Africa

July 30, 2016 (BOR) – The government of South Sudan's Jonglei state has been urged to support orphans and widows of those who died in the struggle for independence and subsequent wars that followed.

Jonglei state governor, Aguer Panyang joined by others to light candles in Bor on July 31, 2016 (ST)

Speaking on behalf of the widows and orphans in Jonglei state, Sahara Achuei Lem, said orphans and widows desperately need government support in their lives, calling for immediate assistance.

“I think about what we have done so far to honor the dead who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of this country. What support are you giving orphans and widows? War disabled are not only those who were amputated or suffered gunfire. All people in South Sudan are either disabled mentally or physically and need support through delivery of better services”, she said.

Achuei lost her father and husband in 1991 and 1994 respectively.

The governor of Jonglei state, Philip Aguer vowed to act on requests and demands from the public to support the people of South Sudan.

“For us not be cursed by our martyrs, let us commit and devote ourselves for the public and future interest of our nation building, disregard selfishness and narrow interest”, said Aguer on Saturday.

Diing Akol Diing, the advisor to the state governor, equally admitted that various lives lost helped South Sudan raise its flag on 9 July 2011, urging the government to open up opportunities that would benefit orphans and the disabled people in the country.

Adoor Mabior, a member of parliament in Bor, said there was need for peace and reconciliation if the young nation is to remain stable.

“If we need change in our societies, let there be peace, let there be love and forgiveness”, said Adoor.

Peter Wall Athiu, said struggles for total freedom was still ongoing, citing the hundreds of people in the recent fighting that started in Juba on 8 July, as another phase of struggle for total freedom.

Meanwhile, Gen. Malual Majok, who spoke on behalf of the army, assured people that the military would protect them in case of any attack, warning them not to be driven away by street rumors.

“Despite the fighting in J1[presidential palace], the government is still committed to peace. We observed and respect the ceasefire. We will only act in self-defense if attacked”, said Malual.

Over the last few weeks, people in Jonglei have been living in fear, of possible attacks that might come from Lou Nuer, but Majok said the army would fully protect civilians.

“We are prepared and ready to face them. If they come, they will get us, and if they don't come, we will not go to them. So do not be driven away by rumors”, he stressed.

(ST)

Young South Africans tell the BBC what issues matter to them ahead of hotly contested local elections.

July 31, 2016 (BENTIU) – At least 30 soldiers and three army generals of the SPLA-IO have defected to the government controlled Bentiu town, in support of the newly appointed First Vice President, Taban Deng Gai. The officers defected from Riek Machar's faction.

Two generals who defected come from Guit area, the home county of Taban Deng, the First Vice President, following a closed-door meeting on Friday at a remote village of Neemni, a suburb located southwest of Guit county.

The generals include Lt. Gen Dor Monyju,r a former militia's commander during Sudanese civil war and Maj. Gen Liah Diu, all from Jikany-Nuer of Unity state, who were Gai's former allies to during a time he was a governor of the state.

Another general who joined is Maj. Gen Makal Kuol Deng and Lt. Col Gatyoai Chidong all from Bul-Nuer and are believed to have escaped on Sunday night according to report.

Major Weirial Puok Baluang, spokesperson for the Machar's appointed opposition governor of Unity state, has confirmed to Sudan Tribune on Sunday that two generals allied to Gai have disserted the SPLA-IO with few bodyguards and have reported themselves to the government led by President Salva Kiir.

“We would like to inform our people that, Gen. Makal Kuol Deng and Lt. Col Gatnyoai Chidong along with 12 guards deserted sector two at 3:00am night. We believe the intention of the two comrades is to join Taban Deng who is desperately in need of soldiers,” he said.

The opposition appointed commissioner, Maj. General, Hoth Chuol, told Sudan Tribune that his forces clashed with bodyguards of Lt. General Dor Monyjur and Liah Diu, claiming they went away with 30 body guards and heading toward Bentiu town to join President Kiir's forces.

General Monyjur reportedly left Juba few days ago on the mission Gai sent him to in his home county of Guit to try to woe soldiers on his side in the area, but was reportedly resisted and decided to flee towards Bentiu.

