Khalil Ibrahim of JEM Killed By Khartoum While Trying To Leave Darfur for South Sudan

Darfur rebel group confirms leader killed
from Al-Darb Diya by Defender Owl
Dec 26, 2011

Johannesburg - The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the main rebel group in Darfur, has confirmed that its leader was killed by the Sudanese military and vowed revenge, according to a statement carried by local media on Monday.

While the Sudanese army had said the rebel leader Khalil Ibrahim was killed in battle as he was trying to sneak into South Sudan last week, JEM countered that he was killed in an airstrike and charged that foreign powers were involved in the attack.

'This indicates a collusion and conspiracy by some quarters in the regional and international milieu with the regime of genocide in Khartoum,' JEM was quoted as saying by the Sudan Tribune daily.

'By this plot, Khartoum opened the door for political murders,' according to a spokesman for the group, which pulled out of a peace deal with the government last year.

Ibrahim reportedly returned from Libya this year, after the downfall of the Moamer Gaddafi's regime, from whom JEM allegedly received support. Newly independent South Sudan is also accused by Khartoum of aiding the rebels.

According to reports and video footage circulating online, police in Khartoum dispersed supporters of JEM who tried to pay condolences at the house of Ibrahim's family on the outskirts of the Sudanese capital.

It was unclear who would replace the rebel leader at the helm of the group, which he helped found in 2000.

In the conflict in Darfur, ongoing since 2003, some 300,000 people have died according to the UN, though Khartoum says the figure is lower.

The Rest @ Al-Darb

South Sudan Arms Trafficking

Posted Recently in a Linkedin Group:

"Hi all we are leading manufacturer of quality armoured vehicles in UAE and looking for someone who would be interested to take the same forward in their region. Please write to raj1111116@gmail.com"

Started by RAJIV GUPTA, RAJIV GUPTA GROUP
CEO at MAHINDRA EMIRATES VEHICLE ARMOURING FZ LLC
United Arab Emirates

apparently attempting to establish connections in South Sudan...

They don't advertise arms, per se....but offer an armored vehicle with weapon mounts...

Khartoum Votes to Extend State of Emregency

September 12, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese parliament on Monday endorsed the extension of the state of emergency in the border state of Blue Nile and also approved the military campaign undertaken by the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) against the fighters from the Sudan People Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N).

The chairman of the national assembly's special session Ismail al-Haj Moussa announced the decision by the legislative body concurring with president Omer Hassan al-Bashir's imposition of emergency law this month.

Moussa said the parliament called on the government to continue the “military resolution of the insurgency irrespective of any talks”.

But MP Mohamed Al-Hassan al-Amin from the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) objected to the indefinite extension of the emergency state saying it is unconstitutional.

Al-Amin said that article 211 of the constitution states that the state of emergency can only be extended for a specified amount of time.

However, he was countered by the parliament speaker Ahmed Ibrahim al-Tahir who said that his objections were raised after the resolution was already adopted.

Fighting broke out this month in the Blue Nile state between SAF and SPLM-N but circumstances regarding who started it remain unclear.

The Blue Nile governor Malik Agar who is also the head of SPLM-N was removed by Bashir and declared a fugitive by other Sudanese officials.

This follows fighting in South Kordofan last June between government forces and SPLM-N units led by former deputy governor Abdel-Aziz al-Hilu.

Bashir rejected a framework agreement on cessation of hostilities in South Kordofan that was mediated by an African Union panel despite being signed by one of his key aides.

The Sudanese parliament expressed its total rejection of any foreign interference and urged the government not to bow to any pressure» exerted to stop the military campaign.

Meanwhile the defense minister Abdel-Rahim Mohamed Hussein told the national assembly that the SPLM-N forces have sustained heavy losses in the Blue Nile. He said that the SPLM-N lost around a 100 fighters including seven officers as well scores of injuries and POW's.

He also disclosed that SPLM-N made several attempts to take over the town of Geissan most recently a few days ago with the participation of a battalion from the Republic of South Sudan. Hussein stressed that SAF is imposing a blockade Kabbanat region where he said SPLM-N units have assembled.

