Free Republic

HOW OTHERS SEE IT   When South Sudan declared independence, its tattered infrastructure presented enormous challenges, but also a strange sense of possibility. Now, renewed fighting has stalled attempts at nation-building – in a physical sense as well as a political one. JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN—On its face, the plan was simple. South Sudan’s largest city needed a new bridge, and a Japanese aid agency was going to build one. It was 2012 when the announcement was made, and the capital of the world’s newest country was growing up and out hungrily: a sudden glut of new huts, new houses, and...

CHRISTIAN children in Sudan’s refugee camps are not given food unless they say Islamic prayers, according to reports we received from reliable sources. A contact, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons, described how Christian refugees from South Sudan are confronted with “a terrible situation” in refugee camps in Sudan. The source told us: “We have heard stories where children are conditioned to say Islamic prayers before [being] given food. This is not right. These children are Christian. They should be respected as such.” The source, who estimates that some 700,000 South Sudanese Christians are refugees in Sudan, added:...

Wau, South Sudan, Aug 20, 2017 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As the civil war in South Sudan heightens, millions are fleeing their homes for safer ground, which many have found at St. Mary Help of Christian's Cathedral in Wau, the country's second largest city. “Those who flee believe that even rebels still fear God and would not slaughter civilians in the backyard of a church,” said Fr. Moses Peter, a priest at St. Mary's, according to IRIN News. “Many other churches have also taken in hundreds of people,” he said. South Sudan has been in the middle of a...

The United Nations needs $4.4 billion by the end of March to prevent catastrophic hunger and famine in South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen, yet just $90 million has been collected so far, Secretary-General António Guterres said Wednesday. With over 20 million people at risk of starvation over the next six months and famine already declared in parts of South Sudan, “we are facing a tragedy,” Guterres said. “We must avoid it becoming a catastrophe.” Convening reporters for a briefing at the U.N. headquarters, Guterres amplified concerns that U.N. officials and humanitarian groups have expressed in recent weeks about the...

The U.N.’s humanitarian aid coordination agency says it and partners require a record $22.2 billion next year to help people hit by conflict and disasters around the world, a 10 percent increase from this year. The appeal announced Monday from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs seeks to help nearly 93 million people in 33 countries — nearly two-thirds of them in Africa. More than one-third of the total appeal — $8.1 billion — aims to help people in Syria and refugees from it, and another $4.4 billion would support people inside or fleeing war-torn Yemen and South...

The UN's protection of the alleged perpetrator Machar, added to the UN peacekeepers' failure to adequately protect civilians when they had the chance, adds up to a botched UN mission in South Sudan South Sudan, the youngest member state of the United Nations, began its life as an independent country with expressions of hope for a bright future. At the independence ceremony of South Sudan, held in its capital Juba on July 9, 2011, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon proclaimed that, after years of violence, “we open a new chapter: a day when the people of South Sudan claim the...

U.S. Embassy, U.N. Forces Abandon Americans Targeted in Sudan Rape Rampage How State Department officials are trying to cover up inexcusable inaction. August 19, 2016 Ari Lieberman    In 1983, Marxist unrest in the tiny Caribbean Island of Grenada threatened the safety of roughly 1,000 Americans residing there. Many of them were medical students at the island’s medical school. President Ronald Reagan did not hesitate. He dispatched 6,000 U.S. troops to evacuate the Americans and secure the island. Within a week, U.S. objectives were met. The Americans were safe, the Cuban mercenaries were expelled and rule of law was...

The African Union this week called for a “regional protection force” to bolster a 12,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission in the East African country and separate warring parties. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has supported reinforcing the mission. The spokesman for South Sudan’s former rebel leader Riek Machar, now first vice president, says Machar has also called for a “third force” to secure the capital, Juba, after President Salva Kiir’s forces bombed his house during the fighting that raised fears of a return to civil war. The spokesman, James Gatdet Dak, said Machar fled Juba and will not return, despite Kiir’s invitation,...

(full headline) New Nation, Long War:Hillary Clinton’s State Department Gave South Sudan’s Military a Pass for Its Child Soldiers Met a few of them in the town of Pibor last year. These battle-tested veterans had just completed two or three years of military service. They told me about the rigors of a soldier’s life, about toting AK-47s, about the circumstances that led them to take up arms. In the United States, not one of these soldiers would have met the age requirements to enlist in the Army. None were older than 16. Rebel forces in southern Sudan began using child...

