Juba, December 1, 2015 (SSNA) -- A Chinese Peacekeeper based in South Sudan said his family cannot imagine how a person can “holiday in Africa.”

In a BBC'S news piece (refer to the video), Chinese peacekeepers can be  seen doing what UN peacekeepers would perform. The peacekeepers appear to be delivering water to people in villages who desperately need the water to drink and cook after they fled their homes due to the raging civil war.

“My family can't understand how people holiday in Africa," a Chinese peacekeeper told the BBC.

It is not clear what exactly the Chinese peacekeeper meant since Africa is not South Sudan and South Sudan is just a country in Africa.

But, it is clear that some countries outside of Africa think that Africa is either a continent of failures or country full of horrendous troubles.

Most South Sudanese believe that world powers have turned the young nation into a game field – a place where they test their new African economic policies.

In December 2014, Chinese government announced that it will deploy at least 700-strong infantry battalion to the violence-ravaged young African nation.

The move was seen as China’s first foreign peacekeeping mission, raising questions whether or not China is really sending its troops for the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission or to protect its oil interest.

China’s announcement, which came more than a year after fighting broke out in Juba, claims that the mission of its soldiers under the UN will be to protect civilians.

However, South Sudan’s rebels have on many occasions suspected Beijing of supplying Juba with sophisticated weapons and ammunition.

China denied the charges, saying its military contract with South Sudan's government was signed before the civil war erupted in Juba in mid-December of 2013 and that the deal has so far been scrapped.

New York, December 2, 2015 (SSNA) -- South Sudan’s Ambassador to the United Nations (UN), Francis Mading Deng, told the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) that his government wants to work with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) to allow civilians who live in UN bases to return to their houses.

Deng argues on Wednesday that allowing people to go back to their houses would be good for the implementation of the IGAD-Plus compromise peace agreement, claiming that Juba wants South Sudanese to return to their homes because of “poor living conditions due to overcrowding” and “violent incidents” in the camps.

"As we begin the implementation of the peace agreement, both the government of South Sudan and UNMISS should jointly find a way to encourage the civilians in the protection sites to return to their homes,” Deng told the UNSC on Wednesday.

Deng complains that there are too many people living in the cams and that the bases were never meant to hold such large numbers of people. He also demanded that the UNMISS let people leave camps so that peacekeepers can broaden their works to other areas outside of South Sudan's capital, Juba.

A high level confidential source with the government told the South Sudan News Agency (SSNA) that the real reason behind government’s request is that those who live in UNMISS camps could join the rebels soon after a transitional government is formed  because their relatives were killed in December of 2013 when fighting broke out.

“The government thinks about the number of them [people]. They believe the people in UNMISS bases are too many and favor the rebellion,” the source said.

UN dismisses Deng’s claim

On his part, Herve Ladsous, the UNMISS chief declared in front of the council that the peace deal has failed and that the fighting in ongoing. Ladsous also accuses the warring factions of trying to “consolidate positions.”

"What we are witnessing on the ground is a continuation of the fighting to consolidate positions before the beginning of the transition. No amount of troops or police can replace the political will required of the leaders of South Sudan to bring an end to their conflict," Ladsous said at the hearing.

Deng’s unusual request comes as South Sudanese government keeps delaying the visit to Juba by an advance team of the armed opposition to jumpstart the implementation of the peace deal.

In October, Deng objected to a UN’s request to use “drones” in South Sudan to monitor the war and other humanitarian situations.

At the October UNSC session, he asked UN to first consult Juba and warned of a “potential disagreement and hostility” between his government and the community of nations unless the UN accepts South Sudan’s government demand.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Enough Forum report describes “brutal kleptocracy”: land grabs, grand corruption, military plunder

Washington, DC, December 2, 2015 (SSNA) -- A new report published today details how the governing regime in Sudan is structured to extract the nation’s wealth in order to maintain power, benefit elites, and sustain violent and repressive campaigns against its citizenry. Published by the Enough Project in its “Forum” series, “Kleptocracy in Khartoum: Self-Enrichment by the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party,” is authored by Professor Eric Reeves of Smith College, a Senior Fellow at the Enough Project.

Eric Reeves, report author and Senior Fellow at the Enough Project, said: “For the past five years, the current regime in Khartoum has continued to engage in massive theft of Sudanese national wealth.  Such theft occurs against a backdrop of some of the world’s highest rates of malnutrition as well as a series of brutal and costly civil wars.  Agriculture is in decline as is the economy as a whole, largely because of the brutal kleptocracy that rules and plunders Sudan by force of arms from Khartoum.”

Selected highlights from “Kleptocracy in Khartoum”:

• The primary means by which the regime in Khartoum presently enriches itself is the sale and leasing of valuable Sudanese land—both urban areas as well as large tracts of arable land—mortgaging Sudan’s future to Arab and Asian countries interested in their own long term food security and cheap, profitable real estate deals.
• The regime’s complete control of the federal bureaucracy, the Central Bank of Sudan, and the Central Bureau of Statistics ensures that very large amounts of money can be easily siphoned off without detection and economic danger signals muffled.
• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) currently provides no meaningful oversight of the collapsing Sudanese economy, accepting at face value untenable figures provided to the Fund by the Central Bureau of Statistics.
• Waging war against the marginalized citizens of Sudan’s vast peripheral areas, and deploying a ruthlessly efficient set of security services, is all that keeps the regime in power.
• The character of the wars enabled by the massive misallocation of national wealth has often been genocidal, as it continues to be in Darfur, in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan, and in Blue Nile State.  Ethnically-targeted human destruction is the norm rather than the exception in the government’s conduct of counter-insurgencies.

Presented by the Enough Project, the Enough Forum is a platform for dynamic discourse engaging critical issues, challenges, and questions among thought leaders, field researchers, and policy experts.  Opinions and statements are those of the authors and participants in the forum, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or policy recommendations of the Enough Project.

