Juba – The Wire

Nikki Haley’s Blunt Diplomacy on Display During Visit to South Sudan, Congo

Dispatched by President Donald Trump to Ethiopia, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo, Haley’s trip was one of the first tangible signs of interest in Africa by the nine-month old administration.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and President of Congo’s electoral commission (CENI) Corneille Nangaa (C) addresses the media at the CENI headquarters in Gombe, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, October 27, 2017. Credit: Reuters

Juba, South Sudan/Kitchanga, Democratic Republic of Congo: In a mountainous camp for displaced Congolese, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley wrapped her arm around an inconsolable woman who recounted being raped twice.

“It only makes me more passionate, it makes me more determined,” Haley told a small group of reporters traveling with her during her first trip to Africa. “I’ll carry the voices of the women that I met and things that they said.”

Dispatched by President Donald Trump to Ethiopia, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo, Haley‘s trip was one of the first tangible signs of interest in Africa by the nine-month old administration.

Her challenge: how to show the US is actively engaged in Africa, where humanitarian and political crises are often overshadowed by more urgent conflicts elsewhere and at the same time honor Trump’s avowed “America First” policy which puts US economic and national interests ahead of international commitments.

As Africa struggles to win Trump’s interest, US policy is more likely to be increasingly focused on countering militant threats. Washington also has a financial interest at stake as it tries to cut UN peacekeeping costs, for which it pays more than a quarter.

Trump has made a point of saying he would not impose US values on others, raising concerns among activists that human rights issues could take a backseat.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir meets U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in Juba, South Sudan October 25, 2017. Credit: Reuters

Nowhere is that more in focus than in Niger where a deadly ambush killed four US troops who were there to assist local Nigerian forces fighting a local Islamic State affiliate this month. At the same time, Washington has mostly turned a blind eye to the increasingly authoritarian moves of Niger’s former opposition leader, now president Mahamadou Issoufou, as it tries to stop the militant threat from expanding.

Haley, a former governor of the US state of South Carolina, was the most senior member of Trump’s administration to travel to the three sub-Saharan states in a trip that showed how she balances her political skills with her nascent foreign policy and diplomacy experience.

She was moved to tears after visiting displaced Congolese in Kitchanga in the conflict-ravaged east of the country. In Ethiopia’s Gambella region, she kicked off her shoes and sat down on the floor to play with South Sudanese toddlers.

“Those kids will be 18 one day,” Haley told a small group of reporters during her trip. “They will be an uneducated adult with no social skills that will have resented the fact that they were put in that situation and that’s dangerous for the US and that’s dangerous for the world.”

‘Bluntness is important’

With US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson shying away from the spotlight, Haley has carved out a high-profile role for herself. Amid speculation about Tillerson’s future Haley said that if she was offered the job: “I would say no.”

Known for taking a blunt approach that has raised eyebrows among diplomats at the UN. Haley took her direct style to lengthy one-on-one conversations with the South Sudanese and Congolese leaders.

“I think bluntness is important, but I also expected it back and I got candid conversations back from them,” she said. “That was very much appreciated because we didn’t want to have to sit there and deal with the political talk, we wanted to get to the realities of the situation.”

It’s not clear yet if South Sudanese and Congolese leaders will heed her message.

In Kinshasa she spoke privately with President Joseph Kabila for 90 minutes. She had said Kinshasa must hold a long-delayed election to replace Kabila by the end of next year or the vote will lose international support.

But the Congolese opposition was critical of her statement there because it conceded there would be no election this year, in violation of a deal Kabila’s camp signed with the opposition last December, without extracting any concessions in return.

“Calling for Kabila to stay in power beyond Dec. 31, 2017 is the equivalent, pure and simple, of making oneself complicit with the evil genius!” opposition leader Olivier Kamitatu wrote on Twitter above a photo of Haley from her visit.

In Juba, Haley met with President Salva Kiir for 45 minutes, showing him photos of refugees from her visit to Gambella.

South Sudan spiraled into a civil war in 2013, just two years after gaining independence from Sudan, sparked by a feud between Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and his former deputy Riek Machar, a Nuer.

