Tag: GreatLakesNews

{United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the South Sudanese army and opposition rebels on Tuesday for stealing food and humanitarian supplies as the country’s conflict escalates.}

The U.N. chief “strongly condemns the commandeering of humanitarian vehicles and the theft of food stocks and other relief items by both government and anti-government forces,” Martin Nesirky, his spokesman said, according to Agence France-Presse.

Ban expressed his concern regarding the increasing death toll in the month-old confrontation between President Salva Kiir and former vice president Riek Machar and said that the U.N. will not help either side of the conflict.

Ban expressed his criticism after the U.N. mission in the country reported dozens of people who took refuge at a U.N. camp had been injured in clashes between Kiir and Machar’s forces.

Earlier on Tuesday, South Sudan’s government reported that more than 200 people fleeing Malakal died when an overcrowded ferry capsized.

“The secretary-general is alarmed by the rising number of fatalities resulting from the continuing fighting in South Sudan,” including the ferry disaster, Nesirky said.

“He is also deeply concerned about the rising number of displaced people in the country, which surpassed 400,000 this week, and the challenges humanitarians are facing in providing life-saving assistance,” he added.

Meanwhile, Ban renewed his call for a ceasefire to give a chance to negotiations brokered by the East African region’s Intergovernmental Authority on Development.

“He reiterates that those responsible for attacks against civilians, humanitarian workers and UN personnel will be held accountable, and that the United Nations will continue to actively protect civilians applying strict impartiality,” Nesirky said.

The United Nations had been providing limited logistical support to the government Sudan People’s Liberation Army until the Dec. 15 outbreak of hostilities, according to U.N. officials.

More than 10,000 people have been killed in the fighting, according to the International Crisis Group and other aid groups.

The U.N. said 65,000 people have taken refuge in U.N. camps across the country and more than 430,000 have fled to Uganda and other neighboring countries.

Al Arabiya

{At least 200 South Sudanese civilians drowned on Tuesday in a ferry accident on the White Nile river while fleeing fresh fighting in the city of Malakal, an army spokesman said.
}

“The reports we have are of between 200 to 300 people, including women and children. The boat was overloaded,” army spokesman Philip Aguer told AFP. “They all drowned. They were fleeing the fighting that broke out again in Malakal.”

Battles raged in several sites in South Sudan Tuesday.

Heavy fighting was reported in Malakal, state capital of oil-producing Upper Nile state, as rebel forces staged a fresh attack to seize the town, which has already changed hands twice since the conflict in South Sudan began on December 15.

“There is fighting anew in and around Malakal,” United Nations aid chief for South Sudan Toby Lanzer said, adding that the peacekeeping base had been swamped with almost double the number of people seeking shelter, rising from 10,000 to 19,000.

The army reported heavy fighting reported south of Bor, as the government sought to retake the town from rebels, the largest in their control.

“We are marching on Bor, there was very heavy fighting late on Monday,” Aguer said.

However, he rejected rebel claims to have captured the river port of Mongalla, situated between Bor and the capital Juba.

“We are north of Mongalla, we remain in full control there,” Aguer said.

He also confirmed fighing south of the capital, around the town of Rajaf, on Monday.

According to the United Nations, some 400,000 civilians have fled their homes over the past month.

The fighting is between South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar.

Daily Nation

{Mediators pressed for a ceasefire in South Sudan as government troops fought for control over the last rebel-held town.}

Envoys from the United States and South Sudan’s neighbours met on Saturday with Riek Machar, the former vice president who heads the rebel forces that have been fighting government troops for the past month, the rebels said.

“The American Special envoy to South Sudan and Sudan, Donald Booth together with [regional] mediators travelled to an undisclosed location in South Sudan to meet Dr Riek Machar,” said a statement signed by Machar’s former press officer Miyong G Kuon.

There were unconfirmed news reports that mediators would meet President Salva Kiir on Monday.

The meeting with Machar comes as talks in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa appear to be stalling. Mediators for the East African regional bloc IGAD have been trying to incorporate the proposals of both sides into a draft ceasefire document.

Fighting erupted in South Sudan on December 15. Kiir accused Machar of attempting a coup, while Machar in turn accused Kiir of using the coup accusation as an excuse to carry out a purge.