Link to “Kleptocracy in Khartoum”: http://eno.ug/1HB4Mx9

For media inquiries and to arrange an interview with the report author, please contact: Greg Hittelman, Director of Communications, +1 310 717-0606, gh@enoughproject.org

About THE ENOUGH PROJECT

The Enough Project, an atrocity prevention policy group, seeks to build leverage for peace and justice in Africa by helping to create real consequences for the perpetrators and facilitators of genocide and other mass atrocities. Enough aims to counter rights-abusing armed groups and violent kleptocratic regimes that are fueled by grand corruption, transnational crime and terror, and the pillaging and trafficking of minerals, ivory, diamonds, and other natural resources. Enough conducts field research in conflict zones, develops and advocates for policy recommendations, supports social movements in affected countries, and mobilizes public campaigns. Learn more – and join us – at www.EnoughProject.org 

Enough Project, 1333 H St., NW 10th Floor, Washington, DC 20005, United States.

Juba, December 5, 2015 (SSNA) -- Heavy fighting between South Sudan’s rival forces has broken out in Bahr el Ghazal State with both sides using heavy artilleries, rebel military command has announced.

Rebels said government has attacked their position located north of the state capital and accuses Salva Kiir’s government of refusal to implement the IGAD-Plus’s compromise peace agreement, adding that Juba is arming youths to carry out assaults on rebel outposts in and around Wau.

“Today [Saturday], government troop[s] launched an attack on our military cantonment area in western battle field of Wau in Western Bharel Gazal. The regime in juba with over 6000 weapons and ammunition are being dispatched to western town of Wau purposely to arm the local youth to carry out attacks on our cantonment areas as a way of distraction the implementation of peace process,” a statement released by the office of rebel military Spokesman reads in part.

The armed opposition also claims that government has carried out an air attack on its area and that the SPLA-IO has responded in ‘self-defense’.

Lou Nuer on ‘high alert’

The document released by the office of the Spokesperson for the armed opposition claims that South Sudanese government has a plan to attack Lou Nuer at any time with a goal of over running the Lou's areas.

“South Sudan government is also on its way to carrying an overrun attack on Lou Nuer areas through Murle land,” the statement said.

The SPLA-IO says it is disturbing to see Juba intensifying its attacks on its positions when rebel leadership is trying to send an advance team to Juba to start the implementation of the IGAD-Plus’s compromise peace agreement.

New York/Juba, December 5, 2015 (SSNA) -- The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has denied that its Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Hervé Ladsous, did not said South Sudan’s power-sharing deal has failed; adding that remarks attributed to its operations head were not accurate.

On the 2^nd of December, the South Sudan News Agency (SSNA) reported that Herve Ladsous, the UNMISS chief for peacekeeping operations has told the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) that the “peace deal has failed and that the fighting is ongoing.”

UNMISS said the statement was taken out of context and that Ladsous never said it.

“The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) wishes to clarify remarks attributed to the Undersecretary-General (USG) for Peacekeeping Operations, Hervé Ladsous, during a briefing to the Security Council in New York on December 2, as reported by the South Sudan News Agency (SSNA) on December 2, and carried by other media outlets,” UNMISS said in a statement sent to the SSNA.

UNMISS clarifies the statement by presenting what it describes as “original statement” made by its peacekeeping operations Chief.

“The USG is reported as having said that the 'peace deal has failed.’ Mr. Ladsous never made this statement and, it is therefore incorrect. USG Ladsous said that the peace agreement is at a critical stage. He also noted that the implementation of the agreement is making slow, painful progress and there have been several violations of the ceasefire,” UNMISS stated.

“What we are witnessing on the ground is a continuation of the fighting to consolidate positions before the beginning of the transition. No amount of troops or police can replace the political will required of the leaders of South Sudan to bring an end to their conflict," Ladsous told the UNSC on Wednesday.

The UNMISS also provided the SSNA with a video link which shows its Chief talking about the peace and UN operations.

Diaspora Unity for Peace Conference

Final Report: The Coalition of Advocates for South Sudan September 19, 2015

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Background,Appreciation                                                                             3 AbouttheCoalition Advocates for SouthSudan(CASS)                                                                  4 Unity for PeaceConferencePurpose                                                                                                5 Participants                                                                                                                                            6 Presenters:Church,CivilSociety,andGovernmentGroups                                                             6 ActiveParticipants:Dignataries,Individuals, andOrgnaization Representatives                     7 ConductoftheConference                                                                                                                         8 Rt. Rev. Peter Gai,ChairmanoftheSouthSudanCouncilofChurches                                               8 CharaNyaura,ExecutiveDirector andJames AtemTuor,CHNPR                                                       9

MignonCardentey,U.S.StateDepartment                                                                   10 ArekDeng, LuolDengFoundation                                                                                                  10 SarahRialandTheresaSamuel,GaPPSS                                                                                             11 Margaret Atarri, SouthSudaneseWomenUnited                                                                         11 SimonDeng,HumanRightsAdvocate                                                                                               12 Rev.James DakRut,Nuer ChristianMissionNetwork                                                                    12 Hon. ReathTang,SPLM-IO                                                                                                            13 LaduGubek,SPLM-IG                                                                                                                      14 Ambassador MiyongKuon, SPLM-IOUNRepresentative                                                   14 Ambassador BaakV. Wol,DeputyChiefofMissionatSouthSudanEmbassy                                  14

Dr. MajokD’Agoot,Former PoliticalDetainee                                                    14,15

TheAttendees Speak                                                                                     15,16,17,18

List of Group Questions                                                                                                15 Whatis Our Visionfor SouthSudan?                                                                                                16 WhatMustbeDonetoAchieveOur Vision?                                                                                       16 GovernmentPracticeChanges                                                                                                          17 Healing, Forgiveness,Restoration,and Reconciliation                                                               17

PeopleChanges –We MustChangeOurselves                                                    17,18

Legal Changes,Institutional Change                                                                            18 Conclusion,VOA AudioReport,andReflection                                                                                 19

AppendixA                                                                                                               20,21

AppendixB                                                                                             22,23,24,25,26

BACKGROUND

November 24, 2015 (SSNA) -- On Sept 19, 2015, the Coalition of Advocates for South Sudan (CASS) conducted a conference seeking to unite the North American Diaspora for a peaceful South Sudan. A capacity group assembled at the Embassy Suites Downtown in Des Moines, Iowa, for the conference. The conference brought together South Sudanese from multiple political and ethnic backgrounds during a time when the Civil War had eroded social fabrics and mutual trust among the people. The conference was well attended by leaders of community, women and Church groups and regional organizations representing people from all the states of South Sudan. Also American friends of South Sudan who have been working at different capacities – those who lead and support humanitarian work and those wish and work for peace to come to South Sudan attended.