The US invested heavily in the process that led to South Sudan’s independence. The Trump administration has been far less engaged, let alone influential, in trying to end the war that erupted.

Haley plans to meet with Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster this week to discuss her trip.

“I’ll give options and then if asked I’ll give the recommendation,” Haley said. “(Trump) very much wants to know how everybody else feels, he very much takes all that into consideration and then he makes his decision.”

(Reuters)

Ex-South Sudan Army General Vows to Topple President

Lieutenant General Thomas Cirillo Swaka, formerly deputy head of logistics, resigned after he accused President Kiir of turning the country’s military into a “tribal army.”

Oil producing South Sudan, Africa’s youngest nation, was plunged into its first war in 2013 after Kiir sacked his then deputy and political rival, Riek Machar. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Juba: A disaffected South Sudanese army general who quit his position last month announced on Monday that he had formed a new anti-government rebel group, underscoring mounting resistance to the rule of incumbent president Salva Kiir.

Lieutenant General Thomas Cirillo Swaka, formerly deputy head of logistics, resigned after he accused Kiir of turning the country’s military into a “tribal army.”

The military, police and other security branches, he said, heavily recruited from among the Dinka, Kiir’s tribe.

Swaka was one of three top military officials who quit in February amid accusations of tribalism, nepotism, corruption and other abuses levelled against Kiir’s government.

In a statement on Monday, Swaka said his new rebel group, The National Salvation Front (NSF) “is convinced that to restore sanity and normalcy in our country, Kiir must go; he must vacate office.”

NSF would “fight to eradicate the malady that has badly tarnished the image of South Sudan,” he said.

Oil producing South Sudan, Africa’s youngest nation, was plunged into its first war in 2013 after Kiir sacked his then deputy and political rival, Riek Machar.

An ensuing two-year conflict was ended by a peace pact in 2015 and Machar, who had left the capital Juba at the start of the war, returned in April last year and was handed the same position.

Festering tensions between the two men, who hail from rival tribes, exploded into military confrontation again in Juba in July, kicking off the latest wave of fighting that has spread to several parts of the country since.

Machar now lives in South Africa after fleeing South Sudan at the start of the latest conflict.

The rebel group will be a new source of instability in a country where escalating violence has already uprooted an estimated three million people, devastated the agriculture sector and throttled the broader economy.

Famine has been declared in parts of the country.

South Sudan’s military spokesman Lul Ruai Koang, told Reuters he had no immediate comment on the formation of the new rebel group and needed time to read Swaka’s statement.

In the document Swaka said an “above-the-law culture and mentality” prevailed among top officials in the military and blamed that for rampant crime, including robberies, rapes, embezzlement of public funds.

(Reuters)

Military Investigates After South Sudan Villagers Claim Gang Rape by Soldiers

Anglican Bishop Paul Yogusuk said that soldiers had attacked at least five women and girls in Kubi village, about 15 km southwest of the capital Juba.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir addresses members of the media after taking a tour around the capital Juba, South Sudan, October 12, 2016. Picture taken October 12, 2016. Credit: Reuters

Juba: The South Sudanese military has launched a rare investigation into allegations that soldiers gang–raped villagers, a bishop told Reuters on Sunday, after a week of high-level army resignations by officers citing rampant abuse.

Anglican Bishop Paul Yogusuk said that soldiers had attacked at least five women and girls in Kubi village, about 15 kilometres southwest of the capital Juba, a week ago following a deadly ambush on a military convoy in the area.

The ministry of defence had sent a senior officer to investigate the rape allegations, he said.

“This is a test case for the army, to see if they are serious about justice,” said Yogusuk. “The army has taken measures to investigate … they sent a brigadier general.”

South Sudan has been mired in civil war since President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, fired his deputy Riek Machar, an ethnic Nuer, in 2013. The fighting has forced more than three million people from their homes and has increasingly followed ethnic lines, leading the UN to warn of potential genocide.

Three high-ranking military officers and a minister resigned recently, citing rampant brutal human rights abuses by the military and ethnic favouritism that granted Dinka officers impunity.

