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August 2, 2016 (JUBA) - South Sudan has dismissed as false allegations by its former agriculture minister that the August 2015 peace agreement had virtually collapsed.

South Sudan's information minister, Michael Makuei Lueth, speaks to reporters in Jonglei state capital Bor on 25 December 2014 (ST)

Lam Akol resigned from the transitional government of national unity (TGoNU) on Monday over alleged failure by President Salva Kiir to respect the terms of security arrangements and the removal of former first Vice President Riek Machar as final blows to the peace accord.

He also said the peace accord was "dead", adding he had joined "other like-minded compatriots" in quest for changes in governance.

But the country's information minister dismissed claims by his agriculture counterpart.

"Lam Akol and Riek Machar are birds of the same feathers, opportunists and always follow each other," Michael Makuei Lueth told reporters in the South Sudan capital, Juba on Tuesday.

He also described Akol's decision to quit as "unilateral and anti-peace."

"All the parties remain committed to the agreement and so Dr. Lam Akol should realize that he is the odd man out," stressed Leuth.

Meanwhile, a national alliance of 18 political parties on Tuesday selected Kornelio Kon Ngu as its new chairman. Ngu served as deputy minister of agriculture in the new TGoNU.

(ST).

Cinq soldats russes ont été tués lundi dans le crash de leur hélicoptère abattu dans le nord-ouest de la Syrie. 

Après avoir alerté sa direction sur du contenu pédopornographique trouvé sur un disque dur, un informaticien risque le licenciement.

Après Barack Obama, c'est au tour de François Hollande de critiquer les propos de Donald Trump. Le président s'est indigné de l'attitude "humiliante" du candidat républicain à la Maison Blanche qui s'est attaqué à la famille d'un soldat musulman.

Ce projet, consistant à ce que l'impôt sur le revenu soit prélevé dès 2018 par l'employeur, sera débattu à l'automne à l'Assemblée.

(Crédit: Ministère britannique de la défense)

(BRUXELLES2) C’est le Premier ministre libyen, Fayez al-Sarraj, qui l’a annoncé dans une allocution télévisée. Les Etats-Unis ont effectué, lundi (1er août), des frappes aériennes sur la ville de Syrte, considérée comme le principal fief de Daesh en Libye. C’est une première dans l’offensive américaine contre l’organisation de l’Etat islamique présente en Libye.

Des cibles très « précises »

L’information a été rapidement confirmée par Peter Cook, le porte-parole du Pentagone, qui a pourtant refusé d’entrer dans les détails. Il parle de cibles « précises ». L’une des frappes de lundi a détruit un char de Daesh et une autre a visé deux véhicules des jihadistes, postés stratégiquement pour bloquer la reconquête d’un quartier de la ville par les forces fidèles à Sarraj.

Les frappes vont se poursuivre

Les raids sur Syrte « vont se poursuivre » a expliqué Peter Cook, tout en précisant que ce sera « toujours sur demande du gouvernement d’union nationale » (GNA). Selon nos confrères de RFI, de nouvelles frappes ont déjà eu lieu mardi 2 août, visant les positions de Daesh, cette fois-ci au cœur de la ville.

La prise de Syrte, un enjeu clé pour Sarraj 

La demande libyenne ne surprend pas vraiment. Lancée le 12 mai dernier, l’offensive sur Syrte est au ralenti. Les forces du GNA, venues de Misrata et de l’ouest du pays, sont entrées dans la ville le 9 juin mais font face à une forte résistance des djihadistes, qui multiplient les attentats suicides. Les frappes ont  « infligé de lourdes pertes (aux djihadistes) à Syrte. Nos forces ont ainsi pu récupéré des positions stratégiques importantes », a déclaré Fayez al-Sarraj.

US plutôt que France ?

