South Sudan voices alarm over US warning to businesses about the risks of business dealings

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: No matter what the UN, US et al want to impose on South Sudan and pressure it into doing in the coming year, Messrs Kiir and Machar are the best and most experienced leaders to steer South Sudan through global recession and peace. Everyone's time could be best spent on working to hold South Sudan together and stop civil war in Sudan.

The last thing South Sudan needs is Americans breathing down its neck and twisting arms for a democracy that doesn't work in Africa. I say, African solutions to African problems! Libya's Col Gaddafi strongly supported a United States of Africa and championed African land for African people!

All African states are members of the African Union.  

Map of the African continent as in 2011-07. -Wikipedia

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From AFP News via The Barron’s Daily

By AFP - Agence France Presse
Dated Tuesday 15 August 2023 - here is a full copy:

S.Sudan Voices Alarm Over US Warning To Businesses

South Sudan voiced alarm on Tuesday over a US warning about the risks of business dealings in the troubled country, which is facing a myriad of problems more than a decade after independence.

The United States and South Sudan's other international partners have been piling pressure on its leaders over their failure to meet a raft of deadlines in the country's transition process.

The government in Juba said it was "seriously alarmed" by the advisory issued on Monday to US businesses in South Sudan.

The US Departments of State, Commerce and Labor warned of "the growing reputational, financial and legal risks" to transactions linked to the government or companies controlled by officials' families.

The advisory called on US businesses to do "due diligence on corruption and human rights issues" and to avoid any dealings that involve South Sudanese officials who are under sanctions.

And it faulted the transitional government for its "failure to adhere to its own laws" including on transparency over oil revenue.

Business dealings could "adversely impact US businesses, individuals, other persons and their operations in South Sudan and the region," it said.

Two-way trade totalled $88 million in 2019 according to US data.

South Sudan's foreign ministry said it respected the right of the US to issue such advisories and acknowledged challenges in the government's efforts to implement a 2018 peace agreement, particularly in economic reforms and public financial management.

But it added: "The government believes that cooperation and partnership are more effective than confrontation and isolation in achieving mutual interests and objectives."

Since becoming the world's youngest nation in 2011 when it achieved independence from Sudan, South Sudan has been bedevilled by crises including a five-year civil war that cost nearly 400,000 lives before a 2018 peace deal was signed.

But the fragile unity government led by President Salva Kiir and his rival and deputy Riek Machar has largely failed to deliver on its promises.

Kiir has vowed to hold South Sudan's first ever presidential poll by the end of 2024 after the government a year ago controversially extended the transition period outlined in the peace deal.

But Western powers accuse him and Machar of dragging their heels in order to cling on to power in one of the poorest and most corrupt countries on the planet.

"There has been neither any meaningful progress since (the extension) nor evidence of political will," the so-called Troika of the United States, Britain and Norway said last week.

"Deadline after deadline has been missed, laws remain unpassed, commissions unformed and implementation bodies unfunded."

The Barron's news department was not involved in the creation of the content above. This story was produced by AFP. For more information go to AFP.com.

View original: https://www.barrons.com/news/s-sudan-voices-alarm-over-us-warning-to-businesses-9e66d19f

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Further reading

Press Release at US Department of Commerce

By Office of Public Affairs

Dated Mon 14 Aug 2023 

US Government Issues a Business Advisory for South Sudan

For more information, see the complete advisory.

View original: https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2023/08/us-government-issues-business-advisory-south-sudan

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Report at VOA (Voice of America News)

By Henry Wilkins

Dated Thur 17 Aug 2023 2:05 PM - excerpt:

Northern South Sudan's Economy 'Decimated' by Sudan Conflict

Sudan's conflict has caused prices in the border region of neighboring South Sudan to rise sharply, according to local market traders. Meanwhile, the production and export of South Sudanese oil through Sudan, which the World Bank says makes up 90% of the country’s revenue, is being strangled by the conflict too. Henry Wilkins reports from Renk, South Sudan.