Two of the officers oversaw the military courts system and said in their resignation letters that interference from senior Dinka officers left them unable to hold soldiers to account for abuses.

Referring to the latest claims, Yogusuk said that the soldiers beat and raped villagers from Kubi and locked the men in a small metal shed without food for two days.

Military spokesman Brigadier General Lul Ruai Koang said he was preparing a statement but was unable to comment on the latest allegations.

The military has previously said that it weeds out soldiers who commit abuses, but has provided little evidence to prove it. The UN has documented hundreds of rapes involving soldiers in the capital alone but investigations by the authorities are rare.

Yogusuk said that the attack left five women needing hospital treatment, including two girls aged 12 and 13.

“They were raped by many soldiers, not just one,” he said.

Resident Wani Mosa Ladu, 23, told Reuters over the phone that soldiers arrived in the morning of February 12 as people were preparing to go to market.

“The soldiers begin beating us, asking us to show them who was shooting people along the highway road. The soldiers consider us rebels,” he said.

“Our mothers all disappeared … some of them were raped. Our property was taken from our homes, every door was broken.”

Village chief Philip Ladu Samuel said he was beaten and detained along with 46 other men.

“The whole area was looted and destroyed,” he said.

(Reuters)

UN Peacekeepers Failed to Respond to South Sudan Hotel Attack, Inquiry Finds

The UN inquiry found that peacekeepers did not operate under a unified command, resulting in multiple conflicting orders to the four troop contingents.

South Sudanese women and children queue to receive emergency food at the UN protection of civilians (POC) site 3 hosting about 30,000 people displaced during the recent fighting in Juba, South Sudan on July 25. Credit: Reuters

UN: UN peacekeepers failed to respond to an attack on civilians by South Sudanese government troops at the Hotel Terrain in the capital Juba in July, less than a mile from a UN compound, a UN inquiry found on Tuesday.

“During the attack, civilians were subjected to and witnessed gross human rights violations, including murder, intimidation, sexual violence and acts amounting to torture perpetrated by armed government soldiers,” the inquiry found.

Despite multiple requests by the UN mission’s joint operations center for peacekeepers to respond to the attack on Hotel Terrain, each “contingent turned down the request, indicating their troops were fully committed.”

After nearly four hours, South Sudan‘s National Security Service extracted most of the civilians. However three female international aid workers were left behind and the inquiry said the peacekeeping mission was quickly made aware of this.

One of the women managed to call the UN mission but the security officer “was dismissive of her appeal for assistance and did not call her back when her phone credit expired.”

A private security company, dispatched by an aid group, rescued the women the following morning, the inquiry said.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon is “alarmed by the serious shortcomings identified; which were evident in the mission’s failure to fully implement its mandate to protect civilians and UN staff during the fighting,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Tuesday.

Ban established the inquiry to assess the response by the UN peacekeeping mission, known as UNMISS, to the outbreak of several days of fighting in Juba between South Sudan President Salva Kiir’s troops and soldiers loyal to his rival Riek Machar.

“A lack of leadership on the part of key senior mission personnel culminated in a chaotic and ineffective response to the violence,” according to the executive summary of the report.

The UN inquiry found that peacekeepers did not operate under a unified command, “resulting in multiple and sometimes conflicting orders to the four troop contingents from China, Ethiopia, Nepal and India.” On two occasions Chinese peacekeepers abandoned their positions, the inquiry said.

Ban has asked for the immediate replacement of the UNMISS force commander, Lieutenant General Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki of Kenya, Dujarric said. UN South Sudan envoy Ellen Loj will step down at the end of November.

Political rivalry between Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and his former deputy Machar, a Nuer, led to civil war in 2013 that has often followed ethnic lines. The pair signed a shaky peace deal a year ago, but fighting has continued. Machar fled South Sudan following the fighting in July.

UN peacekeepers have been deployed in South Sudan since 2011, when it gained independence from Sudan. There are some 13,000 UN troops and police on the ground. Two Chinese peacekeepers were killed during the violence in July.

