South Sudan Pushed Toward Famine

The World Food Program warns fighting and lack of access to the displaced in South Sudan are pushing that country towards a hunger catastrophe. WFP says this humanitarian disaster still can be prevented, but time is running out. 

Before fighting erupted in mid-December between the government and rebels, 140,000 people in South Sudan were suffering from severe food shortages. Now, World Food Program spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs says that number stands at 1.3 million.
“WFP is concerned about the food security situation and about the possibility of the food catastrophe or even famine developing over the coming year.  But, we can prevent this if we act now…This disaster can be prevented.  This is what I would like to point out.  We can prevent, but it is absolutely critical to stop fighting," said Byrs.
But, that seems unlikely. A second truce enacted between the warring factions on May 9th broke down not long after it was signed. 

VOA News

Saving South Sudan

Late last year, South Sudan's president, Salva Kiir, accused his former vice president, Riek Machar, of attempting a coup d'état amid accusations of rampant corruption within the government. Infighting immediately broke out within the presidential guard, sparking what has now become a brutal tribal and civil war that has pitted Machar's ethnic Nuer loyalists against the majority Dinka, who have sided with Kiir. Machar narrowly escaped assassination, fleeing to the deep bush as Kiir's troops razed his home and killed his bodyguards. And now the world's newest sovereign nation is in imminent danger of becoming a failed state.

Read the entire issue devoted to South Sudan at Vice

Israeli children deported to South Sudan succumb to malaria

Three months ago, Israel’s Interior Minister Eli Yishai deported several hundred families from Israel to South Sudan, despite unequivocal statements by human rights group that mere fact of the established state is far from the offering the safety that would allow for these families’ return; the request was at least to extend the group exemption from deportation – Israel’s mechanism of neither denying nor granting asylum – a few months longer. Even that demand was ignored. The deportees’ baggage, all 14 tons of it, was delayed for two months and kept at a warehouse in Israel, simply because the state felt that it could not be bothered to bear the expenses of sending it along. In the baggage was medicine collected for the families by Israeli volunteers from Israeli donors; it was only finally sent to South Sudan a week or so ago, but not before reports began to surface which claimed that immigration officials were helping themselves to the more precious possessions from the pile.

Dwell with me on that image for a second: Families herded into a transport which will take them to the very danger they were running from, leaving a silent pile of suitcases and clothes behind.

Within a week, the deportee children – Israeli children, either born or raised in Israel, speaking better Hebrew than most of this government’s apologists in the United States – began to die. So far, at least seven of them have succumbed to disease

Read further on +972 Magazine

Israel deports Sudanese asylum seekers as South Sudanese nationals

Sudanese citizens seeking asylum in Israel are being issued with South Sudanese documents in order to deport them, according to a report published on Saturday.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said that “the breach of our borders by infiltrators could threaten the Jewish and democratic state […] we will begin by removing the infiltrators from South Sudan and move on to others.”Also, Israel’s interior minister, Eli Yishai, has said “Muslims that arrive here do not even believe that this country belongs to us, to the white man.”

Amid violent, 1,00-strong anti-immigrant protests in May in which African residents were attacked, Miri Regev, a legislator and member of Knesset (the legislative arm of the Israeli government), said that Sudanese refugees are a “cancer in our body.”

Sudan Tribune

South Sudan faces economic disaster as cost of independence bites

One year after the euphoria of independence, South Sudan faces economic disaster that could reverse recent development gains after it shut down oil production in a dispute over pipeline fees with Sudan.

Preying on people's minds in Juba is the thought that the government is about to run out of money – shutting down vital services in an already impoverished country. A few months ago, some thought the government would run out of cash to pay teachers and health workers as early as August; now the prediction is September or the end of the year.

Khartoum is feeling the economic and political heat as well. Taking a leaf out of South Sudan's book, Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, is cutting the number of cabinet posts from 31 to 26. However, other austerity measures – a rise in transport costs and a doubling of fuel and food prices following cuts in subsidies – have provoked demonstrations and calls for Bashir to step down.

Analysts say the calamitous economic situation in both countries could force Juba and Khartoum – with prodding from outside, particularly the US and China – to cut a deal to start the oil flowing again.