See video report: https://www.voanews.com/a/northern-south-sudan-s-economy-decimated-by-sudan-conflict-/7229419.html

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Report at DW (Deutsche Welle)

Why fewer Africans are able to own land

By Martina Schwikowski

Dated 19 Jan 2021 - excerpt:

Research has shown that inequality in access to land is increasing across the African continent. Experts are calling for more rules and controls on the sale of land to counteract poverty.

https://www.dw.com/en/dwindling-number-of-africans-own-land/a-56273543

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Report at land coalition.org

NEW REPORT REVEALS LAND INEQUALITY IS WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT AND IS FUELING OTHER INEQUALITIES

Dated 24 Nov 2020 - excerpt:

The International Land Coalition is a global network of over 250 organisations around the globe working together to put people at the centre of land governance, responding to the needs and protecting the rights of women, men and communities who live on and from the land. For more information, visit: www.landcoatition.org and www.unevenground.org - and  Uneven Ground: land inequality at the heart of unequal societies

https://www.landcoalition.org/en/newsroom/new-report-reveals-land-inequality-worse-we-thought-and-fueling-other-inequalities/

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South Sudan plans to join the Non-Aligned Movement

THE Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum for 120 countries that are not formally siding with or against any major power bloc. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide. About 52 African nations except South Sudan and Western Sahara are NAM members. It also has 17 Observer Countries and 10 Observer organisations. Read more.

Report published at Africa-Press.net
Dated Monday 12 June 2023; 16:02 - here is a full copy:

South Sudan plans to join league of neutral nations

(Africa-Press – South-Sudan) - South Sudan’s Governance Cluster headed by First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar [pictured] on Friday disclosed that the country plans to join Non-Aligned Movement.

Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum for 120 countries that are not formally siding with or against any major power bloc.

After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide.

It was founded in 1961 with the view of advancing the interests of developing countries in the context of Cold War confrontation between the United States and its allies, and the Soviet Union.

Cabinet Minister Dr. Martin Elia Lomuro said on June 9, the cluster will present a draft to the Council of Ministers for approval.

Speaking to the state television SSBC, Lomuro said the cluster discussed the advantages of joining the neutral nations without disclosing the benefits.

“We wish to become a member of Non-Aligned Movement, currently chaired by Azerbaijan,” he said.

“We have discussed generally the benefit of joining us Non-Aligned Movement and in the end, we recommended this step and we presented a memo that we go to the council of ministry for final approval.”

About 52 African nations except South Sudan and Western Sahara are NAM members.

Algeria was the first African country to join the movement in 1969 while Zimbabwe was considered as the last country in Africa to be a part of the aligned in 1979.

The bloc played a crucial role in decolonization, the formation of new independent states, and the democratization of international relations.

The movement is governed by five principles: mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty; mutual non-aggression; mutual non-interference in domestic affairs; equality and mutual benefit; and peaceful co-existence.

It also has 17 Observer Countries and 10 Observer organizations.

View original: https://www.africa-press.net/south-sudan/all-news/south-sudan-plans-to-join-league-of-neutral-nations

[Ends]

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Post script from Sudan Watch Editor:

NAM celebrated its 60th anniversary in Belgrade on 11-12 Oct 2021. Belgrade is the capital city of Serbia. 

As per Wikipedia, Belgrade is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Europe and the world. One of the most important prehistoric cultures of Europe, the Vinča culture, evolved within the Belgrade area in the 6th millennium BC. Here is NAM's logo. 

Image: Logo of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Credit: Wikipedia

Image: Closing ceremony of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit with the presence of members’ heads of state with an inaugural speech by supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Non-Aligned Movement celebrated its 60th anniversary in Belgrade, on 11–12 October 2021. Credit: Wikipedia

[Ends]

UN: South Sudan is facing violent clashes as it struggles to implement power-sharing deal

Report from The Washington Times

By Edith M. Lederer - Associated Press 

Friday 05 May 2023

U.N.: South Sudan struggling to implement power-sharing deal

Photo by: Peter Louis. People who crossed from Sudan are seen at a refugee camp in Renk County, South Sudan, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. Sudan has plunged into chaos since fighting erupted in mid-April between the country's two rival top generals and there is increasing concern for those trapped and displaced by the fighting. (Peter Louis/WFP via AP)

UNITED NATIONS — South Sudan is facing violent clashes and increasing disillusionment and frustration as it struggles to implement the most challenging provisions of a fragile 2018 power-sharing agreement, U.N. experts say in a new report.