At today's session MP's shouted slogans describing Agar as a “traitor” and vowed not to negotiate with him.

Last week the United States special envoy to Sudan Princeton Lyman said the situation in the border States is “very dangerous”.

"The two sides are not still talking to each other. That means the situation remains very dangerous. Fighting is going on," Lyman said after meeting Sudan's Foreign Minister, Ali Ahmed Karti, and other officials.

Lyman also criticized Khartoum's decision to close down SPLM-N offices.

"If there is going to be a discussion and political talks, who are you going to talk to? Of course you are going to talk to the SPLM-North. It's a major political party in Sudan. Closing down offices does not help," he said.

The US official also warned Sudan that the normalization of ties process is in danger given the humanitarian situation in the two states.

Tensions have mounted in Blue Nile and other territories along Sudan's poorly-defined border with South Sudan since the south declared independence in July.

The territories are all still home to tens of thousands of people from ethnic groups that sided with the south during decades of civil war that led up to independence.

The Rest @ Sudan Tribune

Al Qaeda's Africa Express-Three arested

On the trafficking route from Sudan to Somalia, three Low level gun runners have been arrested in Moroto, Uganda. They may know the logistician running the supply chain.

Three men two other Kenyans have been arrested in Moroto for alleged arms trafficking. They are Peter Amadoi from Kitale Kenya, Loito Madelynoroto, Uganda. from Lokiliyama in Kenya and Ben Okello, a resident of Pallisa district.

Read more: http://ugandaradionetwork.com/a/story., Kenyaphp?s=36280#ixzz1W9HtmSUl

Decisions for the Anglican Church in the Sudans

AFRICA/SUDAN - In October the Sudanese Bishops will decide whether to form two distinct Episcopal Conferences for the North and the South

Khartoum (Fides Service) - The Sudanese Bishops will meet in October in the Diocese of Wau (Southern Sudan) to decide whether to form two distinct Episcopal Conferences, after the separation between north and south Sudan (which officially became an independent state on July 9 ).

This is what is said by a source of the Sudan Catholic Radio News.

Currently there is only one Episcopal Conference with two independent Secretaries in Juba (the capital of southern Sudan) and in Khartoum.

This decision is likely to be affected by how the situation in the Church in northern Sudan will evolve.

• The number of faithful in the north is declining, as reported by John Ashworth, Consultant of the Church in Sudan to CISA Agency in Nairobi, since many Catholics living in the north, but born in the south, have been forced to return to their places of origin after the separation.
• "Others will likely be forced to do so in the coming months because of problems related to the granting of citizenship, as well as for the real possibility that the cultural and religious minorities in the Republic of Sudan (north) are subjected to harassment.
• This is why some churches and Catholic schools have had to close down. If Khartoum grants citizenship rights to the southern Sudanese, then the situation might improve, but it all depends on how the southerners and Christians are treated ", Ashworth said to CISA.

Out of the nine Sudanese dioceses, only two are in the North, Khartoum and El Obeid, the others (Malakal, Juba, Yei, Wau, Rumbek, Tombura-Yambio and Torit) are in the south. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 04/08/2011)

The Rest @ Fides

South Africa Soldiers Protect South Sudan's Independence Day

Johannesburg – South African soldiers were in Juba in southern Sudan on Thursday to help with security measures during celebrations to mark the creation of Africa’s newest nation on the weekend.

The Mail and Guardian newspaper quoted Consul General Gabriel Setlhoke as saying that South Africa felt that in order to ensure the safety of its large delegation travelling there, it needed to safeguard the entire event.

“We told the government of South Sudan that if we were to help, it must be something that the South Africans can take care of alone, not together with other countries which would be difficult to co-ordinate,” Setlhoke said.

“We said we would do it because it is critical for the staging of independence.”
The South African government was also asked to secure the new country’s airspace for the duration of the celebrations.