Vision:  A country with embraced unity, peace and reconciliation. How to achieve the vision?

•    Ask God for help and change in heart and put God first

•    Embrace diversity and transform it towards choosing peace and work together to build ourselves and be a better example to overcome what happened

•    SS to be a global leader

•    Leadership that is committed to serve

•    Develop an answer to the question of identity

•    What is the vision for SS?

•    There is a strong passion by the Diaspora to support SS- but we are removed from the reality in the ground

•    Create expectations that can be met

•    There is also a need to align the views of the Diaspora with the needs of SS

•    Defeat tribalism

•    Advocate to interact with other cultures and tribes

•    Create a movement that celebrates the positive attributes of our culture

•    Enhance the positive part of every ethnic group- enhance similarities because differences are myths

•    Take ownership in denouncing negative attributes

•    Encourage security- law of the land and business

•    A system that embraces all the common values

•    Support wounded hearts and trauma healing

•    Forgiveness – understanding the truth- moving forward- trust- respect- embraces and acknowledges our diversity

•    Healing includes- acknowledgement- forgiveness and mechanisms to safeguard wrong from happening again

•    We create a system where we plan to achieve core values through forgiveness- implementation- healing mechanisms- and restoring trust

•    To build a SS community that empowers one another through showing leadership that provides tangible source opportunities

Juba, December 9, 2015 (SSNA) -- A government source who talked exclusively to the South Sudan News Agency (SSNA) has told the SSNA on Wednesday that South Sudanese government’s position on the IGAD-Plus’s compromise peace agreement is not cohesive and that an elaborate strategy to disrupt the armed opposition’s plan to send its advance team to Juba to begin the implementation of the power-sharing deal is simply a daunting task; adding that the issue has already cuased problems for the government.

The source, a high-ranking government official, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the case and for fear of reprisal, revealed to the SSNA that deep division and power struggle among senior members of Salva kiir’s inner circle has already caused problem, splitting “the once solid political block” into small sections 'hostile to each other’.

“The president finds himself in a rough position. We have hard-headed individuals who are clearly not for peace and they basically want the war to continue; that is their views,” the source told the SSNA.

“The SPLM party in the government, the once solid political block is now a party of small sections hostile to each other. As I speak to you [SSNA] now, the government does not have any unified position on how it can implement the peace deal,” the source disclosed.

The source also revealed that the ruling elites divided themselves into three groups: The first group is led by President kiir, VP Igga, and foreign minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin. The second group is headed by SPLA Chief of General Staff Paul Malong Awan and information minister Michael Makuei Lueth. The third group is being spearheaded by South Sudanese Defense Minister Kuol Manyang Juuk.

The highly placed source described group one led by the presidency as the faction that wants peace to return to the violence-ravaged young country. The source said group two doesn’t want any peace, let alone the implementation of the peace pact, declaring group three as a “confused faction” without any real say throughout the peace talks.

The source also alleged that the Jieng Council of Elders (JCA), a group run by Dinka Elders does not want the current peace agreement to stick because the elders believe that the deal threatens Kiir's power. 

“We now have a country run by a mix of political and military leaders who cannot agree on a single point. I can tell you [SSNA] that the presidency is trying its best to abide by the IGAD-Plus’s peace rules; but those of Paul Malong and Michael Makuei are the worst enemies of South Sudan,” the source declared.

"I think the JCA is a disruptive organization that must be banned from talking about national issues," the source asserted.

The source further told the South Sudan News Agency that President kiir is considering removing people he labeled as “anti-peace elements” who want to tarnish his image both internally and internationally.

Rumor engulfs South Sudanese capital

For the last three days, South Sudan’s capital, Juba, has been engulfed by an ousting rumor that the planned visit of rebel advance team of at least 500 people scheduled to arrive in Juba at any day is actually a pretext for an official toppling of kiir’s regime.

The rumor has become the main talking point in the somewhat ghost-city, where large areas of the capital are still empty after residents fled to the UNMISS-run camps for their lives.

Fighting broke out in mid-December of 2013 between diverse units of presidential guards after many months of political fracas between senior leaders of the ruling SPLM party.

More than 2.3 million South Sudanese fled their homes, hundreds of thousands fled to the neighboring countries, and tens of thousands of people have been killed in the nearly two-year old civil war.

Tabit, December 8, 2015 (SSNA) -- The First Vice-President of Sudan and the Deputy Prime-Minister of Qatar officially opened a service complex in the Tabit Unit area in Tawila locality, North Darfur, today.

The complex is part of the Voluntary Return Programme, sponsored by Qatar since the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur was signed in 2011. It includes a police station, a rural hospital, a mosque, four schools, and a water station, and offers a model housing project and an economic project for poor families. The construction took three years, at a cost of $6 million. The Tabit Unit area consists of 28 villages that host more than 20,000 inhabitants.

In his opening speech, Qatari Deputy Prime-Minister Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud stated that his country planned to fund the construction of water wells in 11 Darfur localities, as well as 10 model villages at a total cost of $70 million.

For his part, First Vice-President Bakri Hassan Saleh called on the people in Darfur to participate in the referendum next year in which they can chose to return to the system of one administrative region or continue the current five Darfur states.

The Darfur Reconstruction Fund, headed by Qatar, has already realised 315 projects in Darfur, out of 1,071 planned projects which include schools, health centres, and police stations.

Displaced people living in Tabit told Radio Dabanga that they were not concerned, in particular after the security forces warned the population of Tabit not to raise any complaint to the first vice-president or the Qatari functionaries. “The first vice-president belongs to the government officials who protect the perpetrators of many atrocities in the region, including the mass rape of last year and the widespread militia attacks on villages in the area last week,”one of them commented.