The world’s newest nation is struggling to integrate rival military forces, draft a new constitution and prepare for its first election as an independent country in December 2024, the experts monitoring sanctions against the world’s newest nation said in a report to the U.N. Security Council obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

The country’s stability “will likely turn on the government’s ability to reward the patience of those who remain committed to peace, rather than those who have sought to reshape it through violence,” the report says.

There were high hopes when oil-rich South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after a long conflict. But the country slid into a civil war in December 2013 largely based on ethnic divisions when forces loyal to the current president, Salva Kiir, battled those loyal to the current vice president, Riek Machar.

Tens of thousands of people were killed in the war, which ended with the 2018 peace agreement, bringing Kiir and Machar together in a government of national unity. Under the agreement, elections were supposed to be held in February 2023, but last August they were postponed until December 2024.

View original: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/may/5/un-south-sudan-struggling-to-implement-power-shari/

[Ends] 

S.Sudan gets unity govt to end war after 400,000 killed - Pope kissed leaders' feet to encourage peace

• South Sudan opened a new chapter in its fragile emergence from civil war Saturday as rival leaders formed a coalition government that many observers prayed would last this time around.
• A day after President Salva Kiir dissolved the previous government, opposition leader Riek Machar was sworn in as his deputy, an arrangement that twice collapsed in fighting during the conflict that killed nearly 400,000 people.
• In a likely sign of caution, no heads of state aside from Sudan’s leader, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, attended the swearing-in. 
• As some analysts said the threat of further sanctions pushed Kiir and Machar to make peace once more, envoys from neighboring Sudan, Kenya and Uganda in remarks after the swearing-in called for the lifting of existing sanctions, to applause. Read more by Associated Press here below.

Photo: South Sudanese President Salva Kiir (right) shakes hands with First Vice President Riek Machar at his swearing-in ceremony at the State House in Juba on Saturday. | AFP-JIJI

South Sudan gets unity government that could end war

News report from Japan Times

By Associated Press (AP) 

23 Feb 2020 (JUBA) – South Sudan opened a new chapter in its fragile emergence from civil war Saturday as rival leaders formed a coalition government that many observers prayed would last this time around.

A day after President Salva Kiir dissolved the previous government, opposition leader Riek Machar was sworn in as his deputy, an arrangement that twice collapsed in fighting during the conflict that killed nearly 400,000 people.

Kiir declared “the official end of the war, and we can now proclaim a new dawn.” Peace is “never to be shaken ever again,” the president said, adding that he had forgiven Machar and asking for Machar’s forgiveness, to applause. He called on their respective Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups to do the same.

The world’s youngest nation slid into civil war in 2013, two years after winning a long-fought independence from Sudan, as supporters of Kiir and Machar clashed. Numerous attempts at peace failed, including a deal that saw Machar return as vice president in 2016 — only to flee the country on foot months later amid fresh gunfire.

Intense international pressure followed the most recent peace deal in 2018. Pope Francis in a dramatic gesture kissed the feet of Kiir and Machar last year to coax them into putting differences aside. Saturday’s ceremony began with a presentation to them of that photo as a reminder.

Exasperation by the United States, South Sudan’s largest aid donor, and others grew as Kiir and Machar in the past year pushed back two deadlines to take the crucial step of forming the coalition government. But with less than a week before the latest deadline Saturday, each made a key concession.

Kiir announced a “painful” decision on the politically sensitive issue of the number of states, and Machar agreed to have Kiir take responsibility for his security. On Thursday, they announced they had agreed to form a government meant to lead to elections in three years’ time — the first vote since independence.

“Finally, peace is at our doorstep,” a reporter with the U.N.-backed Radio Miraya declared from Bor in long-suffering Jonglei state. In Yambio, youth with flags were reported in the streets. “I rejoice with the South Sudanese, especially the displaced, hungry and grieving who waited so long,” the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, tweeted.

Hugs and applause followed Machar’s swearing-in. He vowed to South Sudanese to work together “to end your suffering.”

And both he and Kiir thanked the pope for his gesture. “We are proud to report to him that we have also reconciled,” Kiir said. “We were greatly humbled and challenged” by him, Machar said.