Le Premier ministre libyen se veut ferme. Ces frappes interviennent « dans un cadre limité dans le temps » et elles « ne dépasseront pas Syrte et sa banlieue ». Aucune présence terrestre n’est acceptée. « Nous avons demandé l’appui à la communauté internationale, notamment celui des Etats-Unis. Mais nous souhaitons affirmer qu’il n’y aura aucune présence étrangère sur le sol libyen. » NB : Un petit message indirect à la France, après qu’elle ait reconnu la présence de soldats sur le territoire libyen (Lire aussi: Trois militaires français décédés en Libye, confirme le ministre. En service commandé…). « Toute aide doit être effectuée à la demande directe du GNA ».

(Leonor Hubaut)

Voir l’intervention de Sarraj ici

Lire notre dossier N°34. L’Europe face à la crise en Libye (maj1)

"Si les Américains choisissent Trump, ça aura des conséquences parce que l'élection américaine est une élection mondiale", a prévenu François Hollande.

August 2, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's First Vice-President Bakri Hassan Salih has called on the residents of South Kordofan state to engage in contacts with the rebels to convince them to join the peace process.

SPLA-N rebel soldiers train in South Kordofan on April 25. 2012 (Reuters)

The Sudanese army has been fighting Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) rebels in Blue Nile and South Kordofan since 2011.

Salih, who addressed a crowed in South Kordofan's town of Diling Tuesday, called upon rebels to lay down their arms, saying that Sudan “is wide enough to accommodate all of us”.

He pointed that war has hindered development in the state, saying the Roadmap Agreement proposed by the African Union would resolve all Sudan's problem.

The Vice-President added that the national dialogue would end last next month, expressing hope that holdout opposition and the arms bearers would join the process.

He called upon the residents to grow every single inch of the land in the state, saying “he who produces his food would be able determine his own fate”.

For his part, South Kordofan governor Issa Adam Abakar said the state authorities allow rebels to watch football games in Kadougli, pointing also some residents visit their relatives in the rebel-held areas.

He stressed they would welcome the return of any rebel without accountability, saying more than 450 soldiers and officers have returned during the past period.

In June, Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir declared a four-month unilateral cessation of hostilities in the Two Areas, saying it came as goodwill gesture to give an opportunity for the rebels to lay down arms and to join the peace process in Sudan.

However, SPLM-N has brushed off al-Bashir's announcement as “merely a ploy”, saying he seeks to buy time to reorganize his troops in the Two Areas.

Last December, negotiations between Khartoum the SPLM-N stalled after the government delegation insisted that the objective of talks is to settle the conflict in the Two Areas, while the SPLM-N team has called for a holistic approach to resolve ongoing conflicts across Sudan.

(ST)

Civilian causalities in eastern Ukraine spiked in June and July, prompting the United Nations human rights chief to call on the parties to the conflict to make protection of civilians a priority and take urgent steps to de-escalate the increasingly tense situation at the contact line.

Le chef de l'humanitaire de l'ONU, Stephen O'Brien, a conclu mercredi une mission de trois jours au Soudan du Sud, en appelant toutes les parties à assumer leurs responsabilités pour protéger les civils, alors que de nouveaux combats ont déplacé des dizaines de milliers de personnes dans plusieurs endroits à travers le pays.

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Le dernier week-end d'août devait marquer la rentrée politique d'Alain Juppé et de François Fillon. A Chatou (Yvelines) le samedi 27 pour le maire de Bordeaux, et le dimanche 28 à Sablé-sur-Sarthe (Sarthe)...

Une partie de l'opposition rejette, depuis dimanche, l'idée de Manuel Valls de recourir à « une forme de financement public » du culte musulman. Une piste que le Premier ministre évoquait encore mardi dans...

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August 2, 2016 (JUBA) - South Sudanese President, Salva Kiir, has declared total rejection to deployment of a regional force, backtracking on the earlier reported assurance he gave to the chairman of the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), Festus Mogae, on 25 July and in a meeting with the Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni.

He and his officials argued that countries which have experienced foreign forces intervention have never regained peace and stability.