The inquiry found a “lack of preparedness, ineffective command and control and a risk-averse or ‘inward-looking’ posture resulted in a loss of trust and confidence … in the will and skill of UNMISS military, (and) police to be proactive and show a determined posture to protect civilians.”

(Reuters)

Somaliland Wants to Secede, But Caution Is Necessary

Separation is intended to deal with problems and provide an acceptable alternative but as South Sudan and Eritrea show, it may not be the solution.

Since 1991 Somaliland has declared itself independent from Somalia. Credit: Reuters

Somaliland President Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo recently claimed that more than one million citizens, out of the country’s population of 3.4 million, had signed a petition calling for the international community to recognise Somaliland.

Since 1991 and the collapse of the Siad Barre regime in Somalia, the region has declared itself independent. But should it? The examples of the secession of South Sudan and Eritrea raise serious questions and doubts about the outcomes of breakaway states.

The general approach to calls for secession in Africa, as set out by the African Union and its predecessor the Organisation of African Unity, is that they should be opposed. The most frequently heard argument against secession is that granting the right to one country invites others to take the same step.

This, the argument goes, would put at risk the internationally recognised system of post-colonial states in Africa.

The issue of secession first arose in the 1960s with the wave of decolonisation and questions over the viability of the newly independent states across the continent. Two cases stood out: the Congo, where Katanga’s self-proclaimed breakaway was defeated by United Nations forces; and Nigeria, where the Biafran secession was ended by the Nigerian federal forces.

Africa’s new states

The issue has come up again in recent times. In northeast Africa two states have experienced separation. In 1993 Eritrea was recognised as a separate state from Ethiopia and the world’s newest state, South Sudan, was recognised in 2011.

The circumstances in each of these cases was different. But the purpose here is not to revisit how and why these took place, but to consider what happened next.

In both cases separation was intended to deal with historical problems and provide an acceptable alternative in the form of a new internationally recognised state. But have they achieved these objectives?

Both the Ethiopian and Sudanese examples suggest that separation isn’t always the straightforward option. The division has led to violent border disputes, economic complications and poor relations with the wider international community.

There is also a case to be made that granting secession has merely served to fuel the claims of other separatist movements. Somaliland’s calls to be recognised as independent, rather than being included in the efforts to rebuild Somalia, is an example. When South Sudan became independent in 2011 a Somaliland delegation arrived in Juba, the capital, wearing t-shirts saying “Somaliland Next”.

Border disputes, military costs

Any separation involves the recognition of an accepted border between the two states involved. In the case of both Eritrea and South Sudan this has proved contentious.

In 1988 there was an issue over Badme, a small town near the Ethiopian border which Eritrea claimed was theirs. This ignited one of the two largest interstate conflicts in Africa since the second world war. The other interstate conflict was Somalia’s attack in 1977 to back up its claim to Ethiopia’s Ogaden region, an area mainly populated by clans of Somali origin.

South Sudan’s border with Sudan also proved contentious and there were clashes over the disputed area of Abyei.

Neither the Badme or Abyei issues have been resolved to the satisfaction of the two states involved. Instead they continue to fester.

The continuing border disputes have resulted in both sides continuing to invest heavily in their armies and in equipment. Eritrea and Ethiopia both maintain large and costly forces facing each other across their disputed border.

And while South Sudan and Sudan agreed to an integrated joint force on their common border, it never came into existence. Mutual suspicion and accusations of incursions by both armies persist.

Economic complications

Separation always involves questions about economic relations.

Eritrea’s independence made Ethiopia a landlocked country. Prior to Eritrea’s independence Ethiopia had access to the sea ports of Massawa and Assab. After separation, Ethiopia expected access to continue, but major differences soon emerged to scupper this. This included the relative value of the two countries’ currencies and tariffs charged by Eritrea on the movement of goods.

Worsening economic relations are thought to have played a significant part in the border war that broke out between the two countries.

Similarly, South Sudan and Sudan had to share an outlet to the sea. This became problematic. Sudan began extracting oil in the late 1990s with the bulk of the oil originating in the south. It exported oil via pipelines to the Red Sea that ran through the north.

