Südsudan

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.

The UN on Tuesday condemned the murder of two aid workers in South Sudan and called on authorities to bring their killers to justice following a spate of similar attacks. … The UN … says 128 humanitarian workers -- most of them South Sudanese -- have been killed on the job since 2013.

The Security Council on Friday renewed the arms embargo, travel ban and assets freeze imposed on South Sudan for another year, extending till July 1, 2022 the mandate of the panel of experts tasked with helping to oversee those measures.

At least 18 people were killed and dozens more were injured this week in two days of intercommunal clashes in South Sudan’s Warrap state, according to local authorities.

South Sudan began Tuesday to draft a final constitution in the aim of cementing a fragile peace almost a decade after it won independence. President Salva Kiir presided over a ceremony that launched the process, part of a peace deal reached with rival Riek Machar in 2018.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir on Monday reconstituted the National Legislative Assembly, one day after he dissolved the 400-member parliament in accordance with the revitalized peace agreement.

A United Nations report warns that the slow implementation of a revitalised peace accord in South Sudan risks pushing the country back into a “large-scale conflict”.

David Shearer said Wednesday he's leaving the top U.N. job in South Sudan convinced the world's youngest nation has the potential to become a tourist destination to rival any country in East Africa and the oil and mineral riches to spur economic progress — if it can eliminate corruption and establish a transparent and open government.

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said Tuesday it plans to reduce troop numbers by seven percent this year, due to a drop in violence in the conflict-torn country. UNMISS chief David Shearer said the drawdown is also a result of UN troops withdrawing from camps where civilians had sought protection during the country’s six-year civil war, handing control of the sites to Juba.