However, a bodyguard of the newly appointed First Vice President, Gai, told Sudan Tribune that there are many generals on the ground who may support his boss, adding “it is just a matter of time, things will turn around.”

He said they are expecting massive defections from the rebel leader Riek Machar's camp to join them in the peace implementation with President Salva Kiir.

Most people had feared the new first vice president may use the money to bribe the generals and soldiers who were desperately fighting for the last two years and a half without money.

(ST)

July 31, 2016 (KAMPALA) - A Canadian company sold over 170 armoured vehicles to South Sudan army during the country's brutal civil war, a United Nations report shows.

Arms and light weapons have been used by both warring parties in South Sudan to commit abuses (Photo courtesy of SSANSA)

According to The Globe and Mail, the armoured vehicles sold to South Sudan were manufactured by Canadian-owned Streit Group at a factory in United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The UN panel said the armoured vehicles from Streit Group belonged to the South Sudanese army, but were imported and maintained by Crown Automobiles, a company owned by Obac William Olawo, a South Sudan businessman allegedly with close connections to President Salva Kiir.

Founded in Ontario in the 1990s and owned by Canadian businessman Guerman Goutorov, Streit Group is “the world's leading manufacturer of armoured vehicles.”

Some of the vehicles, it said, were observed in heavy combat zones, citing a report from arms-control advocacy entity.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced in South Sudan's worst-ever outbreak of violence since it seceded from neighbouring Sudan in July 2011.

Since 2014, however, human-rights observers, including UN experts, have documented how South Sudan's army has allegedly engaged in massacres, rapes, looting, arbitrary arrests and killing of civilians since war erupted in the nation.

The UN Secretary General, early this month, urged the 15-member Security Council to impose an immediate arms embargo, enact additional targeted sanctions on leaders and commanders blocking implementation of the peace deal after renewed fighting between the country's rival factions left over 270 soldiers dead in the capital, Juba.

China and Russia have often stood in the way of the Security Council's approval of an arms embargo on South Sudan.

Arms exports to South Sudan is considered a violation of the international Arms Trade Treaty, approved by the UN General Assembly in 2013 and has since then been ratified by 133 nations.

In April, a UN panel reportedly accused Streit Group of violating an international arms embargo on Libya in 2012 by selling armoured vehicles to the country without obtaining advance approval from a UN sanctions committee.

A spokesman for Canada's Global Affairs department reportedly said this week that the federal government “takes seriously” the issue of arms exports, but he described Streit's sale of armoured vehicles to the world's youngest nation as a transaction between that country and the UAE, since the vehicles were manufactured in a UAE factory.

However, when arms equipment is manufactured outside Canada, even if the company is Canadian-owned, the federal government reportedly considers those sales to be outside the jurisdiction of Canada's export controls.

Meanwhile, a separate report, by the US-based advocacy group, Control Arms, reportedly described how the SPLA used 50 Cougar and Typhoon armoured personnel carriers that it obtained from Streit Group's UAE factory between 2012 and 2014 for $9-million.

(ST)

July 31, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - The rebel umbrella Sudanese Revolutionary Front led by Malik Agar (SRF-Agar) Sunday said it wouldn't take part in any dialogue that preserves the current regime and doesn't meet aspiration of the Sudanese people to establish a state based on equal citizenship rights for all Sudanese.

Members of the sudanese opposition groups meet outside the French capital Paris on November 12, 2015 (ST Photo)

In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Sunday, the SRF-Agar said its political committee has received a report from the umbrella's delegate to the Sudan Call meetings, Yasir Arman.

From 18 to 22 July, the opposition groups of the Sudan Call umbrella held crucial discussions in Paris on the African Union Roadmap Agreement and political structures of the opposition umbrella.

They tasked the leader of the National Umma Party (NUP) al-Sadiq al-Mahdi to write a letter to the chief African mediator Thabo Mbeki demanding to meet him in order to discuss their reservations on the Roadmap Agreement before its eventual signing.

On Saturday, al-Mahdi announced that Mbeki will meet the Sudan Call forces on the 7th of August in Addis Ababa.