“I have heard some people have resigned. Okay let them go but if it is connected to pressure on the government to implement their agenda that will not work. South Sudan is a sovereign state and we will not allow foreign troops to come here no matter the amount of pressure and noise they will make. We don't need foreign troops. Already we have enough of them here,” President Kiir told confidants on Monday after learning of the resignation of the minister of agriculture and food security, Lam Akol.

President Kiir, according to a presidential aide who spoke to Sudan Tribune on Tuesday, was commenting while in a meeting with the Chief of General Staff of the South Sudanese army, Paul Malong Awan, and the Minister of National Security, Isaac Mamur Mate.

Minister Mate later gave a statement in which he rejected a regime change agenda, citing a political and security situation in Somalia, Libya and Iraq as the basis of rejecting foreign intervention force.

“They want to destabilize this country to go the Somalia way. They intervened in Somalia, did they succeed. Has Somalia become a country now? What happened in Libya has Libya become a country? And Iraq what happened there? Did they succeed? We don't want this regime change. A change must be peaceful and we have a legal and democratically elected government that should be consulted before making such decisions”, explained Minister Mate in a statement broadcast by the state owned South Sudan on Monday evening.

The top security official declared that any unilateral deployment of a foreign force will not be accepted.

Information minister, Michael Makuei Lueth, also issued a statement on Tuesday denying clashes have taken place around Juba and that the government was not aware of the rapes carried out by its soldiers.

“The media has been abuzz with news of fighting throughout the country, however, we want to assure the region and the whole world that the ceasefire, which was recently ordered by the president, is firmly holding, and that all those reports are false and baseless. They are concocted to justify the demands of intervention force by the enemies of peace who are usually delighted in anarchy and perpetual unrest in the republic of South Sudan,” the 2 August, 2016 president's statement reads in part.

Lueth reiterated rejection of the government to welcome deployment of foreign troops in the country.

“The TGoNU [Transitional Government of National Unity] would like to urgently call on IGAD [Intergovernmental Authority on Development] member states to be cognizant of the fact South Sudan may slide into anarchy if the region military meddles in its internal affairs and that the repercussions of such a hasty undertaking will negatively impact the overall security of the region,” said Makuei, speaking to reporters at the ministry headquarters.

“The transitional government of national unity would like to reiterate its vehement objection to such counterproductive approach, and calls on the member states to stand firm with the transitional government of national unity in the implementation of the agreement as the only basis upon which peace and stability could be maintained in South Sudan.”

IGAD countries and African Union (AU) have approved request by UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon to send extra-troops to boost the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) in Juba with a new mandate to militarily fight the warring SPLM factions under President Salva Kiir and former First Vice President, Riek Machar, following outbreak of clashes early last month.

The UN Security Council is deliberating the possible intervention force – a move opposed by President Kiir and supported by Machar. SPLM In Opposition faction in Juba has replaced Machar with Taban Deng Gai – a move dismissed by Machar's supporters as illegal.

Minister Lueth said the government has not succumbed to regional and international pressure as reported by the media.

Lueth also dismissed claims by SPLM-IO faction loyal to Machar that the government was spearheading Taban Deng's appointment.

“Dr. Riek Machar is neither the SPLM/A IO nor the Agreement and therefore we are moving forward with the implementation of the agreement for the overall interest of the people of South Sudan,” he said.

He claimed the path to democracy is only through peace implementation.

(ST)

August 2, 2016 (KHARTOUM) - A Sudanese member of the Islamic State (ISIS) who is believed to be the mastermind behind the escape of killers of a U.S. diplomat in Khartoum, has died in mysterious circumstances in Libya amid conflicting reports on whether he was killed in military clashes or passed a way of natural causes.

Four Sudanese convicts raise their handcuffs as they are escorted out of the courtroom in the capital Khartoum, 24 June 2009. (REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)

John Granville, who worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), was shot with his driver Abdelrahman Abbas in their car as they returned from a New Year's Eve celebration in Khartoum in 2008.

