Südsudan

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.

The government and opposition in South Sudan are closing ranks after a group that opposed monitoring and verification mechanism agreed to a ceasefire.

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has urged local and national authorities to put an end to extrajudicial executions following the killing of at least 42 people accused of criminal activity.

Nicholas Haysom, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for South Sudan and Head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, explains the five key tracks of UNMISS’s three-year strategic vision.

On South Sudan’s 10th anniversary of independence Friday, President Salva Kiir pledged to improve security across the country and initiate widespread economic reforms – but many citizens said there is little to celebrate after living through a civil war, poverty and widespread hunger.

This week on Hold Your Fire!, Richard Atwood and Naz Modirzadeh talk to Alan Boswell, senior analyst for South Sudan, for an in-depth look at South Sudanese statehood ten years after independence.