The peace agreement, which saw the establishment of the South Sudan government in 2005, involved arrangements to share the oil revenues. But South Sudan’s decision to separate completely in 2011 soon gave rise to complaints that Sudan was not honouring the agreement. It even led at one point to the pipeline to the north being closed.

Separation legacy

With differences over borders and economic relations, and even overt war, it is unsurprising that diplomatic relations between the governments have proved difficult. It is therefore also unsurprising that they have affected relations with the wider international community.

Separation often implies that the former state wasn’t viable. International recognition of a new state therefore assumes that separation is better for both old and new. This has proved questionable in both cases.

Eritrea has acquired a reputation as a coercive state and become something of an international pariah. South Sudan has imploded into impoverishment and widespread conflict, leading some to call for it to become a UN mandate, with the presence of a long-term UN force.

These cases have left a legacy which suggests that separation, in Africa at least, is not an easy option. It could lead to outcomes that do little to solve the problems of any of the states involved.

Many in Africa will have these outcomes in mind as they face Somaliland’s continued call for international recognition as an independent state. Meanwhile, rebuilding in the rest of Somalia continues with the express wish that Somaliland is part of the process.

Peter Robert Woodward, Emeritus Professor of Politics and International Relations, University of Reading

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

In Bid to Avoid Arms Embargo, South Sudan Agrees to More UN Troops

The UN threatened an arms embargo in South Sudan if President Salva Kiir’s government did not cooperate.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir (C) explains to US ambassador, Samantha Power (R) the effects of recent fighting during a visit by the United Nations Security Council, delegation at the Presidential Palace in the capital of Juba, September 4, 2016. Reuters/Jok Solomun

South Sudan President Salva Kiir (C) explains to US ambassador, Samantha Power (R), the effects of recent fighting during a visit by the UNSecurity Council, delegation at the presidential palace in the capital of Juba, September 4, 2016. Reuters/Jok Solomun

Juba: The government of South Sudan agreed on Sunday to accept 4000 extra peacekeepers in a bid to avoid an arms embargo threatened by the UN Security Council, but said the details of the deployment were still being discussed.

The announcement came after a meeting in the South Sudanese capital, Juba, between President Salva Kiir and the UN Security Council, led by US ambassador, Samantha Power.

The 15-member council last month authorised the deployment of a 4000-strong regional protection force as part of the UN peacekeeping mission already on the ground, known as UNMISS. It threatened to consider an arms embargo if Kiir’s government did not cooperate.

“To improve the security situation the transitional government of national unity gave its consent to the deployment, as part of UNMISS, of the regional protection force,” the South Sudanese government and the security council said in a joint communique.

The countries contributing troops to the force, UNMISS and the government would “continue to work through the modalities of deployment,” the statement said.

East African regional bloc IGAD pushed for a regional protection force and has pledged to provide the troops. South Sudan Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Martin Elia Lomoro, said the government had no objection to who contributes soldiers.

The council authorised the new force following several days of heavy fighting involving tanks and helicopters in Juba in July between troops loyal to Kiir and those backing former vice president, Riek Machar. The violence raised fears of a return to full scale civil war in the world’s newest nation.

In the resolution, the council pledged to discuss imposing a possible arms embargo on South Sudan if UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reports back in mid-September that the government was not cooperating on the force and was obstructing the work of peacekeepers on the ground.

“The transitional government of national unity commits to permit free movement to UNMISS in conformity with its mandate, including to protect civilians,” according to the statement on Sunday.

The government and the peacekeeping force will come up with “concrete steps to remove impediments to UNMISS’ ability to implement its mandate.”

UN peacekeepers have been deployed in South Sudan since 2011, when the country gained independence from Sudan.

Political rivalry between Kiir and Machar sparked a civil war in 2013, but while the pair signed a shaky peace deal a year ago, fighting has continued and Machar fled the country after the eruption of violence in July.

“The challenge now is to make sure that a piece of paper becomes operationalised,” Power told reporters after meeting Kiir. “Now we have to turn it into steps to improve life for people in great need.”

The government and the security council agreed “that the humanitarian and security needs of the people were paramount.”