Four Jihadists were convicted of the killings in 2009 and sentenced to death but they escaped from the Kober prison North Khartoum the following year.

Qusai al-Jaili , who is believed to be the mastermind behind the escape operation , was released last April on a presidential pardon after spending six years in prison. He then left to Libya to join ISIS.

Sources close to the family of al-Jaili told Sudan Tribune on Tuesday that he was killed during an aerial bombardment against one of ISIS strongholds in Libya, saying his family set up a mourning tent in Khartoum's eastern suburb of Um Dom to receive condolences.

“The family learnt from an anonymous caller that al-Jaili has been injured before they were later told that he was killed,” added the source.

However, Al-Mijhar Al-Siyassi daily newspaper on Monday quoted other sources as saying that al-Jaili was complaining from fatigue few days before his family was informed that their son was killed.

Experts on Islamic groups say the total number of Sudanese elements within ISIS is estimated at 150 fighters, pointing that 56 of them had travelled to join the extremist organization from countries other than Sudan.

(ST)

August 2, 2016 (JUBA) – United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has condemned rape and sexual violence in the South Sudanese capital, Juba, adding that it has intensified its patrols in and around the Protection of Civilians (PoCs) site as well as in the wider Juba city area, following reports of sexual violence, including rape.

In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune, UNMISS also reportsed that as an enhanced protection measure, it is working with community leaders and partners to coordinate the peacekeepers escorts of women and young girls leaving protection sites to collect food and other items.

The Mission said it takes very seriously recent allegations that peacekeepers may not have rendered aid to civilians in distress, and it is looking into the specific allegations, in line with established protocols.

“UNMISS has reinforced the message to all peacekeepers that if these incidents of abuse are committed in areas for which they have responsibility, they have the individual and joint duty to act, to prevent harm to innocent civilians,” it said.

The UN condemned unequivocally the actions of sexual violence, and reminds all combatants and parties to the conflict in South Sudan, their commanders, and responsible leaders, that the acts of sexual violence constitute grave violations of international human rights law and may be regarded as war crimes as well as crimes against humanity.

It blamed government soldiers for the rapes and other forms of sexual violence in the capital.

ESCALATING FIGHTING

Also the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR) said that fighting has escalated around Juba between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those loyal to former First Vice President, Riek Machar, saying the situation in South Sudan as a whole has been getting increasingly tense.

Refugee flows from South Sudan into Uganda have doubled in the past ten days, according to UNHCR. It said it is helping some 52,000 people who have fled to Uganda, including an increasing number of severely malnourished children.

The refugees say armed groups on roads to Uganda were preventing more people from fleeing South Sudan in anticipation of a renewed conflict between rebel and government forces. The armed groups were looting villages, murdering civilians and forcibly recruiting young men and boys into their ranks.

The WHO (World Health Organization) said that inside South Sudan an outbreak of cholera had caused 21 deaths by the end of July. Some 586 cases have been reported, with an average of 35 new hospital admissions per day.

Stephen O'Brien, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), is in South Sudan to visit some of the affected people and renew his call for funding.

The humanitarian response plan inside South Sudan has asked for almost $1.3 billion, but it is only 40 per cent funded.

There are 1.61 million internally displaced people inside the country and another 4.8 million people there are food insecure. Mr. O'Brien is scheduled to give a press briefing in Juba tomorrow on Wednesday.

(ST)

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

August 2, 2016 (ADDIS ABABA) – The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) held a media training for journalists drawn from four of the Nile Basin countries.

The Grand Renaissance Dam is under construction on the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia. (Photo AFP/William Lloyd-George)

26 scribes from Ethiopia, Egypt, Sudan and South Sudan participated in the five-day training which took place in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa.

Organizers said the objective of the training was to contribute to the emergence and consolidation of constructive media reporting about the Eastern Nile basin.

During the training, presentations were given on ways how journalists should cover on Nile issues including on how they could use the media to promote cooperation to support national and regional politicians could reach in a consensus on disputes or issues related with the Nile water resource.

