and relatives who are still stuck across the border. Despite the fragile cease-fire, the situation is so volatile and fluid that anything could happen, anytime.

South Sudan leader signs peace deal amid sanctions threat

August 26, 2015

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudan President Salva Kiir on Wednesday signed a peace deal with rebels, more than 20 months after the start of fighting between the army and rebels led by his former deputy.

Kiir signed the agreement in Juba, South Sudan's capital, in a ceremony witnessed by regional leaders. Kiir said he was signing the document despite having serious reservations. He signed the same agreement endorsed last week in Ethiopia by rebel leader Riek Machar, said Kiir's spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny.

Machar, the former deputy president, signed the agreement last week in Ethiopia but Kiir refused, saying he needed more time, drawing condemnation from diplomats who want a quick agreement to end the violence in the world's newest country.

Kiir was under intense pressure to sign the accord mediated by a group of neighboring countries, with the U.S. threatening new U.N. sanctions if he failed to do so. Signing the agreement Wednesday, Kiir said he felt the peace deal had been imposed on him and said the agreement is flawed. Kiir said some aspects of the deal "are not in the interest of just and lasting peace ... We had only one of the two options, option of an imposed peace or the option of a continued war ... We are here talking about peace."

He accused rebels of attacking positions held by government troops in two areas in the volatile state of Unity on Wednesday. The agreement binds Kiir into a power-sharing arrangement with Machar, a political rival whose dismissal in July 2013 sparked a political crisis that later boiled over into a violent rebellion.The fighting has often been along ethnic lines, pitting Kiir's ethnic Dinka people against Machar's Nuer.

The deal calls for the establishment of a coalition government within 90 days. Previous ceasefires have been quickly broken, however, with both sides accusing the other for truce violations. Thousands of South Sudanese have been killed in the fighting and more than 1.6 million people have been displaced. Atrocities have occurred in which young girls have been raped and burned alive, said the U.N.