South Sudan

Massive plundering of South Sudan’s public coffers is undermining human rights in the world’s youngest nation and threatening its already fragile peace process, according to a UN report released on Thursday.

South Sudan has made history with the appointment of two women to senior leadership positions within its Transitional National Legislature, the top United Nations official in the country told the Security Council on Wednesday, as he encouraged parties to build on these gains in efforts to overcome significant political and security headwinds.

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) called on military commanders and political leaders Tuesday to end clashes in Western Equatoria state following the deaths of at least five people on Monday. 

South Sudan is witnessing a "new wave of repression", global rights group Amnesty International warned Friday, with many activists now in hiding after a string of arrests in the conflict-wracked country.

The South Sudan National Police Service has deployed officers on the streets of the capital, Juba, and warned South Sudanese not to take part in the scheduled nationwide Monday protests against the government.

Sudan and South Sudan have agreed to open their borders after 11 years. This was announced after a meeting between South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok according to President Kiir’s office. 

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan said it is concerned at the division that has developed within the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO), and which led to clashes between factions in Magenis last week.

The clashes erupted on Saturday after (Riek) Machar’s rivals declared this week they had deposed him as the head of the party and its military forces. Armed forces led by a rival general in the party, Simon Gatwech Dual, had launched an attack on Machar’s men, who had “repulsed the aggressors”, spokesman Colonel Lam Paul Gabriel said.

Machar, a pivotal figure in South Sudan's struggle for independence and subsequent civil war, was deposed following a three-day gathering of senior members of the Sudan People's Liberation Army-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) in the country's far north, the party's military wing has announced.