Even as citizens breathed a careful sigh of relief, aid groups, analysts and diplomats warned of major challenges ahead. In a likely sign of caution, no heads of state aside from Sudan’s leader, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, attended the swearing-in.

“While much work remains to be done, this is an important milestone in the path to peace,” the U.S. Embassy said in a message of congratulations. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called it a “significant achievement.”

Tens of thousands of rival forces still must be knitted together into a single army, a process that the U.N. and others have called behind schedule and poorly provisioned.

And observers have stressed that this new government must be inclusive in a country where fighting has often occurred along ethnic lines and where several armed groups operate. Not all have signed on to the peace deal.

Kiir and Machar have said outstanding issues will be negotiated under the new government.

Other vice presidents named by Kiir on Friday include Taban Deng Gai, a former ally of Machar who switched to the government side and last month was sanctioned by the U.S. over involvement in serious human rights abuses. Another is Rebecca Garang, the widow of John Garang, who led a long fight for independence from Sudan.

The humanitarian community, which has seen more than 100 workers killed since the civil war began, hopes the new government will lead to far easier delivery of food and other badly needed support as roughly half of South Sudan’s population of 12 million remain hungry. Some 40,000 are in famine conditions, a new report said Thursday, and now a major locust outbreak in East Africa has arrived.

Another more than 2 million people fled South Sudan during the civil war, and Kiir has urged them to come home.

The U.N. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan warns that serious abuses continue. “Civilians are deliberately starved, systematically surveilled and silenced, arbitrarily arrested and detained and denied meaningful access to justice,” its latest report said Thursday. It said scattered deadly violence, the use of child soldiers and sexual violence imperil the fragile peace.

The Sentry, an investigative team that has alleged corruption among some South Sudanese officials, urged the international community to keep up pressure.

“Years of conflict have bred deep distrust among South Sudan’s politicians, heightening the potential for a return to civil war,” it said Friday. “The ability to hold South Sudan’s politicians accountable throughout the process, rather than waiting until it is too late, is essential to the survival of the peace agreement.”

As some analysts said the threat of further sanctions pushed Kiir and Machar to make peace once more, envoys from neighboring Sudan, Kenya and Uganda in remarks after the swearing-in called for the lifting of existing sanctions, to applause.

View Original: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/02/23/world/politics-diplomacy-world/south-sudan-unity-government/#.XlJT2S2caDd

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Pope kisses feet of South Sudan's leaders to encourage peace

Report from Associated Press (AP) by GIADA ZAMPANO

AP writer SAM MEDNICK in Juba, South Sudan contributed

Dated 11 April 2019

Photo: Pope Francis kneels to kiss the feet of South Sudan's President Salva Kiir Mayardit, at the Vatican, Thursday, April 11, 2019. Pope Francis has closed a two-day retreat with South Sudan authorities at the Vatican with an unprecedented act of respect, kneeling down and kissing the feet of the African leaders. (Vatican Media via AP)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis knelt and kissed the feet of South Sudan's rival leaders Thursday, in an unprecedented act of humbleness to encourage them to strengthen the African country's faltering peace process.

Photo credit: Vatican Media via AP

At the close a two-day retreat in the Vatican for the African leaders, the pope asked South Sudan's president and opposition leader to proceed with the peace agreement despite growing difficulties. Then he got down on his knees and kissed the leaders' feet one by one.

The pope usually holds a ritual washing of the feet with prisoners on Holy Thursday, but has never performed such a show of deference to political leaders.

"I express my heartfelt hope that hostilities will finally cease, that the armistice will be respected, that political and ethnic divisions will be surmounted, and that there will be a lasting peace for the common good of all those citizens who dream of beginning to build the nation," the pope said of South Sudan in his closing statement.

Photo credit: Vatican Media via AP

The spiritual retreat brought together President Salva Kiir and opposition head Riek Machar. Also present were Kiir's three vice presidents. The pope kissed the feet of all of them.

Photo credit: Vatican Media via AP

South Sudanese Vice President Rebecca Nyandeng Garang said Francis' actions moved her profoundly.

"I had never seen anything like that. Tears were flowing from my eyes," she said.

South Sudan, gained independence from Sudan in 2011 and in 2013, the country plunged into a bloody civil war, which left at least 400,000 people dead.