Residents in the south voted in a January referendum to break away from the north following a bloody civil war and will officially celebrate their independence on Saturday.

The Rest @ In Depth Africa

Nuba People of Sudan and Khartoum's Geneocidial Plan

The Nuba people of Sudan knew that key decisions were going to be made about their future, after the 2005 Peace Agreement. and they wanted a voice. Most of all they wanted self-determination, even as they knew that the Nuba Mountains were not only in the North but nowhere contiguous with what will become the Republic of South Sudan on July 9. Their fear was that they would be left alone in a North Sudan dominated by Khartoum’s ideological Islam and Arabism (the ethnically diverse African people of the Nuba follow a number of religions, including Islam). Their worst fears have been realized.

Historical memory in this part of Sudan is defined by the terrible experiences of the 1990s, when Khartoum mounted a full-scale genocidal assault on the people of the Nuba, killing and displacing hundreds of thousands. This was jihad, and it was based on a fatwah issued in Khartoum in January 1992. With this justification, a total humanitarian blockade was imposed on the region, and many starving people were driven into “peace camps,” where receiving food was conditional upon conversion to Islam; those refusing were often tortured or mutilated. It is hardly surprising that Deputy Governor Ismael Khamis would tell me bluntly, “Khartoum doesn’t regard us as human beings.”

And judging by the nature of the genocide that is rapidly developing in South Kordofan, there can be little quarreling with Khamis’ assessment. Clear patterns have emerged from the many scores of reports that have come to me from the region over the past two weeks. Human Rights Watch has confirmed that Khartoum’s regular military and militia are undertaking a campaign of house-to-house roundups of Nuba in the capital city of Kadugli. Many of these people are hauled away in cattle trucks or summarily executed; dead bodies reportedly litter the streets of Kadugli. The Nuba are also stopped at checkpoints grimly similar to those in Rwanda; those suspected of SPLM or “southern” political sympathies are arrested or shot. The real issue, however, is not political identity but Nuba ethnicity; one aid worker who recently escaped from South Kordofan reports militia forces patrolling further from Kadugli: “Those [Nuba] coming in are saying, ‘Whenever they see you are a black person, they kill you.’” Another Nuba aid worker reports that an Arab militia leader made clear that their orders were simple: “to just clear.”

Yet another Nuba resident of Kadugli (“Yusef”) told Agence France-Presse that he had been informed by a member of the notorious Popular Defense Forces (PDF) that they had been provided with plenty of weapons and ammunition, and a standing order: “‘He said that they had clear instructions: just sweep away the rubbish. If you see a Nuba, just clean it up. He told me he saw two trucks of people with their hands tied and blindfolded, driving out to where diggers were making holes for graves on the edge of town.’” There have been repeated reports, so far unconfirmed, of mass graves in and around Kadugli. We should hardly be surprised that the charges of “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” are coming ever more insistently from the Nuba people, observers on the ground and in the region, and church groups with strong ties to the region.

Just as shocking is Khartoum’s renewed blockade of humanitarian assistance to the people of the Nuba, hundreds of thousands of whom have already fled into the hills or mountainsides. The Kauda airstrip, critical for humanitarian transport, has been relentlessly bombed over the past ten days, and the UN now reports that it is no longer serviceable for fixed-wing aircraft. The airstrip has no military value, as the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) forces have no aircraft. The concerted bombing, with high-explosives producing enormous craters, is simply to deny the Nuba food, medicine, and shelter.

(.......The same assault on humanitarian efforts is underway in Kadugli and other towns under Khartoum’s military control.

• The UN World Health Organization warehouse and offices in Kadugli have been completely looted, as have those of other UN humanitarian agencies.
• The Kadugli airport has been commandeered by Khartoum’s military forces, and all humanitarian flights into South Kordofan have been halted.
• The World Food Program has announced that it has no way to feed some 400,000 beneficiaries in South Kordofan.
• As in Darfur, Khartoum intends to wage a genocide by attrition—defeating the Nuba by starving them.