He said that the displaced people who attended the opening ceremony had been brought in, “in more than 150 vehicles”, from El Fasher, Shangil Tobaya, Dar Es Salaam, Kalimendo, and Tawila.“The ceremony took place under tight security, involving government forces in more than 150 vehicles loaded with various weapons,” he further reported. “The vice-president and his entourage arrived in Tabit at 10.30 am by four helicopters, of which three belong to Unamid. They left again at 1 pm.”

On Sunday and Monday, thousands of newly displaced people who sought refuge near Tabit after their villages were pillaged and torched in repeated militia attacks last week, were deported to areas at a distance of at least one kilometre from the model service complex.

The source referred to the 36-hour mass rape that took place end October, early November last year. After a Sudanese soldier went missing in the village in the evening of 30 October, military forces of the nearby garrison entered Tabit the following day. While a number of soldiers seized and kept the men, others raped more than 200 girls and women.

Radio Dabanga received the first reports on the incidents on 2 November. Initially the local military commander apologised for the rape. The Sudanese government responded with fierce denials. Visitors as well as a Unamid verification team were barred from accessing the area for a week.

Enough Project Director to Join U.S. Special Envoy Booth, Princeton Lyman, and Amnesty International at Foreign Relations Hearing “Independent South Sudan: A Failure of Leadership”

Washington, DC, December 9, 2015 (SSNA) -- The Enough Project’s Founding Director John Prendergast will testify tomorrow before the U.S Senate Foreign Relations Committee that South Sudan represents a “violent kleptocracy.” 

In his testimony, Prendergast will present a state of the conflict in the world’s newest nation, focusing on corruption as a key factor, and recommending steps the U.S. can take to buttress the recently signed peace agreement with enhanced implementation and enforcement of sanctions. Prendergast will join U.S. Special Envoy Donald Booth, Ambassador Princeton Lyman, and other distinguished speakers in the hearing, “Independent South Sudan: A Failure of Leadership.” 

Mr. Prendergast will be available for selected media interviews following the hearing.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing: “Independent South Sudan: A Failure of Leadership” Date/Time: Thursday, December 10, 2015 at 10:00am Location: Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 419, Constitution Avenue NE, Washington D.C. 20002 Hearing schedule and speakers: Presiding: Senator Bob Cor…

Link to Senate hearing webpage: http://www.foreign.senate.gov/hearings/independent-south-sudan-a-failure-of-leadership-121015

For media inquiries or interview requests, please contact:
Greg Hittelman, Director of Communications, +1 310 717 0606, gh@enoughproject.org

About THE ENOUGH PROJECT

The Enough Project, an atrocity prevention policy group, seeks to build leverage for peace and justice in Africa by helping to create real consequences for the perpetrators and facilitators of genocide and other mass atrocities. Enough aims to counter rights-abusing armed groups and violent kleptocratic regimes that are fueled by grand corruption, transnational crime and terror, and the pillaging and trafficking of minerals, ivory, diamonds, and other natural resources. Enough conducts field research in conflict zones, develops and advocates for policy recommendations, supports social movements in affected countries, and mobilizes public campaigns. Learn more – and join us – at www.EnoughProject.org

For Immediate Release

John Prendergast Testimony to Senate Today:  South Sudan not a Failed State, it’s a "Hijacked State"

Washington DC, December 10, 2015 (SSNA) -- In testimony today before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing “Independent South Sudan: A Failure of Leadership,” Enough Project Founding Director John Prendergast described the war-torn nation as a “violent kleptocracy.”

“South Sudan and the other countries listed above are not simply failed states, as they are commonly referred to. They are hijacked states,” said Prendergast in his remarks. Prendergast joined U.S. Special Envoy Donald Booth, Ambassador Princeton Lyman, and representatives of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Amnesty International in the hearing, which was convened by Senator Bob Corker, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

“This war has been hell for the people of South Sudan, but it has also been very lucrative for their leaders. ‘War crimes pay’ has been the message.” - Excerpt from Prendergast testimony

“When there are no limits to the hijacking of state resources or consequences for the use of violence to maintain power, instability and civil war are never far off.  It is in the arena of global financial investigations into the proceeds of corruption used to fund mass atrocities that the U.S. has the most potential leverage. The U.S. and other governments working genuinely for peace in South Sudan (and other war-torn African states) can only enhance their influence in supporting peace and human rights if a concerted effort is made to expand economic pressure. And the surest route to building this kind of leverage is by hitting the leaders of the rival kleptocratic factions where it hurts the most: their wallets.” - Excerpt from Prendergast testimony

Next Tuesday, December 15, will be the second anniversary of the outbreak of civil war in South Sudan. While a peace agreement has been signed between warring factions, armed violence continues and large swathes of the population remain at risk.

In his statement, Prendergast recommended approaches to bolster the peace, counter kleptocracy, and enhance accountability in South Sudan, including five financial and legal mechanisms the U.S. can pursue:

Full testimony of John Prendergast (text): http://eno.ug/1HUPNyk

Link to video of Senate hearing “Independent South Sudan: A Failure of Leadership”: http://eno.ug/1NJ96Xf

For media inquiries or interview requests, please contact:
Greg Hittelman, Director of Communications, +1 310 717 0606, gh@enoughproject.org

About THE ENOUGH PROJECT

The Enough Project, an atrocity prevention policy group, seeks to build leverage for peace and justice in Africa by helping to create real consequences for the perpetrators and facilitators of genocide and other mass atrocities. Enough aims to counter rights-abusing armed groups and violent kleptocratic regimes that are fueled by grand corruption, transnational crime and terror, and the pillaging and trafficking of minerals, ivory, diamonds, and other natural resources. Enough conducts field research in conflict zones, develops and advocates for policy recommendations, supports social movements in affected countries, and mobilizes public campaigns. Learn more – and join us – at www.EnoughProject.org

Geneva/Juba, December 11, 2015 (SSNA) -- Hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese face severe food shortages and an alarming hunger situation after two years of fighting in the country, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the South Sudan Red Cross said today.

“Hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese face a critical food shortage,” said Juerg Eglin, head of delegation for the ICRC in South Sudan. "The level of hunger is severe. Medical needs are high. Life in South Sudan is both chaotic and dangerous, and we are trying to help by improving access to food and health care."

Though a peace agreement has been signed, the humanitarian consequences of two years of conflict remain extremely concerning. Aside from massive food needs, many people are separated from their loved ones and millions still desperately hope to return to their homes.

For many in South Sudan the last two years have been a life on the run -- in search of food and health care and from the dangers of warfare and sexual assault.

Together with the ICRC, the Red Cross Movement is working to address the most pressing humanitarian needs across South Sudan. The IFRC and the South Sudan Red Cross are supported by the Australian, Canadian, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish and Swiss Red Cross societies.

___________________________________________________________________________

Note to editors:

Through a series of stories, videos and photos, the ICRC this month is showing what life has been like for many in South Sudan the last two years. To underscore the difficulties of daily life for those on the run in South Sudan, we pose three questions that frame the hardships:

How would you survive with no food?

In the village of Kolapach in Jonglei state, thousands of hungry, displaced people have gathered. Nyathon Pur, who fled violence in her hometown of Malakal, lives under a tree with her children and grandchildren. “My children are still really hungry,” Pur said after cooking grains from an ICRC food distribution for 24,000 people. “But I am just protecting them. If I cook all the food at once tomorrow they will have nothing.” B-roll for TV broadcasters available as of Dec. 11.

What would you do while sick or injured if your health care facility was closed?

Kodok’s hospital was caught in the cross fire of fighting in July. Two people were killed and 11 patients died in subsequent days as South Sudanese staff and an ICRC surgical team were forced to leave the hospital. Despite having a bullet wound in his leg, patient Joseph Deng also had to flee. “The attack was a bad experience for all of us, including the doctors,” he said. B-roll for TV broadcasters available at www.icrcvideonewsroom.org as of Dec. 15.

Thousands of people who flee violence become separated from family members and have no way to contact them. With support from South Sudan Red Cross staff and volunteers across the country, the ICRC provides short but essential satellite or mobile phone calls for family members to connect. Photographer Giles Duley documented such calls by constructing a Do-It-Yourself photo studio in the town of Akobo to take touching portraits of family members connecting by phone. High-res photos and background text available for news rooms at www.icrc.org as of Dec. 17.

For further information, please contact:

New York/Juba, December 15, 2015 (SSNA) -- The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has approved the deployment of more peacekeepers for South Sudan as the young nation marks its two-year old bloody armed conflict which has killed tens of thousands of people.

The 15-member UN’s body says it will soon send at least 1,100 peacekeepers to South Sudan and extended its mission in the violence-ravaged nation until the end of July of 2016.

The US-drafted resolution which has sanction language attached to it was passed on Tuesday with 13 votes in favor.

Russia and Venezuela abstained with Russian Deputy Ambassador to the UN Petr Iliichev complaining that he doubts if UN peacekeepers use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones will produce any good result. He also said he is concerns about the wording of the resolution, saying the document could be used by the UN to impose sanctions on South Sudan.

"We consider the wording formulated as an ultimatum regarding sanctions on South Sudan to be counterproductive," Iliichev told the Council.

Meanwhile the United States’ Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, questioned the legitimacy of Russia and Venezuela concerns and asked whether or not the nations that are against the resolution have peacekeepers in South Sudan.

"We wonder, actually, if the countries that abstain on this resolution citing UAV's would do so if they had battalions of peacekeepers on the ground?” Power asked.

"We owe it to the troops and police on the ground to provide them with these life-saving tools.  They are asking for unmanned aerial vehicles ... so they are less at risk," she said.

In September, Russia and Venezuela blocked the same UN sanctions against South Sudan, saying punitive measures would only escalate the situation. Russia also said it has signed a joint communique with South Sudan and Sudan and that the deal included opposition to sanctions.

Fighting erupted in December of 2013 between different units of presidential guards after many months of political differences between senior leaders of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) party.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the two-year old war, hundreds of thousands fled to the neighboring countries, and more than 2.3 million South Sudanese fled their homes.

The move comes as the international community raise concerns over lack of the implementation of the IGAD-Plus’s compromise peace agreement. The deal calls for a formation of a transitional government within 90 days after it was signed. Both South Sudanese president Salva kiir and rebel leader Dr. Riek Machar signed the pact in August. The two rival factions have been trading accusations of ceasefire violations dispite the IGAD-brokered deal.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tenuous Peace Deal at Risk as Youngest Nation Marks 2-Year Anniversary of Conflict Outbreak

Washington, D.C., December 15, 2015 (SSNA) -- Today, on the two-year anniversary of the start of South Sudan’s civil war, a new report by the Enough Project exposes the political and financial interests that continue to pose the most significant threat to peace. DEADLY ENTERPRISE: Dismantling South Sudan's War Economy and Countering Potential Spoilers, argues that networks of political and business elites have profited from the war must be effectively targeted and dismantled in order to save South Sudan’s imperiled peace deal.

“Deadly Enterprise,” by Enough Project policy analyst Justine Fleischner, suggests a number of policy tools and interventions to strengthen financial pressure and support accountability, and transparency efforts key to ending impunity for economic crimes.

Justine Fleischner, report author and Enough Project Policy Analyst based in East Africa, said: “The losses for South Sudan’s people have been too devastating to simply allow a return to the governing status quo. If South Sudan’s leaders fail to undertake the necessary political and economic reforms laid out in the peace agreement, it is hard to imagine how there will ever be real stability. South Sudan’s leaders owe it to their own citizens to finally deliver on the promises made at independence.”

The war, sparked in December 2013, has cost countless lives, displaced hundreds of thousands from their homes, and has been characterized by widespread human rights atrocities documented by the independent African Union Commission of Inquiry. The peace agreement provides a starting point for bringing the parties back together in Juba, but so long as hardliner interests remain intact, the country risks a return to full-scale civil war.

