Author: Laura Heaton

A weekly round-up of must-read stories, posted every Friday ...

In the wake of impotent response from U.N. peacekeepers to the Sudan Armed Forces bombing and storming of Abyei last month, sending tens of thousands of civilians fleeing, optimism in reaction to the latest Abyei agreement was measured. While international leaders and diplomats tried to sound upbeat, congratulating the northern and southern governments for “taking this step toward peace,” people from the displaced communities voiced heavy skepticism about this new paper agreement ...

A weekly round-up of must-read stories, posted every Friday ...

Amid worsening reports on the severity of the fighting in Southern Kordofan and the impact on civilians, President Obama made a statement via audio recording late Tuesday night calling for an immediate ceasefire across a swath of Sudan’s border recently embroiled in fierce fighting. But while the president's personal attention to the crisis lends welcome gravitas, it also demonstrates a continued reluctance by the international community to identify outright which party is most responsible for the ongoing violence ...

Achol’s face and neck were dotted with white burns from the sparks of a cluster bomb. Her daughter, one-year-old Nyibach, suffered from the same painful sores. Achol’s family, which includes four other children who went missing in the chaos of the recent attack, is from Abyei, the hotly contested region on Sudan’s North-South border. But casualties like Achol and Nyibach aren’t simply “collateral damage” of a confrontation between the northern and southern armies ...

A weekly round-up of must-read stories, posted every Friday ...

'Bring food. There is none here.’ It was prudent advice, arriving by text message in a rare patch of cell phone network coverage, as the red mud-splattered vehicle barreled north toward the area where most of the estimated 96,000 people displaced by recent fighting in the disputed area of Abyei have temporary settled. The influx of displaced people fleeing the recent outbreak of violence in Abyei and destruction of nearby villages has placed a strain on basic goods in the small towns forming a semi-circle south of the conflict area. Many of the displaced are staying in host families and ...

ANIET, South Sudan -- With Sudan’s northern and southern armies facing off on either side of the River Kiir and the bridge between them all but destroyed, civilians just south are settling into a difficult new reality. So long as the Sudan Armed Forces stay in Abyei, its Ngok Dinka residents will not go home. “We reject their claims that they will bring peace to Abyei,” said Abyei elder Deng Arop Kuol, the older brother of the area’s top official, who shares his name. Displaced people from the region broadly agree ...

“White airplanes” had been circling ominously overhead for a couple of days before they started dropping bombs. It was Saturday when one fell on Achai Ajak Atem’s house, killing her mother and baby brother. At 14, Achai is the oldest of her four siblings. Their father died five years ago. Suddenly in charge, Achai gathered the other children and started running ...

As with other social movements, students have led the way. Across the United States, student leaders are stirring up interest on campuses, collecting pages of signatures, and petitioning their administrators and trustees to enact policies committing endowments and procurement plans to “conflict-free” investments and purchases. Now, city councils in Pittsburgh and St. Petersburg are setting the pace among U.S. cities to commit to ensuring that public funds are not perpetuating the conflict in eastern Congo ...