What Khartoum seems not to have fully understood is how determined the Nuba SPLA are.

• These are not southerners, but true sons of the Nuba; they cannot “return to the South,” because they are from the north.
• And they are well armed and well led by Abdel Aziz el-Hilu, a former governor of the region and fearsome military commander.
• They believe they are defending their homeland and their way of life. They have no alternative: as Khamis said to me during our 2003 meeting, “we have no way out.”

Given the geography of South Kordofan, there can be little quarreling with this assessment. These people will fight to the death.

Princeton Lyman, the U.S. special envoy, declared on June 16—eleven days after the killing began in Kadugli—that the United States “doesn’t have enough information on the ground to call the campaign ‘ethnic cleansing.’”

This is an astonishing claim, given what the UN is saying in its confidential reports on the situation in Kadugli, what Human Rights Watch has reported, what is revealed by satellite photography, what escaping aid workers have told journalists, and what is revealed by photographs of the bombing of the airstrip at Kauda.

Again, the airstrip has no military purpose: it is being attacked solely to deny humanitarian access to the Nuba people. And it is working: the World Council of Churches, an organization with close ties to the Nuba, reported on June 10 that as many as 300,000 people were besieged and cut off from humanitarian relief.

-Eric Reeves -6/22/11

The Rest @ Dissent Magazine

South Sudan on Track to Join Commonwealth Nations

May 22, 2011 (JUBA) – The Commonwealth nations have welcomed the would-be new born state of South Sudan in July at the organization's three-day conference in the Malaysian's capital, Kuala Lumpur, this week.

GoSS VP Riek Machar speaking to press shortly after his arrival from Malaysia on 20 May 2011 (ST)

The people of South Sudan voted overwhelmingly by over 98% in favour of secession from the rest of Sudan in an internationally monitored referendum on self-determination which was conducted in January 2011. The plebiscite came as a result of the 2005 peace deal which ended 21 years of civil war between North and South.

President Omer Hassan Al Bashir of Sudan accepted the outcome of the vote, saying it expressed the will of the people of the semi-autonomous region.

In a statement to the press at Juba International Airport on Saturday shortly after his arrival from Malaysia, the Vice President of the Government of Southern Sudan, Riek Machar, said the 54 nations of the Commonwealth have already taken for granted during the conference the recognition of the new state of South Sudan in July 2011.

Machar who participated in the Commonwealth conference added that the countries went further to discuss the possibility of South Sudan joining the organization as the 55th nation after declaration of its independence.

Established in 1931, the Commonwealth nations organization works to promote democracy, human rights, good governance and the rule of law, individual liberty, egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism and world peace.

The membership of the Commonwealth nations comprises 54 countries from the continents of North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia; most of which were former British colonies, or dependencies of these colonies. The organization is headed by Queen Elizabeth II of Britain.

South Sudan leadership has also been dispatching senior officials of the government to hand-deliver invitations to foreign dignitaries in Africa to attend the day of its independence proclamation. Over eighty per cent (80%) of the 53 countries in Africa have already accepted the invitations.

Machar also earlier revealed that his government will participate in the meeting of the United Nations Security Council scheduled to take place on July 13 in New York, during which the recognition of South Sudan's independence by the world body shall be on the agenda.

The Rest @ Sudan Tribune

Sudan- 200 Killed in SPLA - George Athor Battles

February 16, 2011 (KHATOUM - JUBA) – North Sudan's army has denied accusations of supporting insurgents in South Sudan with the intent of destabilizing the region ahead of its formal independence in July this year.

Clashes erupted last week between South Sudan's army, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), and militiamen loyal to its renegade general George Athor around the towns of Fangak and Bor in Jonglei state. Southern officials said more than 200 people, including civilians, had died as a result.

The attacks raised concerns about the future of South Sudan which is being groomed to become formally independent in July this year after it massively voted for secession from the north in a referendum last month.

In a press conference on Wednesday, the minister of peace and implementation of the 2005 peace deal that granted the South the right to secede, Pagan Amum, said the Government of Southern Sudan was not overwhelmed by insecurity in South Sudan.

