Tag: South Sudan

UN warns not time to ‘take our eyes off’ South Sudan

UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — The conflict in Sudan, which has shown how quickly “hard-won peace gains” can unravel, should not distract attention from the risks facing neighboring South Sudan, the UN envoy to the country warned Tuesday. After gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan descended into a civil war that left nearly 400,000 people dead and millions displaced between 2013 and 2018. A peace agreement signed in 2018 provided a power-sharing […]

‘The conflict goes on’: South Sudan’s never-ending war

by Nick Perry Agence France-Presse NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) — “South Sudan remains significantly peaceful”, declared the opening line of a government-issued fact sheet for visitors and press as they awaited the historic arrival of Pope Francis in the country this month. But on his first day in Juba, as the pontiff waved to the faithful, mass graves were being dug just 100 kilometers (62 miles) away for 27 civilians killed in a hail of automatic […]

The best medicine: South Sudan’s comedians tap the power of laughter

by Nick Perry Agence France-Presse JUBA, South Sudan (AFP) — It is a Thursday evening, and the young audience crammed into a concert hall in South Sudan’s capital city is howling with laughter as a comedian lands his closing punchline. “South Sudan got what?” shouts the host, Isaac Anthony Lumori, at the full house for a weekly comedy night that’s become one of Juba’s most popular entertainment fixtures. “Talent!” roars the crowd, mostly in their […]

South Sudanese refugees homeless again after Sudan floods

by Mujahed Sharaf al-Din AL-JABALAIN, Sudan (AFP) — South Sudanese refugee Dawood Kour fled to Sudan to turn the page on a life of displacement, only to be forced onto the streets once more after floodwaters submerged his rickety shelter. Kour crossed the border in November, fleeing years of conflict in his home city of Malakal — itself prone to flooding. South Sudan became the world’s newest independent nation in 2011, seceding from Sudan. But […]

Locust swarms arrive in South Sudan, threatening more misery

JUBA, South Sudan (AFP) — Swarms of locusts which are wreaking havoc across East Africa have now arrived in South Sudan, the government said Tuesday, threatening more misery in one of the world’s most vulnerable nations. Billions of desert locusts, some in swarms the size of Moscow, have already chomped their way through Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti, Eritrea, Tanzania, Sudan and Uganda. Their breeding has been spurred by one of the wettest rainy seasons in […]

PHL gov’t imposes total ban on deployment of OFWs to South Sudan

(Eagle News)–The government has imposed a total ban on the deployment of Overseas Filipino Workers to South Sudan. In a statement, the Department of Labor and Employment said the  governing board of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, in a resolution, decided to impose the ban also on the processing of the documents of OFWs  bound for the country “until further notice.” The board is chaired by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III. Bello said the ban […]

In South Sudan, illness is as deadly as war

by Fran BLANDY Agence France-Presse UDIER, South Sudan (AFP) – By the time he was brought into the remote clinic in northeastern South Sudan, two-year-old Nyachoat was already convulsing from the malaria attacking his brain. After being given medication he lies fast asleep, naked and feverish, attached to a drip, his anxious mother sitting on the bed next to him. Nyachoat could be saved, but others are not so lucky. In South Sudan mind-bending horrors abound […]

UN envoy sees possible South Sudan deal from talks in Ethiopia

UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) — The latest round of Ethiopia-led peace talks on South Sudan will wrap up on Friday with a possible agreement that could pave the way to further negotiations on ending the war, the UN envoy said. The talks that opened on February 5 in Addis Ababa are aimed at finding a settlement to one of Africa’s worst conflicts. “We are hoping that there will be some form of agreement signed tomorrow,” UN […]

Deadliest bus accidents in the past five years

PARIS, France (AFP) — The bus fire in Kazakhstan in which 52 people were killed Thursday is among of the deadliest bus accidents in the world over the past five years. Here are some of the others. 2018 Peru: Fifty-two people die in January when a bus plunges 100 meters (330 feet) over a seaside cliff after colliding with a truck on a precarious stretch of road known as the “devil’s curve.” The accident is […]

Haley rushed out of UN camp as South Sudan protesters turn up

JUBA, South Sudan (AFP) – (Eagle News) – US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Wednesday was quickly escorted out of a UN camp she was visiting in South Sudan when protesters angry with President Salva Kiir turned up, officials said. Haley, the most senior US administration official to visit Africa, was in Juba to meet with South Sudanese civilians affected by the nearly four-year war and has traveled on to Kinshasa as part […]

Record 65.6 million people displaced worldwide: UN

by Agnès PEDRERO Agence France Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Devastating conflicts, violence and persecution in Syria, South Sudan and elsewhere left a record 65.6 million people uprooted from their homes by the end of 2016, the UN said Monday. That number marks a jump of just 300,000 from the end of 2015, but is more than six million higher than at the end of 2014, according to a report published by the UN refugee […]

South Sudan’s refugees see little chance of peace

PAGIRINYA, Uganda (Reuters) – When government soldiers came to Pajok, a town in South Sudan close to the Uganda border in April this year, Maria Lalum was caught in crossfire as the soldiers pursued fought rebel forces allied to ousted vice president Riek Machar. She survived by hiding in the forest for five days before crossing into neighboring Uganda. Lalum, a 72-year-old grandmother says this is the third time she has had to flee the […]