South Sudan

[…] The three-year initiative, dubbed Sustainable Independent Media Activity, will improve access to credible, accurate, and reliable information for South Sudanese citizens by promoting sustainability of high quality, independent radio operations.

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said is “deeply” concerned about the recent fighting between armed groups in Upper Nile State. The mission, in a statement issued on Wednesday, said clashes in Fashoda County resulted in loss of lives, abduction of women and displacement of over 8,000 people.

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and the head of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council, Gen Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan on Wednesday discussed security and bilateral relations between the two countries.

The UN says there is a need to keep an eye on South Sudan, where fragile peace continues to be threatened by conflict. On Wednesday, the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) pointed out inter-communal conflict for repeated cycles of violence that may erode gains towards peace across the country.

South Sudan will start implementing a new law on cybercrime by setting up a special court, the presidency has announced. … Many South Sudanese social media users and activists have faulted the move, saying the process was not inclusive and transparent, and that the order does not favour all.

Deeply disturbing violence is escalating “all over” South Sudan, top independent UN human rights experts have warned. Women and girls continue to be gang-raped and survivors have been described as “zombies, physically and emotionally dead”, according to the UN Commission on Human Rights in the world’s youngest nation.

Accounts of sexual abuse committed by aid workers at a camp run by the UN in South Sudan first surfaced in 2015, two years after the country's civil war erupted. Seven years on, such reports have not only continued, but they recently increased, an investigation by The New Humanitarian and Al Jazeera found.

UN Special Representative Nicholas Haysom said that although key provisions of the Agreement are set to end by February, the parties agreed in August on a Roadmap that extends the current transitional period by 24 months.  … The Special Representative reported that while conflict-related violence is also increasing, UNMISS continues to support prevention through policy frameworks and other areas. 

[…] During the reporting period, the implementation of the Revitalized Agreement

 

The body monitoring South Sudan’s peace process (RJMEC) has urged the Revitalised Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGoNU) to redouble its efforts and fully implement the roadmap in letter and spirit.