Amum, who also serves as the SPLM's secretary general, said that the situation was being managed and accused Sudan's ruling the National Congress party (NCP) of arming the militia groups such as the forces of George Athor in Jonglei state and Gabriel Tanginya (AKA Tang) in Upper Nile.

• Amum said Athor's militias were also supplied with arms by the National Congress Party in Khartoum to destabilize South Sudan.
• He warned the NCP against the strategy of destabilization of the two soon-to-be independent states of North and South Sudan.
• Amum said the Government of Southern Sudan was ready to receive and integrate into its organized forces all the rebelled forces and militias, in the region in order to achieve security and stability.
• North Sudan's army has denied the south's accusations, claiming it was a cover-up of the South's support of Darfur rebels.

In a statement released to the press on Wednesday, the official spokesman of Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), Al-Sawarmi Khalid Sa'ad, said that the SPLA's accusation come as a “justification” of the South's unlimited support to Darfur rebels who continue “up to this moment” their rebellions from bases they setup southward of 1956 border.

The 1956 border strip marks the North-South borders as they stood when Sudan declared independence from British-Egyptian condominium rule in that year.

North Sudan has consistently accused the south of supporting rebels in its western region of Darfur, where an eight-year conflict between government and ethnic rebels killed more than 300,000 people and displace 2.7 million since it erupted in 2003.

Minni Arkoi Minawi, who is the only Darfur rebel leader to have signed a peace accord with Khartoum in Abuja in 2006, is currently based in the South.

The SAF's statement asserted that it was committed to refrain from supporting any insurgency in neighboring countries, whether in the south or elsewhere, saying that the area from which Athor launches his operations was geographically remote from the North-South border.

Athor broke ranks with the SPLA and led a rebellion in the south since he lost gubernatorial elections in the Unity state to the SPLM's candidate in April last year.

In the same vein, Pagan Amum claimed that Tanginya and his forces came from Khartoum in January with trucks full of weapons and ammunition. He said according to NCP, Tanginya defected from them with the vehicles and weapons, but added that the trucks had traveled from Khartoum to South Sudan's Upper Nile state without being stopped on the way.

In Upper Nile Tanginya's forces form part of the Joint Integrated Units (JIUs) created after the 2005 peace deal. JIUs consist of elements from the Khartoum-controlled Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Southern army (SPLA).

However, instead of using regular forces for the SAF contingent of the JIUs in Upper Nile many of the soldiers were taken from Tanginya's militia, which sided with Khartoum during the North-South civil war.

As the South approaches independence JIU's are due to be disbanded and the SAF components moved North.

Late last year Tanginya signed a peace deal with the Southern government, agreeing to integrate his forces into the SPLA. However, many of Tanginya's units remained as the SAF contigent of JIU's in Upper Nile and in early February in fighting between his men in Malakal and others areas caused tens of deaths.

The fighting is believed to have broken out between rival groups within the Tanginya's forces, with some wanting to remain in the South, while others wanted to follow the order they had received to move North.

The clashes, reportedly left his forces in control of many bases of the Northern SAF's JIUs.

The Rest @ Sudan Tribune

South Sudan's Five Challenges

South Sudan finds itself at a complex crossroads, and Alex Thurston has written the most accurate and succinct analysis of the situation I have seen so far. Here it is.

- Shimron
***************
Attention is turning from South Sudan’s referendum on independence, which yielded a nearly unanimous “yes” vote, to South’s Sudan’s future. Here are five challenges the new country will face:

1. Borders

Even though North Sudan appears resigned to the South’s secession, the two countries will still have to agree on the precise border that divides them. One major piece of that puzzle is Abyei, an oil-rich region that was supposed to hold its own referendum and decide whether it would secede along with the South or remain with the North. Due to disagreements between North and South Sudanese leaders, Abyei’s referendum was postponed indefinitely. Verbal and physical conflict in Abyei (between the largely pro-secession Ngok Dinka farmers and the largely pro-unity Misseriya Arab pastoralists) punctuated the voting earlier this month.
Now that the voting is over, Abyei remains a “potential tinderbox.”