The two-day Vatican meeting was held a month before the end of the shaky peace deal's pre-transitional period. On May 12th, opposition leader Machar is expected to return to South Sudan and once again serve as Kiir's deputy.

However, the agreement, which was signed in September in Khartoum, the capital of neighboring Sudan, has been met with delays, missed deadlines and continued fighting with key aspects still not implemented.

A military coup in Sudan on Thursday fueled worries in South Sudan that the toppling of longtime President Omar al-Bashir could derail the already fragile peace deal.

"Sudan has helped us with the peace deal. We hope that the new system will also focus on the agreement, ensuring that it will be implemented," said opposition leader Machar, who attended an evening prayer vigil for peace, held at Rome's church of Santa Maria in Trastevere.

Photo credit: Vatican Media via AP

Vice president Rebecca Nyandeng Garang said she was very touched by Francis' show of respect for her country. "I had never seen anything like that. Tears were flowing from my eyes," she said.

View Original: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/south-sudan-leaders-retreat-vatican-enters-second-day-135151384.html

S. Sudan citizens 'deliberately starved' by warring parties: UN - Hunger is being used as a weapon - Fighting left 380,000 dead and forced 4 million to flee

Hunger is being used as a weapon in South Sudan's six-year-old conflict, the [UN] report says

S.Sudan citizens 'deliberately starved' by warring parties: UN

Report by AFP by FRAN BLANDY

Dated 20 February 2020

South Sudan's government forces and other armed groups have "deliberately starved" civilians by denying aid access and displacing communities, a United Nations rights probe said Thursday.

In a report issued two days before a deadline to form a unity government, the three-member commission looked into abuses from the signing of a peace deal in September 2018 to December 2019.

The panel delivered a damning indictment of "predatory and unaccountable elites" and the suffering of civilians after six years of conflict.

"Today in South Sudan, civilians are deliberately starved, systematically surveilled and silenced, arbitrarily arrested and detained and denied meaningful access to justice," it said.

As President Salva Kiir and his rival Riek Machar met in Juba to discuss outstanding obstacles to the power-sharing government, the report slammed the process as beset with delays and bickering, and "lack of political will".

"Political elites remained oblivious to the intense suffering of millions of civilians for whom they were ostensibly fighting," it said.

Ongoing recruitment of child soldiers by both government forces and rebel groups, bloody localised conflicts which left hundreds dead, sexual violence and theft of public funds continued unhindered by the latest peace process, the commissioners found.

"The Commission notes with grave concern that beyond climate-induced factors, both government forces and armed groups have pursued policies responsible for the starvation of the population in Wau and Unity State" in the north of the country.

"The denial of humanitarian access and displacement brought about by unlawful tactics have significantly exacerbated famine in different parts of the country, depriving hundreds of thousands of civilins of vital needs, including access to food."

During the period reviewed by the commission, some 6.35 million people -- 54 percent of the population -- were facing severe hunger.

- Major challenges -

South Sudan's conflict broke out in December 2013 after a dispute between Kiir and his former deputy and longtime rival Machar.

The fighting has left some 380,000 dead and forced four million to flee their homes.

The September 2018 peace deal is the latest effort to end the conflict and push the two men to govern together -- an experiment which has twice previously ended in disaster.

Sticky issues of state borders and security arrangements remain with just two days to the deadline, which has already been pushed back twice.

However even if the unity government is formed, the UN report highlights the massive challenges facing the country -- which only achieved independence in 2011 -- going forward.

Across the country, local ethnic conflicts far removed from the national peace process left 531 dead between February and May 2019 alone, and fighting continues today against holdout rebel groups in the Equatoria region, the report said.

Meanwhile, graft has robbed the state of precious resources.

"Corruption has made several officials extremely wealthy at the expense of millions of starving civilians," said the report, which found millions of dollars in tax collections had been diverted and disappeared.

Both the government and armed groups continued to recruit children during the period reviewed, with 19,000 children believed to be enlisted.

Additionally, some 2.2 million children did not attend school and 30 percent of schools remain closed.

View Original: https://news.yahoo.com/sudan-citizens-deliberately-starved-warring-parties-un-104700741.html