{UN leader Ban Ki Moon and the UN Security Council are urging South Sudan’s president to release political detainees at the center of efforts to start a ceasefire in the country’s conflict.}

Ban said Friday he spoke with Salva Kiir on Thursday to call for the release of the opposition officials to boost hopes of ending battles in which thousands are feared to have died since December 15.

“I called President Salva Kiir yesterday again and urged him to demonstrate leadership and political flexibility by immediately releasing political prisoners,” the UN secretary-general told reporters.

“SOUTH SUDAN IS AT A CROSSROADS”

The 15-nation Security Council also demanded the release of the detainees in order to “create an environment conducive to a successful dialogue” between Kiir and his former vice president Riek Machar.

Forces loyal to Kiir and Machar are battling for control of key cities while peace talks are held in Addis Ababa.

Diplomats say Machar has demanded the release of 11 senior associates before any ceasefire. The group was detained as violence erupted in December.

The Security Council said both sides should halt the fighting and that Machar should agree to a ceasefire “without precondition.”

Kiir’s side has insisted the 11 must face legal proceedings.

Ban said the crisis in South Sudan is now “very dire,” with an estimated 75,000 people now crowded into UN compounds across the country.

The UN leader said widespread human rights violations had been committed and he would send Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic to South Sudan this weekend to review evidence of abuses.

“Perpetrators of serious human rights violations will be held accountable,” Ban said.

Daily Nation

The raid on Thursday evening targeted a Shebab camp in Garbarahey in Gedo region, situated around 600 kilometres (390 miles) northwest of the Somali capital Mogadishu and near the border with Kenya and Ethiopia, the Kenyan military said.

“KDF (Kenya Defence Force) fighter jets attacked an al Shebab camp, where a meeting was being held,” a senior KDF official said.

“Initial battle damage assessment indicates more than 30 al Shebab militants killed, including key commanders,” the official added.

Another military official said the Kenyan armed forces were trying to determine the identities of those killed in the raid.

“We are yet to establish their identities, but they are definitely big shots in the militant group’s hierarchy,” the official said, adding that five vehicles and other “key assets” were destroyed in the raid.

Officials said they believed dozens of other militants were also wounded.

Kenya has been battling the al Qaeda-inspired Shebab on Somali soil since October 2011, and has since joined the African Union force deployed in the country.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has vowed to maintain Kenya’s military presence in the war-torn country despite Shebab attacks inside Kenya — including the attack on the Westgate shopping mall in September last year.

“Let them (Shebab) know that we will not relent on the war,” Kenyatta said late last year.

“Our forces will remain in Somalia until such time when we are satisfied that there is peace.”

AFP

{Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno, has invited his Burundian counterpart, Pierre Nkurunziza, to take part in a Summit of the Central African Economic Community (CEAC) to discuss the situation in the Central African Republic (CAR), PANA learnt Tuesday from official sources here.}

The invitation was transmitted by the Chadian Foreign Affairs Minister, Moussa Faki Mohamar, to Bernard Busokoza, the first vice-president of Burundi.

According to the sources, there is an urgent need for a Summit of Heads of States and of Governments of CAEC member states to evaluate and take the necessary measures regarding the situation in CAR.

Burundi and Chad are the two African countries that have sent troops to maintain peace in CAR.

Pana 08/01/2014

BEIJING, China, January 9, 2014: Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying announces at the regular press conference:

At the invitation of the government of Tanzania, Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Jiang Weixin will attend the celebration of the 50th Zanzibar Revolution Day on January 12 in Tanzania as the Special Envoy of President Xi Jinping.

SOURCE

China – Ministry of Foreign Affairs

{The trial of Deputy President William Ruto and radio presenter Joshua arap Sang at the ICC slated to resume on Monday has been rescheduled.}

The hearing will now start on January 16.

Mr Sang’s lawyer, Mr Katwa Kigen, Tuesday confirmed that the case had been deferred by three days. “It is the decision of the court,” Mr Kigen told the Nation by phone.

He, however, did not say the reasons for the postponement.

There have been discussions at the ICC on whether to adjust the hearing, which started in September last year.

Mr Ruto and Mr Sang are accused of crimes against humanity including murder, deportation or forcible transfer of population and persecution during the 2007-2008 post-election violence.