"The fiscal picture in South Sudan is terrible, the socio-economic stress is harsh, there are protests in Sudan, there are border tensions," said Jason Mosley, an associate fellow at the Africa programme at Chatham House, the international affairs thinktank. "The economic picture is so bad it could push both sides towards some sort of compromise."

The Guardian

Sudan governor to troops: 'Take no prisoners'

Troops in Sudan have been ordered to show no mercy to rebel fighters. Al Jazeera has obtained a video clearly showing the Governor of Southern Kordofan ordering army soldiers to take no prisoners. Ahmed Harun tells the men "don't bring them back alive".
Harun is already wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity. Peter Greste report from the Nuba Mountains in this Al Jazeera Exclusive.

South Sudanese 'press-ganged' by rebels in Khartoum

Young South Sudanese men living in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, are being forcibly conscripted by militia groups, numerous sources have told the BBC. It is alleged they are forced to fight for rebels in South Sudan, which split from the north in July.

South Sudan's information minister believes Khartoum is directing the rebel groups and the kidnappings. A senior official in Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's party told the BBC the accusation was "nonsense". It is feared the alleged abductions will worsen the already fragile relationship between the two countries.

According to South Sudanese community leaders, church workers in Khartoum and politicians in South Sudan, men have been snatched from universities, the streets and even their homes by armed gangs. "The attitude of recruiting South Sudanese university students into the military by the Khartoum regime is an irresponsible exercise," South Sudan's Minister of Information Barnaba Marial Benjamin has said.

BBC News

North Sudan army takes control of Abyei

North Sudan's army appears to have gained control of the main town in Sudan's disputed Abyei region after fierce fighting with the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), UN and rebel sources said.

UN officials saw 15 tanks of the Sudanese Armed Forces, the northern army, on Saturday in parts of the key town Abyei where earlier mortars slammed against a UN base, Hua Jiang, the UN spokeswoman said. One of those mortar rounds exploded, but there were no casualties among UN personnel, Jiang said.

"The SAF have entered (the town) Abyei, there is still fighting but they have come with tanks, they are shooting and shooting," Philip Aguer, SPLA spokesman, said. "Our police have been fighting but the SAF have sent many soldiers in," he added, speaking by phone from Juba, the capital of southern Sudan.

He said northern forces bombed at least four villages on Saturday afternoon in continuation of last week's attacks.

Aguer added that two of the bombed villages were Todach and Tagalei which had been already hit on Friday -  a reference to the southern army's allegations that the northern army had begun bombing Abyei that day after previous clashes on Thursday.

Full story on Al Jazeera

Clashes between South Sudan army & rebels kill 105

Clashes between rebels and south Sudanese troops in troubled Jonglei state have killed 105 people, a southern army spokesman said on Friday, a dramatic jump from an earlier death toll of 16. "On the side of the military that includes the SPLA, the police and the prison services, 20 were killed in Fangak town, while 30 of Athor's men were killed," said Philip Aguer.

He was referring to renegade southern general George Athor whose supporters launched a spate of attacks on troops of the south's Sudan People's Liberation Army on Wednesday, shattering a "permanent ceasefire" they signed just last month. Al Arabiya

Sudan's Bashir 'stashed $9bn in UK'

Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president, has transferred up to $9bn out of the African nation, with much of it sent to banks in the United Kingdom, according to leaked US diplomatic cables reported in the Guardian newspaper.
A US diplomatic cable released by the WikiLeaks whistleblowing website on Saturday details a conversation between Alejandro D. Wolff, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, and Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

During a meeting in March 2009, Moreno-Ocampo is quoted as saying that the disclosure of the alleged "illegal accounts" could help garner support for al-Bashir's arrest. 
"Ocampo suggested if Bashir's stash of money were disclosed [he put the figure at $9bn], it would change Sudanese public opinion from him being a 'crusader' to that of a thief," the cable says.

"Ocampo suggested exposing Bashir had illegal accounts would be enough to turn the Sudanese against him."
Sudan is one of the poorest countries in the world with an estimated 40 per cent of the population living below the poverty line, despite being a sizable exporter of oil.

More on Al Jazeera

Much more on The Guardian