Last March, the African Union High Implementation Panel (AUHIP) proposed a Roadmap Agreement to the Sudanese government and some Sudan Call groups including the NUP, Sudan People's Liberation Movement North, Justice and Equality Movement, and Sudan Liberation Movement of Minni Minnawi.

However, only Khartoum government signed the text while the four groups declined the text saying it would reproduce the regime. They later proposed a supplemental text to the peace plan including their demands.

The political committee of the SRF-Agar pointed to positive developments contained in the letter that Mbeki sent to al-Mahdi, saying the chief mediator promised to take into account the Sudan Call reservations on some items of the Roadmap Agreement.

It stressed that the SRF-Agar would work alongside the Sudan Call forces to engage in an equal dialogue to be preceded by implementing measures to create the conducive climate including stopping the war, delivering humanitarian assistance to the needy population in the war areas, allowing freedoms and releasing political detainees.

The rebel alliance vowed not to participate in a dialogue that keeps in place “the state of corruption and tyranny”, saying it wouldn't be part of a dialogue that doesn't meet aspiration of the Sudanese people to establish the state of equal citizenship.

“There is no power in the world that could force us to do something that is not acceptable by our people and their revolutionary vanguard” the statement read

The statement pointed the political committee meeting has reviewed the details of the correspondence between the Sudan Call leadership and the AUHIP, saying it included proper and transparent procedures.

The SRF-Agar added that it would develop a strategic view to participate in the upcoming meeting with Mbeki to achieve the objectives agreed upon, saying it endorsed the structure of the Sudan Call which was approved in the Paris meeting.

It is noteworthy that the Paris meeting has approved the structures of the executive bodies and leadership of the Sudan Call.

The Leadership Council which is made up of 20 members representing the five blocks will take the major decisions of opposition umbrella. Its president will be selected by consensus.

The Executive Council will be tasked with the mass mobilization besides, political and diplomatic activities inside and outside Sudan. It will be headed by a chairperson and his deputy, and consists of eight sectors.

(ST)

July 31, 2016 (JUBA) – Heavy fighting has continued in the bushes around the South Sudanese national capital, Juba, with opposition faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA-IO) claiming to be closing in on the capital with the aim to take it over.

The fighting is reported to have been taking place inside deep forests in different locations on Juba-Yei road, Juba-Mundri road and in the northwest of the capital between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and opposition forces loyal to the relieved First Vice President, Riek Machar.

“Heavy fighting has been going on for the past three days. President Salva Kiir's forces have been on offensive against our forces. They are hunting for the First Vice President, Dr. Riek Machar, with the aim to eliminate him. However, our forces have been fighting back in self-defence,” said James Gatdet Dak, Machar's spokesperson.

He said their forces have been repulsing the attacks and have inflicted heavy losses on the forces loyal to President Kiir with “several hundreds of them killed in the forests” and a number of areas captured in Lanya county and Katigiri.

He also claimed that the opposition forces have captured up to 21 military trucks and logistics, including bull dozers, urols [big trucks] and small pickup trucks, in addition to different types of rifles.

Dak added that the opposition forces have besieged Juba from different directions and will be forced to move on to the capital to take control of it and restore law and order.

“My leadership has been calling for prompt deployment of a third party force to separate the two forces so that the First Vice President, Dr. Riek Machar, can return to Juba and continue with the implementation of the peace agreement without threats of return to violence in the capital. But if this does not happen and President Kiir's forces continue to attack our forces with the aim to eliminate Dr. Machar, our forces will be forced to capture Juba,” he said.

He further said that their forces have closed both the Juba-Yei road and Juba-Mundri roads and are closing in on Juba.

Dak said taking control of Juba by the opposition forces would put to an end the ongoing attacks on their forces and restore peace and security in the capital and beyond.

Sudan Tribune could not independently verify the level of casualties involved in the ongoing fighting in the thick forests as it is difficult to know what is happening and no official statement has been made by the government.

A military official loyal to President Kiir told Sudan Tribune that he believed there have been “heavy losses” on both sides, more than the losses incurred at J1 and Jebel Kujur's two days of fighting.