(Reuters)

South Sudan: President Salva Kiir Replaces Rival Vice President

Vice president, Riek Machar has been replaced by the former minister of mining, Tabal Deng Gai.

South Sudan first vice president Riek Machar attends a news conference in South Sudan’s capital Juba, July 8, 2016. Picture taken July 8, 2016. Reuters/Files

Juba: South Sudan President Salva Kiir replaced his vice president and rival, Riek Machar, on Monday, a move that could potentially undermine last year’s peace deal and reignite war in Africa’s youngest nation.

Machar was sworn in as first vice president only last April, eight months after a peace agreement that ended two years of fighting that broke out the last time that Kiir sacked him as his deputy in 2013.

But the rivalry between the two men led to violence in the capital, Juba, early this month as forces from both sides battled each other with tanks, helicopters and other heavy weapons.

Machar, from the minority Nuer ethnic group, left Juba with his troops, saying he would only return when an international body had to set up a buffer force between his fighters and those supporting Kiir, leader of the dominant Dinka group.

Kiir issued an ultimatum last week, saying Machar had 48 hours to contact him and return to Juba to salvage last year’s peace deal or face replacement.

He made good on that threat on Monday, when he issued a decree ‘for the appointment of the first vice president of the republic of South Sudan’, naming General Tabal Deng Gai to the post.

A former minister of mining, Deng Gai was a chief negotiator on behalf of Machar’s SPLM-IO group in the talks that led to last year’s deal. But last week, he broke ranks with Machar and backed Kiir’s ultimatum to him.

South Sudan‘s politics has long been plagued by splits and rivalries as leaders switch allegiances in a struggle for power and influence in the oil-producing nation, which only emerged from Sudan five years ago.

Its last war, which started after Kiir sacked Machar as vice president in 2013, killed more than 10,000 people and displaced over 2 million, many of whom fled to neighbouring countries.

The most recent fighting in Juba has forced 26,000 people to flee to neighbouring Uganda, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

In a bid to prevent a return to full-scale war in the crude oil producer, the African Union and the Inter Governmental Authority of Development, an east African bloc, have backed the deployment of a regional force and also want the UN force, UNMISS’s mandate changed to that of an intervention force.

(Reuters)

Operation Sankat Mochan Begins: India Evacuating Over 500 Nationals From South Sudan

Operation Sankat Mochan is underway.

Two C-17 Globemaster aircrafts will evacuate 600 Indian nationals from war-torn South Sudan today. Credit:Twitter

New Delhi: The external affairs ministry is leading an operation to evacuate 600 Indian nationals stranded in Juba, South Sudan, where a week-long civil war has claimed several lives.

According to The Hindu, the mission, tentatively titled Operation Sankat Mochan, began at 5 am on Thursday, with two C-17 heavy-lift aircraft leaving New Delhi for Juba.

#OperationSankatMochan begins at crack of dawn. Two C 17 aircraft leave for Juba with @Gen_VKSingh on board. pic.twitter.com/DsmQJK5eHz

— Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) July 14, 2016

The mission is being led by minister of state for external affairs General V.K. Singh.

The Indian embassy in Juba said the aircraft were expected to land at 11 am local time and Indian nationals with valid travel documents will be allowed to board flights to New Delhi.

Advisory to Indian nationals in South Sudan.

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said Singh would be accompanied by Amar Sinha, economic relations secretary at the foreign ministry, joint secretary Satbir Singh and director Anjani Kumar.

On July 11, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir ordered a ceasefire after days of heavy fighting between government troops and forces loyal to Vice President Riek Machar.

Kiir and Machar directed all commanders to cease hostilities, control their forces and protect civilians, information minister Michael Makuei said in a televised speech on the state broadcaster SSTV.

The latest bout of violence began after a localised gunfight outside Kiir’s residence in Juba on July 7 while he was holding a meeting with Machar.

South Sudan: President, Vice President Order Ceasefire as Civil War Fears Grow

Recent fighting in South Sudan has raised fears of a return to the civil war that erupted in late 2013 and broadly ran along ethnic lines, pitting President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, against Vice President Riek Machar, a Nuer.