John Prendergast, Founding Director of the Enough Project, said: “How does anyone think the status quo of corruption and conflict will change in South Sudan without creating real consequences and breaking the cycle of impunity? The international community must deploy whatever tools it has at its disposal to ensure stolen assets are returned and economic crimes prosecuted. Regional and global asset freezes and travel bans should target those individuals that pursue their own political or economic gain at the expense of the South Sudanese people.”

Report recommendations include global asset recovery efforts, investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice-led Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, steps to ensure space for civil society to hold their own leaders to account, and tools to combat black market currency trading and potential money-laundering activity.

The in-depth report is based on extensive research and interviews conducted between July and November 2015in Juba, Bentiu, and Malakal, South Sudan; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and Nairobi, Kenya. Interviewees included government and opposition officials, government and rebel commanders, low-level fighters on both sides, civilians displaced by the conflict, civil society leaders, academics, economists, geologists, U.N. officials, and international experts on specific sectors of the war economy.

Selected report revelations:

• Officials with access to the hard currency brought in as oil revenue are in some cases able to leverage the difference between the official and black market exchange rates to turn huge profits on the dollar. At the time of publication, the official exchange rate was 2.9 SSP to the U.S. dollar and the black market rate was 17 to 18 SSP to the dollar, giving a 586 to 620 percent return on the dollar. 
• Without a transparent system in place for managing oil revenues and a single oil account, it is difficult to track the money that comes in as oil revenue. In addition, those officials with access to the hard currency brought in as oil revenue are in some cases able to leverage the difference between the official and black market exchange rates to turn huge profits on the dollar. At the time of publication, the official exchange rate was 2.9 SSP to the U.S. dollar and the black market rate was 17 to 18 SSP to the dollar, giving a 586 to 620 percent return on the dollar.
• Some sources have estimated that the government currently receives around $60 million a month in oil revenues, although the actual total oil income is unknown... Opaque financial arrangements between the oil companies and traders and the government of South Sudan further obscure the use and transfer of oil funds.

Selected report recommendations: 

• Potential spoilers, including politically and financially exposed individuals at the highest level, should be the primary target of asset investigations and financial audits to curtail the damage they are able to inflict on the implementation of the peace agreement.
• Opaque business deals and financial transactions should be scrutinized and carefully investigated. These include transactions involving well-known war profiteers with long-standing ties to the opposition and government leadership. The U.S. should also investigate deals involving firms, accounts, and individuals based in the United States. All business transactions, concessions, and bidding processes must meet the minimum requirements laid out in South Sudan’s own laws. Ensuring war profiteers do not cash in on the destruction and loss of life they helped sustain should be a primary concern of JMEC, the United States, and donors during the transitional period.
• Levying and implementing sanctions that effectively target the South Sudanese actors who most threaten peace and security requires attention to sanctions enforcement at the regional level. To prevent potential South Sudanese spoilers from seeking state sponsors in the region, the United States and other international partners must maintain diplomatic pressure on regional states, including Kenya, where significant South Sudanese assets are held.

Link to full report: http://eno.ug/1OTo4NV

About THE ENOUGH PROJECT

The Enough Project, an atrocity prevention policy group, seeks to build leverage for peace and justice in Africa by helping to create real consequences for the perpetrators and facilitators of genocide and other mass atrocities. Enough aims to counter rights-abusing armed groups and violent kleptocratic regimes that are fueled by grand corruption, transnational crime and terror, and the pillaging and trafficking of minerals, ivory, diamonds, and other natural resources. Enough conducts field research in conflict zones, develops and advocates for policy recommendations, supports social movements in affected countries, and mobilizes public campaigns. Learn more – and join us – at www.EnoughProject.org

Juba, December 15, 2015 (SSNA) -- The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has been accused of lack of enforcement of the UN-mandated rules and failure to protect civilians in the South Sudan, particularly in the oil-rich Unity State, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders said.

MSF Holland’s deputy operations Director and Manager of MSF activities in the Unity State, Pete Buth, said UNMISS’s lack of action is “shocking” and that the world body failed to carry out its mission in a way it supposes to.

“There has been a complete and utter protection failure on Unmiss’ part in southern Unity. There has not been any protection to speak of until now while the violence has been ongoing and there have been thousands of people coming into the sites in Bentiu from southern Unity – those who manage to flee – and they have been telling their stories,” Buth said.

“It’s not like this is a secret. They [refugees] talk about the most horrendous incidents of sexual violence and I’m sure we’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg,” he added.

MSF disclosed that the situation in Leer County of Unity State, the hometown of rebel leader Dr.  Riek Machar, ‘was dire’.

Buth added that “If you’re a civilian in Leer county, the odds are that you’ve lost a relative who was either killed or abducted or raped; you’ve been burned out of your village at least once; you’ve been displaced multiple times in the course of the past two years; your cattle have been looted and your few belongings have been stolen; you’ve been hiding in the swamps for months and your children are sick with malnutrition or some other preventable diseases, and you don’t know where to get your next day’s food from. Every single civilian is going through that crisis.”

“We have had systematic, ongoing attacks against the civilian population for months and months and months but no action – and that’s shocking,” he revealed.

In October, Protection Cluster, the umbrella agency for 60 South Sudanese and international aid organizations said it received reports of killings of at least 80 civilians in Unity State and that 57 of those killed were children; adding that 29 of the 57 children drowned after they tried to hide from attacks, adding that the attacks which resulted in the death of civilians were carried out between the 4^th of October and October 22.

Nierteti, December 15, 2015 (SSNA) -- Security agents closed the office of the UK-based Tearfund organisation in Nierteti, Central Darfur, on Monday.

A source reported to Radio Dabanga from Nierteti that a force of security agents, led by a colonel, stormed the organisation's office at 1 pm.

“They seized all the materials, equipment, and devices, including the cash in the treasurer’s safe, amounting to more than SDG250, 000 ($39,220), and personal belongings of the staff members,” he said. “They then took the foreign and Sudanese staff to the office of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) in Nierteti.”

