Südsudan

Over the past few days thousands of desperate civilians have been fleeing a fresh outbreak of violence in South Sudan’s Equatoria state, seeking safety in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Three holdout opposition groups announced on Friday the establishment of a new alliance group calling for three autonomous governments in Bhar El Ghazal, Upper Nile and Equatoria. The National Alliance for Democracy And Freedom Action (NADAFA) is founded by the People’s Democratic Movement, the Workers Party of Upper Nile, and Federal Democratic Party/Army.

South Sudan's rebel leader Riek Machar is planning to return to Juba in May under a power-sharing deal that a UN envoy said Tuesday offered the "best chance" of ending the war.

Since the signing of a September 2018 deal between the South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and his political rival and former deputy Riek Machar to end conflict in the country, political violence has “dropped dramatically,” David Shearer, head of the UN Mission in South Sudan told reporters on Tuesday. … Despite the fall in political violence, conflict is still ongoing, said Mr. Shearer, pointing to, among others, ethnic violence that has led to killings, and in the South of the country, where the fighters of Thomas Cirillo’s National Salvation Front have been involved in clashes with Government forces.

At least nine people were killed in fresh clashes in Amadi State in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria, officials said. The weekend clashes pitted the National Salvation Front (NAS) led by Gen Thomas Cirillo, and a faction of the Dr Riek Machar-led SPLM-IO.

The South Sudanese peace partners agreed to establish 25 cantonment sites for the opposition groups in line with the implementation of the security arrangements, a milestone of the revitalized peace agreement.

The South Sudan peace monitoring agency has expressed concern over the military build-up in Yei River State in Central Equatoria. The Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC), has disclosed that it has received several credible reports of military deployment to Yei by both the government and rebels under the command of Gen Thomas Cirillo. Gen Cirillo is the leader of the National Salvation Front (NAS), which refused to sign the September peace deal.

Embattled Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is receiving words of support from some unlikely places as he faces deadly protests calling for him to step down.

South Sudan has begun to repair and pump oil from wells damaged in the civil war and will ramp up production by the end of the year, the oil minister told Reuters ahead of a Monday trip to the oil fields.

Women and girls bear an additional burden in any war, as the threat of sexual violence or abuse combines with the standard risks of conflict. The conflict in South Sudan is no different. Since it began in December 2013, both sides have been accused of using rape and sexual assault as a “weapon of war”. UN envoy Pramila Patten told the Security Council last month that the practice “escalated dramatically” in 2018.