Südsudan

More than 70 percent of South Sudan’s population will struggle to survive the peak of the annual ‘lean season’ this year, as the country grapples with unprecedented levels of food insecurity caused by conflict, climate shocks, COVID-19, and rising costs, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Friday.

In this newly released fact sheet from the project Climate-related Peace and Security Risks (CPSR), experts look at how South Sudan is vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Intercommunal clashes, mostly involving cattle, have killed nearly 70 people across various parts of South Sudan in the past week, according to witnesses and officials.

South Sudan’s unity government marked its two-year anniversary against a backdrop of stalled constitutional progress and ongoing cycles of community violence – often fuelled by political groups and armed militias – the senior UN official in the country told the Security Council on Monday. (-> Meetings Coverage)

At least 440 civilians died in brutal fighting between rival factions in southwestern South Sudan over just a few months last year, the United Nations said on Tuesday. The report comes on the heels of a warning by the United Nations last month that the world’s youngest country risked a return to war, with bouts of interethnic violence and political infighting threatening to undo even the limited progress made in implementing a stuttering peace process.

A peacekeeper is in stable condition a day after being shot during an attempted ambush on a UN convoy in South Sudan, the UN Mission in the country, UNMISS, and the World Food Programme (WFP) reported on Tuesday. 

Fighting between the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition and armed youths, which began in Mirmir Payam, has spread to several villages in Koch, Mayiandit and Leer. “UNMISS strongly condemns the violence at a time when humanitarian needs are rising, and people are already reeling from the worst flooding in decades," the statement said.

Side deals between President Salva Kiir and renegade opposition leaders jeopardise the 2018 agreement that ended the worst fighting of South Sudan’s civil war. East African mediators should press the principal combatants – Kiir and Riek Machar – to restart talks on the issues that divide them.

[…] On Monday, the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC) Interim Chairperson Maj Gen Charles Tai Gituai asked the peace parties to utilise the remaining days before end of transitional period to address the delays on proposed laws.

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan on Wednesday strongly condemned the continued violence across the country, which is affecting the safety of civilians and humanitarian workers, constraining humanitarian access, and disrupting the delivery of aid and services to thousands of vulnerable people.