On the southern side, the secretary general of the ruling party, the Southern People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), Pagan Amum, has said that if the Abyei referendum is not conducted, the only remaining option is for Abyei to be transferred to the south by presidential decree. On the northern side, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has said he will not accept Abyei being part of the south.

The Ngok Dinka say they fear that if they do not make their declaration before the votes are counted in the southern referendum, they will miss their chance to join the south.

The Ngok Dinka were ready to make their declaration before voting started on Jan. 9. But two high-level officials from the SPLM persuaded them to hold off.

The officials said a declaration before the referendum would give the north “an excuse to disrupt” the vote, said Juac Agok, deputy chairman of the SPLM in Abyei.
The SPLM is now asking them to wait until after July 9, when southern independence would formally begin.

But Agok said, “I don’t think it will be possible for me to convince the people of Abyei to wait.”
The seriousness of the situation in Abyei is so great that one analyst calls it “the key to South Sudan['s] stability.” Without a solution that both governments and the people of Abyei can accept, violence may escalate.

2. Oil

Oil is the primary driver of Sudan’s economy. The US Energy Information Administration says, “In 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund, oil represented over 90 percent of export earnings. For South Sudan (Juba), oil represented 98 percent of total revenues for the year compared to Khartoum at 65 percent.” The Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 (which provided for the referendum) established a 50-50 revenue-sharing agreement between North and South, but now the two countries will have to negotiate a new agreement on revenues. Addressing issues like transparency, a report released in early January argued, will be key to establishing trust and peace between North and South, who must rely on each other when it comes to oil: Three-quarters of the oil is in the South, but the North has the pipelines and refineries.

In addition to this challenge, South Sudan has its own internal challenges when it comes to oil revenues: accusations of government corruption and continued poverty in the midst of rising government income threaten to increase public discontent with the Government of South Sudan. Fast growth has led to income inequality and a sense of chaos in Juba. South Sudan will have to use oil revenues carefully in achieving development and building a unified society.

3. Integration and Citizenship

Who is a citizen in South Sudan? With refugees and members of the diaspora returning from near and far, and with everyone in the new country pondering its political future, South Sudan will need to develop a basis for national integration, citizenship, and unity that relies on more than just opposition to the North. Maggie Fick captures this problem poignantly:

A Southern Sudanese told me that “the referendum is the only thing that united us southerners.”

He believes that one of the hardest tasks of the southern government in the coming years will be to create the idea of being a Southern Sudanese citizen—an idea that will arguably be foreign to many ofthese citizens.

After my friend made the above comment, he proceeded to give me an extensive history lesson on “the struggle,” speaking with pride and deep knowledge about the causes of the south’s two post-independence rebellions against regimes in Khartoum. He drew upon stories of battles fought in areas of the south that he has never visited but that appear vividly in his oral retelling of years of bloody conflict that eventually led to the south gaining the chance to decide its own destiny in a self-determination vote.

If this isn’t pride for a nation and in a group of people than I don’t know what is.
But the new Southern Sudan will be about more than the struggle of the past, and it will be a new struggle for the new country’s leaders to forge a path that includes not only those groups who fought in the war but also those people who were born in refugee camps in East Africa, who grew up in Nebraska, who studied at Oxford and who drive motorcycle taxis in Juba.

Picking the country’s name (it may well remain “South Sudan”), national anthem, flag, and emblem is a first step, but crafting national unity and integrating newcomers will take a long time.

4. Political Reform

This point is related to the last point. Along with building a sense of one nation, South Sudan will face the challenge of allowing multiple voices to speak. South Sudan will face international and internal pressures to move beyond the one-party model that allows the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) to dominate.