South Sudan's government on Friday in a cabinet meeting chaired by President Kiir resolved not to allow a third party force to deploy in Juba, saying the current 12,000 peacekeepers of the United Nations are enough and only their mandate can be negotiated and reviewed.

However, on Sunday, there were unconfirmed reports that the government's security officials held a security meeting with the aim to review the Friday's decision in the wake of the threats by the opposition forces to take over Juba.

Meanwhile, civilians have continued to flee from the capital in fear of imminent fighting in Juba, with dozens of government troops fleeing into the United Nations camps in the outskirt of the capital.

(ST)

South Africa's ANC party, which took power at the end of white-minority rule in 1994, is facing its toughest challenge - and not just from opposition parties in Wednesday's local elections, writes the BBC's Milton Nkosi.

By Stephen Par Kuol

Skilled diplomats and students of international relations would contend that there is no single country on earth whose foreign policy has more successes than failures, and that certainly includes the United States, which by nature of its role in the world takes on the most daunting diplomatic challenges. Success or failure in Foreign Service often depends on the resources capacity (human and material) of the nation in question. The stark irony in the case of the United States is that it has a huge leverage over others in term of material and human resource capacity but its diplomatic performance leaves a lot to be desired. The diplomatic history of United States is littered with costly foreign policy failures with far reaching and dire consequences. The United States Foreign Policy after World War II often failed to accomplish its objective and produced counter-productive results. From Vietnam to Angola, Korea, and Afghanistan, the Americans either prescribed wrong solution or failed to study the grime nature of the problem at hand. During the cold war, the United States foreign policy was guided by cold war against communism. As that receded, the United States confronted global terrorism. This war does not recede; it grows and as it grows, the United States is getting it wrong every day. As the history repeats itself, the diplomacy of this war is still myriad with a lot of strategic mistakes. In Iraq for example, the United States used some wrong intelligences to take a decision that defeated the very ultimate goal of combating terrorism. The unilateral military action taken by Bush Administration in violation of the United Nations Charter brought about permanent turmoil that has eventually produced ISIS.

A comprehensive review of American foreign policy towards Africa exposes a consistent lack of statesmanship, double standards, lack of preventive diplomacy and a disposition to defeat the very core values of American freedom and democracy. The irony of all ironies is the tragic fact that the United States has a long history of building dictators and terrorists that often cost more to oust once the policy makers in Washington realized that they are hazardous to the vital interest of the United States. By then, the permanent damage is done. From Sadam Hussien to Ben-Laden, Mumbuto Seazeko and Emmanuel Noriga, the United State has always been ripping what it has sawn at the expense of American lives and taxpayers' dollars. For whatever mind-boggling reason, the United Sates often pays dearly to contradict what it values the most as a nation (freedom) and it has done that more in Africa than anywhere else in the world. Successive American leaderships have been maintaining that there is no American strategic interest in the continent. The United Sate Foreign Policy in Africa has thus been dubbed as constructive engagement with Africa. This policy subtly resolves that Africa is a different place with its own human right and jungle political standards that must be left alone to evolve without heavy hand from the outside world. This has terribly worked against the cause of human right and the protracted war against terrorism in the second largest continent on earth.

The Democratic Administrations in particular have done more disservice to humanity in this continent. Even the two terns of Obama Administration have done nothing to deter the despotic behaviour of these dictators in this war-ravaged region. Until today, Washington has been talking the talk without walking the walk. In Washington's best traditional practice, things are practically done about Europe and the Middle East but African affairs are just talked about.

