Africa

June 20, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - The Chairman of the Sovereign Council in Sudan, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, on Sunday issued a constitutional decree granting self-government powers for the Two Areas of the Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

The decision is in line with the terms of the Juba Peace Agreement signed between the government and the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) on October 3, 2020.

"The President of the Sovereign Council issued a “constitutional decree establishing an administrative system for the Two Areas in accordance with the peace agreement,” reads a statement released by the Ministry of Local Government on Sunday.

The statement said that the Minister of Local Government Buthaina Ibrahim Dinar informed the states and the federal ministries of the decision.

"The Parties agree that without prejudice to the unity of Sudan's people and territory, the exclusive, joint or residual powers agreed upon in this Agreement, the Two Areas shall enjoy autonomy by which they shall exercise the powers stipulated in this Agreement", provides the Juba peace agreement on the system of governance in the Two Areas.

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South Sudan, the UN’s youngest Member State, is marking its tenth anniversary of independence amid languishing political progress and a range of humanitarian challenges, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told Security Council members on Monday.

June 20, 2021 (JUBA/ADDIS ABABA) - The International Organization for Migration (IOM) regional director for East and Horn of Africa, Mohammed Abdiker is in Juba, South Sudan on a six-day visit.

International Organization for Migration regional director for East and Horn of Africa, Mohammed Abdiker (Getty)

During his trip, Abdiker is scheduled to meet with government officials, international donors and the United Nations country team.

“Mr. Abdiker will also visit Wau in Western Bahr el Ghazal to assess IOM's humanitarian response in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps, including the Naivasha IDPs camp, and surrounding communities, as well as visit transition and recovery activities implemented by IOM for communities and returnees,” IOM said in a statement issued Monday.

The top IOM official is expected to brief journalists in Juba on Friday, June 25.

According to IOM, there are more than 1.7 million IDPs in South Sudan living in Protection of Civilians (PoC) site, IDP camps and in host communities.

The organisation said it seeks to work closely with authorities in the country to deliver programs across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus through an integrated, multi-sectoral approach whereby governance, migration management, and transition, recovery, and stabilization efforts complement humanitarian interventions across the country.

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June 20, 2021 (NAIROBI) - South Sudanese leaders should not sacrifice justice for a reconciliation likely to be short-term and inadequate in the absence of accountability, Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International's Secretary General warned Monday

President Kiir shakes hands with his FVP Macahr in a recent meeting at the presidency (SSPPU photo)

In a letter to President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar, she urged both leaders to ensure that “survivors and victims of atrocities committed in South Sudan's conflict that broke out in December 2013 are given a comprehensive and holistic response to the harm they suffered, including truth and trials”.

On June 7, Callamard sent the letter privately first to the two leaders, five years after the New York Times ran an opinion article by the two leaders (later disowned by Machar) entitled “South Sudan Needs Truth, Not Trials” extolling the virtues of reconciliation over criminal prosecutions.

Heavy fighting broke out between forces loyal to Kiir and those loyal to Machar, killing hundreds of civilians, a day after the publication of the op-ed.

“Only a holistic process that caters to the diversity of victims and their multiples needs and desires, that guarantees non-recurrence of the violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, and addresses a range of human rights, including the right to truth, the right to reparations and the right to justice, can bring an end to violations in South Sudan,” wrote Callamard.

Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in the South Sudan conflict, thousands subjected to rape and other sexual violence, and millions have been displaced from their homes, their villages burnt and pillaged.

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The citizens of the Central African Republic (CAR) have endured decades of war and conflict. Merveille Yayoro, a young reporter at Guira-FM, the radio station run by the UN peacekeeping mission in the country (MINUSCA), says that she wants her work to provide an antidote to hate speech and misinformation, and help bring about a lasting peace.

Civilians continue to flee armed conflict and insecurity in northern Mozambique, more than two months after militants attacked the coastal city of Palma, located in Cabo Delgado province, UN agencies reported on Friday. 

The head of the World Food Programme (WFP) appealed on Thursday for immediate access to deliver lifesaving assistance to Ethiopia’s Tigray region, where ongoing fighting between government and regional forces has put some 350,000 people at risk of famine.  

The international community must stay focused on achieving justice and peace for the people of Darfur, the outgoing Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) told the Security Council on Wednesday. 

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and partners are working to restore water supply to roughly 200,000 people, including some 100,000 children, affected by the volcanic eruption last month in Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). 

Attacks by armed groups including Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province pose grave threats to Central Africa’s fragile stability, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told the Security Council on Monday, while spotlighting crucial democratic gains that must be protected.

Communities in rural Burkina Faso urgently need greater protection from violent extremists, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, insisted on Monday, in response to a deadly assault at the weekend that claimed the lives of at least 132 innocent people.

A Ugandan woman entrepreneur who was left with just a wheelbarrow and a red dress, when a business partner ran off with all her money has been recognized with an award by the UN trade agency (UNCTAD) after she grew her company into a nationwide enterprise with five million customers.

Critical health facilities across Africa risk being overwhelmed by surging COVID-19 infections, the UN health agency said on Thursday.

A UN independent human rights expert said on Wednesday that Mali’s new military authorities should “scrupulously respect human rights” and release all leaders detained in last week’s coup. 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to investigate recent deadly attacks by insurgents in the east and bring the perpetrators to account. 

More than one million people in two areas of the war-ravaged Tigray region in Ethiopia have received emergency food assistance since distributions began in March, the World Food Programme (WFP) reported on Tuesday. 

When Nigerian Blessing Ojukwu became pregnant after she was raped, her family disowned her. She was forced to live with her abuser, who continued to attack her. Now, a UN-backed initiative is giving her, and others in similar situations, a chance to become financially independent, and start new lives. 

Drones are providing life-saving care to women in remote parts of the southern African country, Botswana, who otherwise may die in childbirth, thanks to support from the United Nations.   

Congo-Brazzaville's leader is the latest to fuel speculation that he wants his son to succeed him.

The Security Council welcomed the agreement reached on Thursday by the Somali federal government and the federal member states leaders on the implementation of the 17 September Electoral Model.