The trial is before Trial Chamber V(a) composed of Judges Chile Eboe-Osuji (presiding), Olga Herrera Carbuccia and Robert Fremr.

On December 13, last year, the Appeals Chamber dismissed prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s appeal against the decision of Pre-Trial Chamber II, rejecting her request to amend the temporal scope the charges against Mr Ruto and Mr Sang.

Daily Nation

{After the international community has been piling pressure on Kiir to release the suspected coup plotters as a confidence-building measure in the ongoing peace talks and to enable both parties find a political, homegrown and peaceful solution to the crisis in South Sudan, President Gen. Salva Kiir said he can only budge to the request for the detainees’ release “only after legal procedures” have been exhausted.}

According to statement seen by Chimpreports on Wednesday, the first face-to-face talks between the Government and the rebel’s representatives started Monday after days of separately deliberating on the ground rules of the talks aimed at ending the three weeks of violence.

“We said in the beginning we are committed to dialogue, but without preconditions, nobody should give us conditions. We still remain committed to that principle. We are now been given conditions that we release political detainees first before talks could go ahead,” warned Kiir in a joint press conference with visiting Sudan President, Omar Bashir.

“This is a condition that I will not accept, if it a matter of releasing the detainees, we have to follow legal measures, the legal procedures will have to be followed according to the constitution,” President Kiir reaffirmed.

President Kiir while stressing accountability said “We have lost more than 100 lives and if such a number of people have died, property has either been destroyed or looted; we want to know who is responsible for all these losses. It is not just a matter of releasing people who have been the cause of all this destruction, they will be released but not as a precondition for talks”.

At least 1, 000 people have been killed and 200,000 people displaced following a “foiled coup” attempt in mid December last year.

Following the coup attempt, the Government arrested more than ten individuals and accused the former Vice President Dr. Reik Machar who has declared war against the Government of plotting the “failed coup”.

Rebel forces are still engaging the Government forces, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in the two states of Jonglei and Unity despite calls for a ceasefire.

The East African regional Bloc- Inter-Government Authority on Development [IGAD] is taking the lead in the mediations.

On Monday, President Bashir called for an immediate end to the fighting and urged the two parties to take the IGAD peace initiative to end the crisis.

“Violence cannot solve anything, we fought among ourselves for 21 years and lastly we had to go to the negotiation table to resolve our difference,” President Bashir said while referring to Sudan’s long civil war that ended in the Independence of South Sudan in July 2011. President Bashir reiterated his support to a peaceful solution in ending the currently crisis in South Sudan.

A former British soldier currently on death row in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is set to face trial tomorrow for the alleged murder of his cell mate and best friend.

Joshua French and Tjostolv Moland were sentenced to death in 2009 after being found guilty of espionage and murder, although both men maintained their innocence.

They were convicted for a second time for the same offences in June 2010 following a military retrial branded a ”farce” by campaigners.

However, Mr French, who served in the Parachute Regiment, now faces a fresh murder charge after Mr Moland was found dead in the prison cell they shared on August 18 last year, despite an initial investigation which found he had taken his own life.

Legal charity Reprieve has called on the British Government, in letters to the Prime Minister, to intervene to prevent the trial or, at very least, have it transferred to a civilian court as it is set to be held in a military court, in violation of the DRC’s constitution and international law.

It is understood that discussions had been taking place to transfer Mr French to a prison in Norway but the fresh proceedings have thrown this in to jeopardy.

Mr French’s mother, Kari Hilde, said: “Joshua has already lost his best friend and nearly five years of his life. Now he’s being falsely accused of murder. How much more will he have to endure before the British Government takes serious action?”

Reprieve said a post-mortem examination conducted jointly by Congolese Police and the Norwegian police agency Kripos confirmed that Mr Moland had committed suicide.

Mr Moland’s father has written to the Congolese authorities asking for the charges against Mr French to be dropped but the request has not been answered.

Maya Foa, director of Reprieve’s death penalty team, said: “The Government has already tarried too long.

“These are sham charges and the Prime Minister needs to intervene without delay to protect the rights of British citizen, Joshua French. If the trial goes ahead in a military court, Joshua may well be given a death sentence, and all hopes of him leaving the prison alive will be dashed.”

Telegraph