The intelligence of the profession (diplomacy) teaches that, you don't send your best to strategically none essential places. That is why the Obama Administration deployed two incompetent diplomats in the persons of Donald Booth and Molly Phee to South Sudan. These two diplomats have been approaching their assignment in a very fallible manner. The negotiation between the SPLMIO and Kiir's regime took that long in Ethiopia simply because Donald Booth has totally failed to educate himself of the root causes of the conflict and resigned to bashing both sides for failure to implement the peace agreement which has been unilaterally violated by Salva Kiir and his Jieng Council of Elders in open defiance of all western empty threats. Those of us who worked with Ambassador Phee in Juba to implement ACRISS have known first hand that she has been miserably defeated by Kiir's regime. As we witnessed during the recent evacuation, the malleable diplomat succumbed to Kiir's hoodlums who humiliated American citizens in a broad daylight at Juba International Airport. Where on the planet -earth can you subject evacuation of your citizens to scrutiny by the same government they are escaping death and rape from? Only in Juba where the Ambassador of the United States is Molly Phee ! South Sudanese Americans will not forget that dreadful experience in which they were left to fend for themselves amidst turmoil. In any case, whatever the two diplomats represent in this region, we are terribly embarrassed as proud citizens of the United State. Beyond any reasonable doubt, this South Sudan conundrum is beyond their punch and capacity. Having failed the United States and the people of South Sudan, it is widely recommended now that the two should just pack their suitcases and go home. In the mean time, the United States must take quick and practical action to reverse this costly foreign policy fiasco in the Horn of Africa. In truth, it makes fool of the United States to appease fascist dictators who are purchasing lethal weapons from Russia and China to kill their fellow citizens while yearning for western financial aid at the same time.

In one of his usual undiplomatic blusters, Yoweri Museveni , the darling of the United States and number one recipient of USAID in the region uttered that, “Africa is not prepared for full blown democracy during our life time”. This notion has been driving the western foreign policy toward Africa for decades. This has been done in disregard of the fact that Yoweri Museveni has been fanning insurgencies in DRC and the genocides in Rwanda and South Sudan while practising the worst brand of African dictatorship at home in Uganda. For the worst part, Museveni is also supporting notorious Islamic terrorist organizations like Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) of the Sudan using Kiir's regime as a conduit. This project of arming rebels with well known affiliation with international terrorist network does not only complicate resolution of the conflicts in the two Sudans but also poses eminent threat of breeding another brand of terrorism in the region. This background verified that Yoweri Museveni does not have a track record of being a stabilizing factor in this region. If any thing, he has been the gent of destabilization. Unfortunately, Washington has been and is still putting its biggest bets on strong African men who give false sense of order while in reality sowing the seeds of future destabilization at home and in their surrounding regions. Yoweri Museveni is in a long string of fascists with whom Washington has disastrously waltzed. With the weight of the United States behind him, Yoweri Museveni has bullied every political force at home to servitude while coaching other inept dictators like Salva Kiir to destabilize South Sudan. Presently, the American love affair with the Ugandan dictator is based on his opportunistic vow to fight Alshaba in Somalia and protect South Sudanese dictator Kiir who has committed genocide and practising Idi Amin brand of tyranny in the nascent nation. So the strategic line pursued by Washington in South Sudan and Uganda is deeply mistaken. This policy is crowned with utter failure as it has stooped low to supporting these red –handed fascists in both countries of Uganda and South Sudan. In the process, the United States has become an accomplice in commission of war crimes, crime against humanity (genocide) and violation of the international law on prohibition of weapons of mass destruction like cluster bomb they used on our civilian White Army in the year 2014.

The records must also be informed that through undeterred behaviour of the two fascist dictators (Kiir and Museveni), the United Nations Mission in South Sudan has been weaken and it is becoming a fiasco in its own right. As a result of its failed operations under Chapter 7, the UNIMISS will leave the country in worse chaos. That is why we are calling for higher mandate instead of this one that has failed to even accomplish its prime goal (protection of civilians). The United Nations Mission in South Sudan has been partly weaken by American impotent diplomatic engagement with Kiir's Police State, which is now resisting a robust regional and international intervention to save lives in whatever is left of South Sudan. It is understandable that the world is not governed in the light of human right but the unfolding crisis in South Sudan will soon embarrass both the supper powers in the United Nations Security Council and the regional powers who have also been appeasing Kiir's regime in the same manner. Hence, the word has been said that any cosmetic project to save Kiir's face will back fire and cost more in term of human lives, material resources, humanitarian assistance and the economies of the neighbouring states including Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and the Sudan. Hence, the downtrodden people of South Sudan are urgently calling for a robust and independent hybrid mission of the United Nations and the region in South Sudan to compel this fascist regime to implement the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (ACRISS) or face radical regime change as the only way to rescue the people of South Sudan. Do that or do as per Princeton Lyman's recommendation (life support solution). Any thing short of that is what I call Another US Foreign Policy Fiasco in Africa in general and in South Sudan particular.

