The U.N.’s top humanitarian official, Valerie Amos, visited some scenes of the recent bloodshed in South Sudan yesterday and expressed concern about what she said is a deepening humanitarian crisis. Amos’ four-day visit to South Sudan comes on the heels of inter-tribal clashes in Jonglei state where about 140,000 people have been affected by the fighting.
On Thursday, South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir issued a press statement outlining the reasons why the government of the Republic of South Sudan, or RSS, recently rejected a deal ostensibly designed to avoid the complete shutdown of oil production in South Sudan. Kiir further stressed that lasting peace between Sudan and South Sudan will not be found in an agreement concerning oil alone, but, rather, must be built atop resolutions to outstanding issues related to the disputed Abyei area and the North-South border, in addition to the economic and oil concerns that have recently stalled negotiations between Sudan and the RSS.
Did the U.N. mission in South Sudan muster all its resources to protect civilians caught up in violence in restive Jonglei state? Certainly some media reports have suggested that the civilian deaths in the midst of ongoing clashes between the Murle and the Lou Nuer have demonstrated the ineffectiveness of U.N. peacekeeping. Hilde F. Johnson, head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission, or UNMISS, sought to correct this perception and counter the scale of the killing in an oped that appeared on The New York Times website and in The International Herald Tribune.
Satellites monitoring flashpoints in Sudan’s border region of South Kordofan caught an apparent artillery barrage, in a visually striking image released by the Satellite Sentinel Project (SSP). The DigitalGlobe satellite image, analyzed for SSP by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, shows a line of six grey smoke plumes on a ridge above the town of Toroge. The image is consistent with reports of recent fighting in the area. SSP’s new satellite imagery also shows that civilian structures in the town appear to be abandoned and that Sudan Armed Forces, or SAF, has created what appears to be a choke point, with apparent artillery, main battle tanks, and infantry fighting vehicles controlling the main evacuation route for refugees attempting to flee into South Sudan. In addition, the latest SSP report includes a new satellite image of a plane in flight. It appears to be consistent with an An-24, or Antonov, a type of aircraft reportedly used by SAF to indiscriminately bomb Nuba civilians.
With attention focused on the tense Sudan-South Sudan talks in Addis Ababa this week, media coverage only paused for a moment to recognize yet another aerial bombardment of a refugee site in South Sudan.
Recent waves of inter-communal violence, characterized by attacks on civilians and deliberate targeting of humanitarian outposts and services, have engulfed South Sudan’s Jonglei state, particularly around the town of Pibor. In Enough’s most recent paper, “Urgent Steps to Counter Inter-Communal Violence in South Sudan,” Jennifer Christian, Amanda Hsiao, and John Prendergast examine not only the most recent flare ups of violence between the Lou-Nuer and Murle ethnic groups in Jonglei state but also evaluate holistic steps the government of the Republic of South Sudan, or RSS, and the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, or UNMISS, must take in order to mitigate inter-communal tensions and violence broadly in South Sudan over the long-term.
Since its independence last year, the Republic of South Sudan has successfully addressed a number of critical issues, but also has setbacks and challenges, many of which are the result of decades of war and neglect.
Over the weekend, South Sudan’s leaders began the process of shutting down oil operations in their country, following on the threat to do so during negotiations with Sudan in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.
After South Sudan’s independence in July 2011, the two Sudans together occupy a critical geopolitical space linking together the Sahara, the Sahel, the Horn, and the Great Lakes. The post-separation negotiations between Sudan and newly formed South Sudan are therefore vital not only for these two nations’ future bilateral relations, but also for the stability of the region at large. In Enough’s most recent paper, “The Two Sudans: A Tour of the Neighborhood,” Omer Ismail and Annette LaRocco contextualize the potential effects the post-separation negotiations could have on the nine countries neighboring the two Sudans.
Prior to South Sudan’s independence in July 2011, Sudan was the largest country in Africa, bordering nine other states. Today, the two Sudans share a diverse and critical geopolitical sub-region that links the Sahara, the Sahel, the Horn, and the Great Lakes. In this report the Enough Project examines some of the two countries’ most important neighbors and regional relationships.
WASHINGTON – As relations between Sudan and South Sudan continue to remain icy since southern independence in July, the two countries’ regional neighbors are critical in promoting peace between the two Sudans, according to a new Enough Project report.
The usual hubbub in the lobby of the Sheraton Addis was notably absent on the morning of the fourth day of negotiations between Sudan and South Sudan. In an interview with Enough, lead negotiator Pagan Amum said that the southern government will resume talks on the condition that Khartoum pays for the value of southern oil Khartoum has confiscated, releases vessels carrying shipments of oil from Port Sudan, and guarantees that no further unilateral actions would be taken by the Sudan government going forward.
A new round of post-independence talks between Sudan and South Sudan began today in Addis Ababa and are slated to last until next Monday, January 24. Front and center in this round of talks is the issue of Khartoum and Juba’s undetermined oil relationship, and the size of the transit fee—measured in dollars per barrel of oil—that South Sudan should pay to Khartoum for the use of pipelines that cross Sudan’s territory.
In an attempt to shed light on what has occurred in the negotiations to date, as well as to inform future discussions concerning the process, and the AUHIP’s contribution to it, Enough has compiled the following timeline providing an overview of the negotiations to date, and reflecting the various changes to the process’ structure.
As reports continue to emerge concerning the aftermath of a recent resurgence of inter-communal violence between the Lou-Nuer and Murle communities of Jonglei state, the government of the Republic of South Sudan, supported by the international community, must redouble its efforts to address the more systemic causes of this and other such instances of inter-communal violence throughout the new nation, the Enough Project said. Without robust government intervention, violence between the communities and attacks on civilians will continue.
Renewed inter-communal violence in the restive Jonglei state has recently displaced as many as 50,000 people in and around the town of Pibor, South Sudan. The violence began in late December, when a column of 6,000 Lou-Nuer youths approached the town, which is largely home to members of the Murle community burning smaller villages and a Medecins Sans Frontieres clinic along the way.
George Athor, a former senior officer in the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, or SPLA, was killed Monday night in a two-hour firefight with the government forces in Marobo County in Central Equatoria state. Athor was one of the most powerful rebel leaders in South Sudan, but perhaps more than anything, his death draws attention to a major challenge the new country faces: the threat of renegade commanders and the fighters they mobilize.
This week's post in the series Enough 101 is the second of two posts offering a brief history of Sudan, and covers the time period beginning in 2002 with the Comprehensive Peace Agreeement negotiations through 2011 with the independence of South Sudan.
WASHINGTON – The United States and the international community must play an active role in negotiations between Sudan and South Sudan in order to achieve a comprehensive peace deal, according to a new Enough Project paper.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Matt Brown, [email protected], +1-202-468-2925 WASHINGTON – The Enough Project praised the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for publicly requesting the Court to issue an arrest warrant against Abdel-Rahim Mohamed Hussein, Sudan’s Defense Minister, for war crimes in the conflict in Sudan’s western Darfur region. The Enough Project […]