Tag: GreatLakesNews

{{South Sudan’s president has reached a ceasefire agreement with a rebel leader, a US official has said, after a vicious cycle of revenge killings drew international alarm.}}

US national security adviser Susan Rice welcomed the peace agreement in a statement, saying it “holds the promise of bringing the crisis to an end”.

A ceasefire in January between South Sudan president Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar fell apart within days.

Ms Rice urged that Mr Kiir and Mr Machar follow up on the new peace deal signed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by “ending the violence and negotiating in good faith to reach a political agreement”.

Ethnically targeted violence in the world’s youngest country broke out in December, killing thousands of people and forcing more than 1.3 million to flee their homes. The UN Security Council has expressed “horror” at recent killings of civilians.

Yesterday’s meeting in Addis Ababa was the first face-to-face encounter between Mr Kiir and Mr Machar since the mass violence began, and it came a week after US secretary of state John Kerry met Mr Kiir to urge a revitalisation of peace talks.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said during a visit to South Sudan this week that the country has seen serious human rights violations.

A new UN report said gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law have been committed.

Much of the violence has been ethnic in nature and carried out by troops loyal to Mr Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and rebels loyal to former vice president Mr Machar, an ethnic Nuer.

International pressure had been growing for at least a brief ceasefire to allow residents to plant their fields, with the UN and aid groups warning that if crops are not planted this month, the country could face mass hunger or famine.

Tens of thousands of civilians already have been taking refuge in UN compounds across the country for months.

The UN Security Council in recent days discussed sanctions, an arms embargo and a referral of the South Sudan situation to the International Criminal Court as ways to apply pressure on the warring sides.

South Sudan is a largely Christian nation that broke off from the Muslim-dominated Sudan after a 2011 referendum.

The fighting is an embarrassment to the US, which has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and has been its strongest international champion.

{{The African National Congress (ANC) has won a commanding victory in South Africa’s general election, partial results show.

With about 80% of the results in, the ANC has 63% of the vote, followed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) on 22%.}}

According to critics; inequality, unemployment and corruption are big problems but the electorate has shown it has not lost faith in the ANC.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party is in third place with 5%.

The electoral commission said voting passed off peacefully in most areas, with turnout at just over 72%.

The elections are the first since the death in December of Nelson Mandela – the country’s first black president – and mark 20 years since the end of white-minority rule.

Dissatisfaction with the government has been growing over high levels of unemployment, a lack of basic services and allegations of widespread corruption.

Our correspondent says the ANC is likely to use its impressive mandate to try to drive through its National Development Plan – rejecting nationalisation, and emphasising investment and infrastructure.

The business-friendly plan has alarmed South Africa’s powerful unions – some of which may soon break away to form their own party, he says.

He adds that, on 5%, the EFF are no threat to the ANC but their aggressive populism will keep ministers on their toes, and South African politics more abrasive than ever.

The DA has increased its share of the vote from 17% in the last election to 22%, according to the latest results.

Early on Thursday, DA leader Helen Zille told reporters that she expected her party’s final vote to be around the 23% margin.

“We’ll see how it goes. Of course, we hope it will be more. We did as much as we could,” she is quoted as saying.

The DA has been trying to make inroads into the black electorate – its support is mainly concentrated in the Western Cape which has a large white and mixed-race population.

Those born after the end of apartheid in 1994 were able to cast their ballots for the first time, although only a third of those entitled to do so had registered to vote.

An ANC victory would return President Jacob Zuma for a second five-year term. He was dogged by allegations of corruption in the build-up to the election after an independent inquiry found he had “unduly benefited” from an expensive government-funded upgrade to his private residence.

Speaking as he cast his vote on Wednesday, Mr. Zuma said he thought “the results will be very good”, but added that the campaign had been “very challenging”.

In the last election in 2009, the ANC saw a slight drop in support, polling 66% of the vote.

{wirestory}

{{South Sudanese President Salva Kiir arrived in Ethiopia’s capital on Friday to meet rebel leader Riek Machar under growing international pressure for an end to ethnic fighting that has raised fears of genocide.}}

The talks in Addis Ababa will be the first since the outset of a nearly five-month conflict during which both government forces and rebels have committed crimes against humanity, according to the United Nations.

Cranking up pressure on two leaders who have been embroiled in a long power struggle, the European Union threatened sanctions against anyone blocking peacemaking and a deal on reforms to tackle endemic poverty and disorder.

The United States earlier this week slapped sanctions on two commanders on opposing sides of the conflict, a sign of the United States’ growing frustration with leaders in Africa’s youngest country that Washington helped win its independence.

Western diplomats say negotiating an end to the fighting is a priority. The Juba government announced on Wednesday it had ordered the army to suspend attacks on rebels under the terms of an agreed “month of tranquility.”

But a rebel spokesman said there could be no talk of a proper ceasefire until a deal laying out the path towards an interim government was agreed.

“The government has been speaking about a ceasefire. But you cannot have a ceasefire without a solution firmly in place,” Hussein Mar Nyot, a spokesman for Machar’s delegation, told Reuters in Addis Ababa.

“A roadmap must be agreed upon at this meeting.”

The meeting between Kiir and Machar was to be held later on Friday at Ethiopia’s presidential palace.

{{The Eritrean president, Isaias Afewerki, will arrive in Khartoum on Thursday to hold talks with his Sudanese counterpart, Omer Hassan Al-Bashir, to discuss bilateral ties and means for furthering cooperation between the two countries.}}

Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) director, Mohamed Atta, travelled to Asmara on a one-day secret visit on Tuesday.

Informed sources told the pro-government al-Rayaam daily newspaper on Tuesday, that Afewerki will be accompanied by several ministers and advisors.

The same sources stressed that a summit between the two presidents will be followed by a ministerial meeting to discuss bilateral relations besides regional and international issues of common concern.

It added that Afewerki’s program of work would include field visits to several projects and large enterprises on top of which is Al-Gaili oil refinery.

Last April, Bashir disclosed during a visit to Sudan’s eastern state of Kassala intends to establish a joint Sudanese-Eritrean force to combat human trafficking and smuggling.

He said that Khartoum would provide Asmara with its fuel needs in order to curb smuggling, underscoring existence of a high level of security coordination between the two countries to control borders and achieve security and stability.

Bashir also called upon the government of Kassala state to carry out its responsibilities in order to achieve the required living standard for the residents along the borders.

The head of neighboring countries’ department at the foreign ministry, Ibrahim Bushra, described ties between Sudan and Eritrea as good, pointing to the repeated mutual visits of the two leaders.

He said that Bashir emphasised Sudan’s relations with Ethiopia do not come at the expense of its ties with any country, in reference to Khartoum’s relations with Asmara.

Bushra added that Bashir had in the past offered to mediate between Eritrea and Ethiopia in order to clear the atmosphere between the two neighboring countries.

He further stressed that Sudan supports the regional campaign led by Eritrea to lift the sanctions imposed upon it by the United States, saying that Sudan suffers from similar sanctions.

Eritrea became an independent state in 1991 after a bloody war of independence with Ethiopia. The two countries fought a border war in 1998-2000 that has killed an estimated 70,000 people.

The two East African adversaries remain at loggerheads since the disputed key town of Badme had been awarded to Eritrea by an international border commission.

{sudantribune}