The author is a former Deputy Ambassador of Sudan to Tanzania and a freelance writer. He can be reached by email through :kuolpar@yahoo.com

July 30, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - The head of the African Union High Level Implementation Panel and chief mediator Thabo Mbeki will meet the Sudan call forces on the 7th of August, said the leader of the National Umma Party (NUP) Sadiq al-Mahdi on Saturday.

AUHIP chief Thabo Mbeki (R) meets opposition NUP leader Sadiq al-Mahdi on June 2, 2016 (Courtesy photo of NUP)

From 18 to 22 July, the opposition groups the Sudan Call tasked al-Mahdi to write a letter to Mbeki demanding to meet him in order to discuss their reservations on the Roadmap Agreement before its eventual signing.

According to the opposition umbrella, the chief mediators in a letter he sent on 23 June had explained that their demands for an inclusive national dialogue preparatory meeting and additional confidence building measures will be taken into account.

"Mbeki responded to (my) letter and fixed the seventh of next August to meet him to discuss the Roadmap (Agreement) after taking into account the demands of the opposition," al-Mahdi told the state-run Sudan TV in a talk show on Saturday evening from Cairo where he is residing since two years.

Mahdi said that the opposition's letter included their demands for a comprehensive national dialogue, leading to a constitutional conference. Its agenda consists of the end of war, delivery of humanitarian aid to the affected civilians, identifying the confidence building measures, and release of political detainees and prisoners.

He further stressed that the letter underlined the right of the Sudan Call to determine who would represent it in the meetings with the AUHIP and the government.

"If that happens, then the outcome would be a comprehensive national constitutional dialogue," he said.

The opposition leader disclosed that the Sudan Call intends to invite national figures to attend the external process leading to the national dialogue inside the country in order to reach out, and mobilize the different social segments and promote the ownership of the process by all the Sudanese.

Earlier this week, opposition officials said they had been told by the AUHIP secretariat the meeting would be held in mi-August.

It is not clear if the meeting would take place after or before a visit the chief mediator would pay to Khartoum for talks with the government officials on these developments.

U.S. Special Envoy Donald Booth who facilitates the process is already in Sudan where he is assessing the humanitarian situation in Darfur region and also to discuss the upcoming meeting with opposition groups in Addis Ababa.

Speaking at the talk show, Sudanese Presidential Assistant Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid who is tasked with the peace negotiations file, said the government reiterated to the mediation its commitment to the Roadamp Agreement and to a comprehensive dialogue as provided in the call launched by President al-Bashir for a national dialogue two years ago.

Hamid further said it is better for the opposition groups to meet the national dialogue committee (7+7) as provided in the Roadmap Agreement instead of its demand meet the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) alone.

"When the (7 +7) meets with the Sudan Call, the dialogue committee would not come alone, but with a representative of the government, and this is better than to meet the government only."

However he reassured that the gap between the government and the opposition is not too big, adding : "We are confident that we are all keen to preserve the security of the homeland".

He further described the NUP leader as a nationalist keen to preserve the nation and its interests.

(ST)

July 30, 2016 (EL-FASHER) - Commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, (aka Hametti) said his fighters have arrested about 600 Ethiopian illegal migrants near Sudan's border with Libya and Egypt.

SRF field commander Mohamed Hamdan (Hametti) speaks in a press conference in Khartoum on Wednesday May 14, 2014 (ST)

Last June, hundreds of RSF elements have been deployed in the remote desert of the Northern State shortly after complaint by the governor of drug and human trafficking by the criminal networks.

On Saturday, Sudanese army's sixth infantry division in North Darfur capital El-Fasher has celebrated the return of the RSF from the Northern State.

Speaking during the celebration, Daglo said his forces arrested about 600 illegal Ethiopian migrants and thwarted several human trafficking operations near Sudan's border with Egypt and Libya and at Al-Nakheel area in the Sahara desert.