Recent fighting in South Sudan has raised fears of a return to the civil war that erupted in late 2013 and broadly ran along ethnic lines, pitting President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, against Vice President Riek Machar, a Nuer.

South Sudanese civilians watch Vice President Riek Machar speaking on a television set following renewed fighting in South Sudan’s capital Juba, July 10, 2016. Credit: Reuters

Juba: South Sudan’s president and vice president ordered their loyalists to cease hostilities on Monday after days of fighting threatened to plunge the country back into civil war and bring further instability to an impoverished region of Africa.

Fighting erupted four days ago in the capital Juba between followers of President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, the former rebel leader who became vice president under a deal to end a two-year civil war.

The violence, which has killed hundreds of people, broke out as the world’s newest nation prepared to mark five years of independence from Sudan on July 9.

Presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said Kiir and Machar had spoken by phone on Monday, a day which saw tanks and helicopters involved in some of the fiercest clashes yet.

“All the commanders of (Kiir’s) forces are directed to cease any hostility and abide by the order and control their forces,” Ateny told Reuters. “President Salva Kiir is determined to carry on his partnership with Riek Machar.”

Machar responded by ordering his troops to stand down.

“The president has declared a unilateral ceasefire, I want to reciprocate the declaration of unilateral ceasefire,” he told the independent Eye Radio.

Much is unclear, however, about the latest violence in Juba, including what the objective of either side has been and how much control Kiir and Machar have over their forces.

The US State Department said it was carrying out an “ordered departure” of its staff from South Sudan.

South Sudanese policemen and soldiers stand guard along a street following renewed fighting in South Sudan’s capital Juba, July 10, 2016. Credit: Reuters

The fighting has raised fears of a return to the civil war that erupted in late 2013 and broadly ran along ethnic lines, pitting Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, against Machar, a Nuer.

The conflict killed thousands of people, forced more than 2.5 million people from their homes and left almost half the population of 11 million people struggling to find food. Oil production, by far the biggest source of government revenue, has plummeted.

A new flare-up risks driving yet more people to refugee camps in neighbouring countries in the central African region, which is already plagued by myriad woes.

Central African Republic is riven by conflict, the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo is contending with a patchwork of militias and rebels groups, and Burundi is embroiled in a violent political crisis.

The UN Security Council on Sunday demanded Kiir and Machar rein in their forces and end the fighting. The UN mission in South Sudan, UNMISS, expressed its “outrage” after its bases in Juba were caught in the crossfire between the two sides and two Chinese peacekeepers were killed.

The US condemned the violence and said it would hold those who commit atrocities or impede efforts to stop the fighting “fully accountable.”

“We call on those fighting to return to their barracks. This senseless and inexcusable violence, undertaken by those who yet again are putting self-interest above the well-being of their country and people, puts at risk everything the South Sudanese people have aspired to over the past five years,” White House national security adviser Susan Rice said in a statement.

Wrangling

Kiir and Machar have long been rivals, both in politics and on the battlefield. Civil war broke out in 2013 a few months after Kiir sacked Machar as his deputy.

Fighting has often erupted outside Juba since the two men signed a peace deal in August last year. But this was the first time it had flared in Juba since Machar finally returned in April after months of wrangling about terms of the pact.

Clemence Pinaud, an assistant professor at Indiana University and an expert on South Sudan, said that tensions increased in Juba during the past month.

“We most likely witnessed an acceleration … into a full-on war in Juba between the two parties,” Pinaud said.

Experts say the failure to swiftly implement important elements of the deal, such as integrating and demobilising their forces, has allowed tension to fester and risked igniting a new conflict.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday urged the Security Council to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan, sanction leaders and commanders who blocked the implementation of a peace deal and fortify the UNMISS mission.

There has been no official death toll from the recent flare up but at least five soldiers died on Thursday and a Health Ministry source said 272 people, including 33 civilians, were killed on Friday. Sunday and Monday’s fighting was more fierce.