A Sudanese staff member of Tearfund in Central Darfur told Radio Dabanga that the organisation in the state is providing aid to people in Tour, Guldo, Golo, Gurnei, and Ardeba, as well as in the camps for the displaced in Nierteti, Um Dukhun, Garsila, and the capital Zalingei.

“We can confirm that our offices in Sudan are currently closed,” Jude Mackenzie, Tearfund interim Head of Media informed Radio Dabanga today.

“We will continue to operate closely with the Sudanese government about our work in the country. We are unable to answer any further questions at this time.”

Tearfund provides health and nutrition services in Central Darfur's Um Dukhum and Nierteti, in Ed Daein, capital of East Darfur, and in Kass in South Darfur. It has support bases in Nyala (South Darfur), Zalingei (Central Darfur), and Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.

Tearfund's work in Darfur is funded by donors including the governments of UK (DFID), Canada (CIDA-HAPS through partner World Relief Canada), Australia (AusAid through Partner TEAR Australia), the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) and the Development and Cooperation-Europe Aid Office, United States (OFDA), the United Nations, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, and Tearfund supporters.

Sudanese civil society barred from holding press conference

[A day ago], Security agents prevented a number of Sudanese civil society organisations from holding a press conference in Khartoum on Sunday.

Tarig El Amin, founder and director of the Beit El Funoun (the House of Arts), told Radio Dabanga that a force of heavily armed security agents arrived at the Teiba Press Centre in downtown Khartoum in six Land Cruisers.”

“They surrounded the place and barred any one from entering the centre. We were all surprised by these arbitrary measures. We just wanted to explain to the Sudanese public to what extent we are suffering since our organisations were closed three years ago, without any good reason,” he said.
In a joint statement later on Sunday, the organisations stated that they will adhere to their “constitutional rights of free expression and gathering”.

They said that they will continue to organise a series of meetings in which they will express their views on “the current cultural state of affairs in the country, and the government legislations and practices that shackle any cultural and artistic activity”.

During the past years, the Sudanese authorities closed a number of civil society organisations, among them the Sudan Social Development Organisation (Sudo), operating in Darfur, in 2009.

In 2012, the Sudanese Studies Centre, El Khatim Adlan Centre for Enlightenment and Human Development, and the Cultural Forum for Literary Criticism in Khartoum were closed. The Nuba Mountains-based Organisation for Human Rights and Development was banned too.

The following year witnessed the closure of Beit El Funoun and the Aslan English Language Teaching Centre. In 2014, the Centre for Civil Society Development, Salmmah Women’s Resource Centre, and the Sudan Human Rights Monitor, founded by Dr Amin Mekki Madani, were shut down.

In January this year, the Ministry of Culture cancelled the registration of the Mahmoud Mohamed Taha Centre in Omdurman, the National Civil Forum, and the Sudanese Writers’ Union, without citing reasons or relevant legislation.

Pagak/Addis Ababa, December 16, 2015 (SSNA) -- The rebel military command of the Sudan people’s Liberation army-In Opposition (SPLA-IO) has denied reports that its senior Generals have involved in “child soldiers” recruitment drive, dismissing the report as “unfounded.”

Skye Wheeler, a South Sudan’s Researcher at the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) and who also authored the report, said both government and rebel commanders have carried out “brutal and heart wrenching” recruitments and that rival forces often go to villages to grab children.

“It's the brutal recruitment that is the most heart wrenching. Forces come through their village and grab them and force them into fighting. It's an absolute negation of their basic rights as children, but also as people, not to be treated just as cannon fodder,” Wheeler told Reuters.

Wheeler admitted that simply releasing young boys is not enough, adding that there is need for accountability for those who have recruited children.

“It not going to be solved just by releasing boys; there also needs to be accountability for commanders who have recruited and used child soldiers to end this endless cycle,” Wheelers said.

The Human Rights Watch said it has interviewed at least 101 child soldiers and calls for an investigation against those who involved in recruitment of children.

However, South Sudanese rebels said claims in the report that its Generals were part of widespread use of children in the ongoing war are not true and that its Commanders were not involved at all. The armed opposition also said it abides by South Sudan’s child act, a law which forbids use of children in a war.

“The SPLA-IO is respecting the South Sudan’s law ‘child act” and abide by it at all levels. In response to the Human Rights Watch regarding children conscripting into army is unfounded and disregarded,” a statement released by the office of rebel military Spokesperson reads in part.

The document asserts that the leadership of the SPLA-IO is committed and willing to allow international agencies to visit rebel-held areas to carry out their investigations to find out if the rebel forces did in-fact involved in the recruitment of children.

[The] “SPLA-IO is fully committed and calling on the UN children’s agency; UNICEF and International Red cross to carry out quick survey across [our] divisions, brigades, battalions, company and platoon levels under SPLA-IO at all war fronts to identify, demobilize the number of children may have been involves in the conflict across the country and reunite them with their families,” the rebel military command said.

The armed opposition also invites the Human Rights Watch (HRW) to visit its headquarters, Pagak, to have what it describes as “further discussion” with the leadership of the SPLA-IO.

The rebel forces proclaim that South Sudan’s government is the only group which uses children as its soldiers after it lost 75% of its soldiers after the war broke out in Juba in mid-December of 2013, adding that Salva kiir’s government carried out many public recruitment drives which saw thousands young boys drafted into his government.

HRW released a report which named government and rebel Commanders to recruitment of children.

The report named pro-government Commanders Matthew Puljang, government General Gony Biliu, rebel Generals James Koang Chuol, Micheal Makal Kuol, Johnson Olony, among others.

Many international aid agencies have in the past reported that South Sudan’s warring factions have participated in recruitment of children.

Juba, December 19, 2015 (SSNA) -- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has delivered food to tens of thousands of residents of Leer County of the oil-rich Unity State.

In an ICRC’s video obtained by the South Sudan News Agency (SSNA), the visibly exhausted, nervous, and desperate civilians many of whom children, women, and elderly people, can be seen in long lines receiving ration cards and eager to return to swamps they now call homes.