He pointed those illegal migrants have been handed over to the authorities in North Darfur as a prelude to repatriate them into their home country.

The RSF commander said the media has turned a blind eye on numerous offences committed by rebel groups including killing incidents, displacement of civilians and destruction of civil institutions.

Daglo hailed discipline among RSF fighters, saying Sudan became a crossing point for illegal migrants seeking to travel to Europe and the United States.

He called on the West to appreciate efforts exerted by the Sudanese government to combat human trafficking and illegal migration across the Sahara.

Sudan is considered as a country of origin and transit for the illegal migration and human trafficking. Thousands of people from Eritrea and Ethiopia are monthly crossing the border into the Sudanese territories on their way to Europe through Libya or Egypt.

For his part, the commander of the sixth infantry division Ashraf Mahdi El-Rifaie said North Darfur became free of rebellion due to efforts of the Sudanese army, RSF and the rest of the regular forces.

“The RSF carried out its full role and combed the area of the rebel remnants and human traffickers” he said

He added that the RSF managed to free hundreds of foreigners from the grip of human traffickers on the desert near the Egyptian border.

Earlier this month, Daglo said his men arrested over 300 illegal immigrants heading to Libya across the remote desert of Northern State.

Deputy Governor of North Darfur, Mohamed Braima, for his part, described the RSF as the right arm of the Sudanese army, saying they play a major role in maintaining peace and security.

He pointed that the security situation in Darfur is stable, saying the government works to amend the social fabric and hold tribal reconciliations to unify the internal front and address the effects of war.

Earlier this year, the European Union granted a €100m development package to address the root causes of irregular migration in Sudan. The financial support came after pledge by the Sudanese government to cooperate with Brussels to stop human trafficking to Europe.

In January 2014, the Sudanese parliament approved an anti-human trafficking law which punishes those involved with human trafficking with up to 20 years imprisonment.

The RSF, which is widely known as the Janjaweed militias, were originally mobilized by the Sudanese government to quell the insurgency that broke out in Sudan's western region of Darfur in 2003.

The militia was reactivated and restructured again in August 2013 under the command of NISS to fight the alliance of rebel groups from Darfur region, South Kordofan and Blue Nile states following joint attacks in North and South Kordofan in April 2013.

(ST)

July 30, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir on Saturday has pledged to destroy what he described as “institutions of injustice” saying he wouldn't kneel down to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

President Omer al-Bashir at Khartoum airport after his return from Addis Ababa where he received the African Dignity Award on 30 July 2016 (SUNA Photo)

Al-Bashir returned to Khartoum on Saturday from Addis Ababa where he received the the African Dignity Award from the African Initiative for Pride and Dignity (AIPD) in recognition of his efforts in Africa.

He was received at Khartoum airport by large crowds and senior government officials including the First Vice-President Bakri Hassan Salih.

Al-Bashir, who appeared wearing a red bobble cloak and sat on a royal chair in a high platform, addressed the crowed saying he wouldn't succumb to the ICC, saying the western countries don't recognize that he represents the Sudanese people.

“We would destroy all institutions of injustice and liberate Africa from the modern political and economic colonization … we are firmly embedded like mountains and .we wouldn't kneel down,” he said.

The Sudanese President is under two ICC arrest warrants since 2008 for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed in Darfur.

Al-Bashir swore by Almighty Allah (God) three times before the crowed, saying he will always take stances that make the Sudanese people proud of themselves.

“All our decisions and moves were inspired the Sudanese people who don't accept the injustice,” he said.

He said that his government has implemented peace agreements for the sake of peace not to be thanked by other people, pointing that Sudan opened its borders to receive refugees from Ethiopia, Eritrea and West Africa when drought hit the region in 1984 despite the fact that it had suffered from famine.

The Sudanese President further thanked Africa, Ethiopia, Addis Ababa University and Africa's scholars and expert for honouring him.

It is noteworthy that the AIPD was launched by the Addis Ababa University on Tuesday 25 and ended on 29 July.

The initiative aims at basing Africans development efforts on Africans Indigenous Knowledge systems.