The young nation of South Sudan has chosen English as its official language but after decades of civil war, the widespread learning of English presents a big challenge for a country brought up speaking a form of Arabic.I knew there might be problems as soon as I arrived at Juba International airport - and was asked to fill in my own visa form, as the immigration officer could not write English. The colourful banners and billboards hung out to celebrate South Sudan's independence back in July, and still adorning the streets now, are all in English. As are the names...

In March of 2012, two 24-year-old white males were abducted by a group of South Sudanese Africans in Antioch, TN. It was early in the morning and the victims were getting ready to do a paper route. The victims were subjected to 45 minutes of humiliating torture. They were forced to perform sexual acts on each other, sexually tortured, beaten, and stabbed. The perpetrators taunted them the entire time. After the torture, the men were left to die. They were dumped on the side of the road naked and covered in blood. Each had ten stab wounds. One of the...

South Sudan allows fighters to rape women as payment while children and the disabled are burned alive in 'one of the most horrendous human rights situations in the world', a UN report has found. The UN human rights office painted a harrowing picture of civilians suspected of supporting the opposition being torched, suffocated in shipping containers, hanged from trees and cut to pieces. In scorching detail, the report cited cases of parents being forced to watch their children being raped during the country's two-year civil war.

South Sudan's civil war began on the night of December 15, 2013, when a firefight erupted between soldiers serving in the presidential garrison in the capital city, Juba. "Between" is an important word. The battle pitted soldiers from the Dinka tribe (largest in South Sudan) against soldiers in the Nuer tribe (second largest). The government, led by president Salva Kiir, a Dinka, and the rebels, led by Riek Machar, a Nuer, agreed to their first ceasefire on December 31. Fire and combat, however, never ceased. Instead, it spread. Every ceasefire and peace declaration since has failed to hold. Poor communication...

The UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan has been accused of a “complete and utter failure” to protect civilians in one of the most dangerous and volatile parts of the war-ravaged country. ..“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 [Protection of Civilians] sites in Bentiu from southern Unity – those who manage to flee – and they have been telling their stories.” He added: “It’s not like this is a secret. They talk about the most horrendous incidents of sexual...

A cargo plane has crashed on take-off near the international airport in South Sudan's capital Juba, with at least 25 killed. Some reports put the death toll as high as 40.

"Our situation here in Maridi is not good," he said, pointing out that most of the injured people are women and children. He added that other badly burned bodies have also been found around the wreckage of the tanker. On Thursday, Information Minister of Western Equatoria State Charles Kisagna said over 100 people were killed and about 50 others injured in South Sudan when an oil tanker swerved and exploded. The minister noted that "those people may not survive because we do not have the facilities to treat the highly burnt people." The oil tanker was traveling from the South...

Russia came in for harsh criticism last week when state-owned jet producer MiG delivered 12 MiG-29 planes to Sudan. Amnesty International suggested that the jets could be used against civilians in Sudan's western region of Darfur, where attacks against indigenous black tribes by the government-backed Arab janjaweed militia over the last 15 months have left at least 30,000 people dead, forced villagers into refugee camps and left some 2 million people without sufficient food and medicine. U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton blasted MiG for selling modern weapons to a government the United States considers a sponsor of international terrorism....

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, the world’s only sitting leader wanted on genocide charges, is expected to win a landslide victory in elections this week, extending a 25-year reign in which the country has endured multiple insurgencies and the secession of the oil-rich south. Despite Sudan’s seemingly perpetual unrest, al-Bashir survived the 2011 Arab Spring. His ruling party dominates the parliament and local councils, and the massive security apparatus has left the once-vibrant opposition a husk of its former self. Al-Bashir has ruled the country since taking power in a 1989 coup, but billboards across Khartoum showing him in traditional robes...

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Moscow on Monday where the issue of Middle East peace talks will be raised, Russian authorities announced Thursday. “The two leaders will hold talks concerning key aspects of Russian-Palestinian relations and their future, with particular attention on the trade, economy and humanitarian sectors,” the Kremlin said in a statement according to AFP. There will also be “an exchange of ideas on the process of Israeli-Palestinian talks and other problematic regional situations,” the statement continued, adding that North Africa would also be on the agenda. …

(CNN)Armed groups raided a South Sudanese school and seized 89 children who were taking their exams, the United Nations said Saturday. It pointed out that boys were among those taken. The abduction occurred near Malakal, where thousands of people have taken refuge following months of violence in the nation. Kidnappers gathered around a community and conducted house-to-house searches, according to the U.N. children's agency. It said boys over age 12 were taken away by force. U.N. officials warned the abductors that they're violating international law. "The recruitment and use of children by armed forces destroys families and communities," said Jonathan...