It is not the first time that the Geneva-based humanitarian agency delivers food to the residents of Leer town. ICRC has in the past delivered food to Leer residents in July but halted further deliveries and withdrawn its personnel after it received threats and its offices looted.

Leer County is the hometown of Former South Sudanese Vice president and rebel leader Dr. Riek Machar Teny.

It is estimated that close to 4 million South Sudanese “face life-threatening hunger.”

ICRC says its compound, warehouses, and many vehicles have been damaged and that “running operation in this area [Leer County] remains very challenging."

Local and international organizations have repeatedly accused South Sudan's government and its allied forces of rape, kidnapping, widespread destruction, killing, and mass looting.

Press release

Dear our donors and the community at large,

December 19, 2015 (SSNA) -- On behalf of Greater Bor Community of the United States of America (GBC-USA), the leadership of GBC-USA would like to thank the donors for their generous financial contributions that led to the purchase of the desktop computers for Dr. John Garang Memorial University of Science and Technology (Dr. JG-MUST). While we acknowledge the error on the Sudan tribune report (dated 12/16/2015) that termed the contributors as “South Sudan’s lost boys,” we want to be clear that the donors were great men and women and friends of GBC-USA who reside in the United States and Canada and were responding to a call for donation of computers for the JG-MUST Library at the Awang de Michigan Conference on September 5, 2015 in Syracuse, New York.

We are informing the donors and the community at large that all the 63 desktop computers have been delivered to the school at Bor Town.

The generous support of individuals like these donors makes it possible for our community organization to exist and it makes our community a great place to live in.

We are a generation whose task is to develop our community and nation. We appreciate all the donors who made this achievement possible. A special thank goes to Gabriel Maketh Kuer who sold us the computers and who, himself, donated three of the computers.

We thank our community at large and all the leaderships of our community that work hard every day to ensure our community wellbeing and progress.

We also want to appreciate very much the University leadership, particularly, the leaders whom we worked with in the names of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Administration, Professor, Dr. Mayom Kuocrot Deng-Aguek and the Dean of Student Affairs, David Malual Wuor. Your dedications and selfless services to our community are inspiring and we appreciate you and the school community at large.

Together, we can move forward. Thank you very much.

Yours sincerely,

GBC-USA Executive Representations:

Board of GBC-USA Representation:

Gabriel Ajak, Acting Chairman of GBC-USA Board of Directors

GBC-USA County Leadership Representations:

Juba, December 21, 2015 (SSNA) -- An advance team of  rebel Sudan’s People’s Liberation Movement/Army-In Opposition (SPLM/A-IO) is set to arrive in Juba today (Monday), Spokesman for the leadership of the SPLM/A-IO has announced.

The declaration came weeks after South Sudanese government claimed that an initial number of the rebel advance team which was reported to be at least 500 members was large and that Juba was not ready and offered to accept only 30 members of the armed opposition advance team.

In a statement extended to the South Sudan News Agency (SSNA), Gatdet proclaimed that the leadership of rebels has already set-up a team which comprised of a total of 609 members and the SPLM/A-IO is ready for the implementation of the IGAD-Plus compromise peace agreement; dding that Taban Deng Gai, the lead peace negotiator for the armed opposition will lead the advance team.

“The first group of the Advance Team of SPLM/SPLA (IO) comprising 150 cadres will arrive in Juba on Monday, December 21. They will be led by the Chief Negotiator, General Taban Deng Gai. The remaining number of 459 to make a total of 609 will follow on different dates before the end of the year,” Gatdet announced.

The rebel Spokesman also stated that rebel advance team will include senior political and military leaders of the SPLM/A-IO.

“The group will compose of senior members who will be participating in meetings of various institutions established under the peace agreement, including their support staff. A number of senior military generals from the Military Command Council will also be among the first group that will arrive on Monday,” he said.

Gatdet further revealed that the SPLM/A-IO team will arrive at or about 1:30pm, South Sudan’s local time, hold a news conference at Juba airport, go to the mausoleum of South Sudanese later leader Dr. John Garang de Mabior to pay their respect, visit house of the rival factions of the ruling SPLM party, and then members of the advance team will go to hotels where they will be accommodated.

An internationally-brokered pact was signed by South Sudan’s warring factions in August, paving the way for a much-needed peace in the violence-wracked young nation.

Fighting broke out in mid-December of 2013 between different units of presidential guards after months of political disagreement between senior leaders of the fractious SPLM.

22^nd December, 2015

Nairobi, December 22, 2015 (SSNA) -- The Nuer community in Kenya welcomes the commencement of the implementation phase of the Compromise Peace Agreement signed in August this year. We congratulate the SPLM-IO for the bold decision they took to travel to Juba and we also appreciate the good gesture shown by Kiir’s group in welcoming the SPLM-IO official in Juba. All citizens of South Sudan including the Nuer community look up to the government and the SPLM-IO with high expectations that they will bring peace and stop the suffering. Hope and dreams of many South Sudanese have been shattered by the two-year long conflict.

We urge the government and the SPLM-IO to continue implementing the formation of the transitional government of national unity (TGoNU) in good faith and as per the timetable of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC). This senseless war has cost Nuer community thousands of lives. We bore a great burden of this war and having felt how miserable it was to lose a family member, we would not want to make any other family miserable in South Sudan. We have swallowed our sorrow, our grievances and our tears in order to give peace a chance; and we hope the government and the SPLM-IO will not take this for granted.

We, as a community, will be happy to see that the peace we purchased with the precious blood of our loved one is a peace that has a meaning on every South Sudanese’s life; a peace that rekindles hope for every person in South Sudan. We have chosen to forgive before our wounds heal because the fate of that Country is at stake. If one loves his country, he’s willing to do anything for it. That is why we chose peace over revenge.

We call on all frontlines, whether in Upper Nile, Equatoria or Bahr El Ghazel, to silence the gun. We also urge the two parties to start moving their forces to the agreed cantonment areas as soon as possible and give rooms to Humanitarian aid to reach the suffering population of IDPs.

May God Bless South Sudan!!