It was emphasized that journalists must promote and disseminate an up-to-date and accurate reports regarding developments on political, economic and environmental issues related to the River Nile.

The training also intended to promote wider awareness and enhance knowledge and expand understanding on cooperation opportunities and the reward could be gained out of joint collaboration on water management and development.

Participants interacted with a number of experts on areas that covered on Ethiopian Nile dam's technical, legal, economic perspectives, on the dam's trilateral process as well as on opportunities and challenges on sub-basin cooperation.

A number of participants from different countries told Sudan Tribune that the training was incredibly helpful.

They said the training has facilitated an improved understanding among the journalists on the challenges and opportunities of water cooperation.

Trained Journalists vow to report in a responsible way and to further provide the public in their respective countries factual information to clear long-standing confusion regarding Ethiopia's massive dam project.

The journalists vow to use their respective media to promote the benefits of multi-lateral cooperation in the various Nile water related sectors.

The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) recognizes media engagement as a strategic partner in fostering Nile cooperation for the sustainable management and equitable utilization of the shared Nile Basin water resources.

NBI says it has registered remarkable achievements in fostering mutual understanding and appreciation among basin states and non-governmental stakeholders, of the fragility, sensitivity and hydro-politics of the River Nile since its launch in February 1999.

VISIT TO GERD

The Group of journalists has also paid a visit to the construction site of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) where they spent a night.

Up on arrival the journalists were briefed on the over all view of the giant structure by project manager, engineer Simegnew Bekele.

The regional media team which also comprises 9 journalists from Egypt took over a half-day long tour at the site where they witnessed the current progress of the major construction development works undergoing.

This the first time for a team of Egyptian journalists to pay a visit in GERD since it's launch in 2011.

Most of the journalists told Sudan Tribune the visit has helped them witness the reality on ground and further obtain first-hand information on the dam's current status.

Haitham Mohamed, an Egyptian journalist said he had misconception on the project and the visit had helped him to open his eyes to fix the fallacy.

Before the visit Mohamed said he used to consider the dam project as an absolute threat to Egypt's water security.

“I thought the construction of the dam would hurt Egypt but now I discover that is not the case” he told Sudan Tribune.

“After I talked to the experts and engineers including the project manager, I have come to believe it is a crucial project which Nile basin countries should rather cooperate in order to enhance their development efforts” he added.

When completed, the $4.1 billion dam project, which is being built along the Nile in Benishangul Gumuz region near the Sudanese border, will have a power generation capacity of 6,000 megawatts.

The dam project according to project manager, Engineer Simegenw Bekele, is little over 50% completed but experts told Sudan Tribune that it will soon reach 70% completion mark when turbines that are needed to generate power are installed.

Ethiopia which is investing billions of dollars on building a number of hydro-power plants, aims to become a renewable energy hub of the region.

It plans to export large amounts of clean and cheap hydro-power-processed electricity to its neighbors, other African countries and even to the Middle East and beyond.

The ambitious plan is part of the horn of Africa nation's efforts to propel in becoming a middle-income country by 2025.

Although construction of the GERD is seen by Ethiopians as having a vital role in transforming the economy of the country and alleviate poverty, Egyptians however view the project as a potential threat to their water security.

The Nile River is a lifeline to some 80% of Egyptians and the desert North African nation fears Ethiopia's huge dam project will ultimately diminish its historic water rights.

In 2013, Ethiopia and Egypt have been locked in a bitter war of wards after Egyptian politicians were caught on camera proposing sabotage, including an air strike to halt the project.

However, tensions eased after Cairo and Addis Ababa engaged in a number of positive discussions along with Sudan which led to a cooperation deal signed in March 2015 in Khartoum. Ethiopia insists the dam will not harm the interests of Sudan and Egypt rather provide economic benefits.

Ethiopia's Nile dam will be Africa's largest and the world's 8th biggest if finalised. Ethiopia is constructing the mega project from its own coffers to be completed in 2017.

(ST)