UNMISS said gunfire had erupted on Monday around the U.N. headquarters in the Jebel area of Juba and also around a base near the airport. It said U.N. sites had been hit in exchanges of fire, killing eight and injuring 67.

Highlighting lawlessness on Juba’s streets, one resident said he saw police officers trying to loot a shop in his neighbourhood by shooting off the padlocks and firing in the air to scare away people, echoing similar witness reports on Sunday.

An army spokesman said that any soldier found stealing civilian property or looting would be arrested, and shot at if they resisted.

The African regional grouping IGAD echoed the UN Secretary-General’s call to beef up UNMISS’s mandate, calling for it be given an enforcement role similar to a U.N.-backed intervention brigade working in eastern Congo.

Through the civil war, however, world powers and regional states struggled to find leverage over the warring factions, despite U.S. and European sanctions on some military leaders and African threats of punitive actions.

(Reuters)

As South Sudan Turns Five, Mental Illness Takes Hold Amid Conflict

There are only two practising psychiatrists for South Sudan’s 11 million people, Amnesty International said in a report.

A man waves South Sudan’s national flag as he attends the Independence Day celebrations in the capital Juba, July 9, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Thomas Mukoya/Files

Nairobi: Mass killings, rape, torture, abductions and forced cannibalism have led to an increase in mental illness in South Sudan, with patients routinely housed in prisons due to an “almost total” absence of mental health care, a rights group said on July 6.

There are only two practising psychiatrists for South Sudan’s 11 million people, Amnesty International said in a report ahead of the country’s fifth anniversary of independence on July 9.

“My mind is not good,” the report quoted one man, Phillip, as saying as he described being forced to eat the flesh of dead men rounded up and shot in a security forces building in the capital, Juba, when conflict broke out in December 2013.

“They found me, tied my arms behind my back and forced me at gunpoint to drink blood and eat flesh … At night when I sleep, those who were killed come back in my nightmares.”

More than 10,000 people have been killed and two million displaced since fighting erupted between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar.

Clashes have continued even though warring factions signed a peace deal in August, with 200,000 people still sheltering in UN military bases across the country.

There are no official statistics on mental health in the country. But the director of the department of mental health told Amnesty that the number of patients with mental health problems has risen since 2013.

Most of the 82 inmates categorised as mentally ill in Juba Central Prison in May did not have a criminal file, the report said.

The majority of displaced people surveyed in a UN base in the northern town of Malakal exhibited symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a 2015 study found.

PTSD is a severely debilitating condition in which patients re-experience horrific traumas from the past in forms of intrusive memories, flashbacks and nightmares.

“I hate myself”

Lual, another man quoted in the report, said he felt suicidal after security officers forced him to disembowel corpses in detention in Juba in 2014.

“Whenever they would kill people, we would be taken to dissect the stomachs of those who were killed, so they could be thrown into the river and wouldn’t float,” he was quoted as saying.

“I dream that I am still in jail. I am haunted by the cutting of the stomachs … I hate myself.”

Of the 161 displaced people interviewed by Amnesty, several knew of others who had attempted or committed suicide.

One mother in a displaced camp, Nyayang, whose soldier husband had disappeared, used to beat her children and tried to kill herself three times by drinking poison, the report said.

She eventually disappeared, leaving her children behind.

Poor mental health can contribute to violent behaviour in the home, community and nationally, experts say.

Many interviewees said they could not eat or sleep and felt angry, anxious or irritable. They also struggled to concentrate or remember things, making it difficult to carry out every day tasks like cooking.

“Doing more to address mental health needs is not only essential for individuals’ wellbeing, it is also critical for South Sudanese to effectively rebuild their communities and country,” Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty International’s regional director, said in a statement.

Healthcare services in South Sudan have been predominantly funded by charities since independence in 2011.

Humanitarians have received just over one quarter of the $1.29 billion requested for 2016, the United Nations says.

Hunger is at its highest level since the conflict began, with up to 4.8 million people facing severe food shortages in coming months, the UN says.

Many people have been uprooted by fighting multiple times, most recently in the northwestern town of Wau on June 24, when tens of thousands were forced to flee and 43 killed.

(Thomson Reuters Foundation)