It was launched in partnership with the United Nations University for Peace (UP-EACE), the Islamic Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), Chair of Cultural Diversity based at the International Relations Institute in Cameroon, the Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies African Network,Tanzania and Centre for the Study of Peace and Human Rights in Sudan.

(ST)

July 30, 2016 (JUBA) - The South Sudanese government has agreed to dispatch a high level delegation, led by its first vice president, Taban Deng Gai to the United Nations headquarters in New York as part of efforts to rally global community support.

Head of the rebel delegation, Taban Deng Gai, attends the opening ceremony of South Sudan's negotiation in Addis Ababa, January 4, 2014. (Photo Reuters/Tiksa Negeri)

“The objective of this mission is to mobilize the international support for implementation of the peace agreement and explain to the leaders of Intergovernmental authorities on development (IGAD) member countries why there were changes within the SPLM-IO leadership,” vice president, James Wani Igga told reporters Friday.

“This is a very important mission,” added the vice president.

Gai, who succeeded the armed opposition (SPLM-IO) chairman Riek Machar, was sworn-in early this week, a move the former rebel leader described as being “illegal”.

"President Salva Kiir wants the country's first vice-president to explain to the world the recent political changes in nation," Igga told reporters in the capital, Juba.

The South Sudanese leader, he said, told the armed opposition leaders in the capital, Juba it was their role to make the region understand why Machar was replaced.

“Taban and some members of the team which will select by the President to go to the neighboring countries, including Khartoum as number one, so that we put clearly to them the situation,” explained Igga.

The team will reportedly also tour neighboring countries to advocate for regional support for the peace agreement.

Igga further said President Kiir agreed to accelerate discussions on how to improve security in the country, revive the economy and repatriate internally displaced persons.

(ST)

Tunisia's parliament passes a vote of no confidence in the government of PM Habib Essid over what is seen as his failure to push through economic reforms.

July 30, 2016 (JUBA) - South Sudanese authorities have released on bail an editor they detained for weeks after he wrote an article said to be critical of he country's leaders.

Alfred Taban (Time-UA Photo)

Alfred Taban, the Juba Monitor's managing editor, had accused President Salva Kiir and his then deputy Riek Machar of failing to cooperate in the implementation of peace agreement, prompting his immediate arrest and detention.

Taban, however, said Saturday that he was granted bail to allow him to continue taking his medication as directed by his personal doctor.

This was after he was detained for a week without charge. He was charged under Article 75 and 76 of Penal Code 2008 for writing a false story and insulting the president.

Amnesty International, in a statement, said detaining Taban over his peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression makes him a prisoner of conscience.

“We urge you to support our call for the immediate and unconditional release of Alfred Taban”, partly reads the organisation's statement, also extended to Sudan Tribune.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) had also called for the immediate release of Taban.

The editor's arrest came weeks after John Gatluak Manguet Nhial, a journalist who coordinated and reported for Radio Naath FM in Leer, was killed with complete impunity in Juba's Terrain Hotel on 11 July, probably because he hails from the Nuer ethnic group.

South Sudan is ranked 140 out of 180 countries in RSF's 2016 World Press Freedom Index, thus falling 26 places since the start of the conflict in Africa's newest nation.

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Kenya is dealing with a wave of arson attacks that has seen more than 100 schools burnt down this year.

The Security Council this evening requested Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to establish a United Nations police officers component in Burundi for an initial period of one year to monitor the security situation and to support the Office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) in monitoring rights violations and abuses in the crisis-gripped country.

The UN Security Council authorises the deployment of a UN police force to Burundi to try to quell violence and human rights abuses.

The Security Council today extended for two weeks the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), allowing time for its membership to consider options on adapting the operation’s mandate amid renewed violence in the world’s youngest country.

Farming is seen as an unglamorous job across Africa, but the BBC's Sophie Ikenye finds some young professionals who are packing in the office job to return to the family farm.

Ahead of the six-year remembrance of a mass rape of more than 300 civilians residents of the Walikale region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by armed groups, the United Nations envoy on sexual violence in conflict has called on the international community to be relentless in seeking accountability for the crimes.