The International Crisis Group’s Zack Vertin ably explains the issue:
The rebel movement turned governing party — the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement — dominates the political arena. Since the end of the war, opposition voices have suppressed grievances and taken a back seat to the SPLM so as to preserve the goal shared by all southerners — self-determination. But now that the vote has been cast, that common denominator is gone. When the jubilation of last week’s vote subsides, the political environment will slowly begin to transform. The current leadership must respond accordingly, recognizing that a genuine opening of political space is both necessary and in their long-term interest. They must find a way to equitably manage the South’s own diversity, lest they simply duplicate the sort of autocratic regime they’ve finally managed to escape.

Allowing political pluralism means more than just who wins at the ballot box – it also means addressing human rights issues (h/t Rob Crilly), managing dissent, and promoting positive relations between ethnic groups. None of that will be easy.

5. Development

South Sudan’s development challenges are wide-ranging and stark. A Reuters report from 2010 puts South Sudan’s predicament bluntly: “By many yardsticks, it is the least-developed place on earth: 70 percent of its people have no access to any form of healthcare, one in five women die in childbirth and one in five children fail to make it to their fifth birthday.” UNDP provides alarming statistics on education, disease, sustainability, and other issues in South Sudan. These problems are not just economic – they also threaten to undercut political stability. The worst outcome, as Rob Crilly says, would be for South Sudan, burdened by economic crisis and political failure, to join the world’s failed states.

*********************************
This list is not comprehensive, and I hope commenters will weigh in on these issues and others. What have I missed? What challenges do you see ahead for South Sudan?

The Rest @ Sahel Bog

JEM Captives Being Tortured by Sudan Government

Today, January 25, 2011, 13 hours ago SudanTribube.com
January 24, 2011 (NAIROBI) – The Darfur rebel group Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said on Sunday that its members captured earlier this month by the Sudanese authorities in western Darfur are being subjected to cruel torture, threatening the government of reprisal attacks against individuals implicated in the process.

Logo of Darfur rebel group Justice and Equality Movement
On January 11, forces of the Sudanese government and its allied militias ambushed and captured a 12-strong unit of JEM in an area close to El- Geniena, the provincial capital of West Darfur State. The most high profile captive is Ibrahim Al-Maz Deng, who is JEM's secretary for coordination with southern Sudan.

North Sudan government accuses south Sudan, which is on its way to becoming a fully independent state, of giving sanctuary and support to some Darfur rebel groups. Minni Arkoi Minawi, the leader of the only rebel group to sign a peace accord with the government, defected from the northern government and relocated to south Sudan.

A press release undersigned by JEM's general commander Suliman Sandal and seen by Sudan Tribune said that the group's “reliable” sources in Khartoum had informed that the captives were being subjected to the “cruelest forms of torture” under the direct supervision of Brigadier-General Abdul Hafiz Ahmad Al-Bashir, the head of the interrogation department at Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS).

JEM's statement said that the captives were being interrogated under duress to elicit confessions in “a blatant violation not only of international and regional laws and conventions, but also of the provisions of the interim constitution and national laws.”

According to JEM, its prisoners were being transferred on daily basis from their cells at Kober Federal Prison in Khartoum North at 7 pm local time to a place known as the “oven” at the NISS headquarters and returned to their cells at 7 am the next morning.
The movement further claimed that the group's leader Ibrahim Al-Maz was being subjected to “special torture techniques departing from disgusting racist grounds.”
JEM warned the government that it had detailed information on the individuals involved in the torture process and would not hesitate to avenge the torture of its captives.

The Sudanese government already has a number of high-profile JEM members in custody, including the half-brother of the group's leader Khalil Ibrahim, who were arrested after JEM staged an attack on the capital Khartoum in May 2008. Sudan sentenced a large number of JEM prisoners to death but none has been executed, and the government uses prisoners as a bargaining chip in peace negotiations with the rebel group.

Rebel groups in Sudan's western region of Darfur rebels rose against the central government in 2003, accusing it of marginalizing the region in terms of development and wealth-sharing. A subsequent counterinsurgency campaign by Khartoum led to the death of 300,000 people and displacement of more than 2 million, according to UN figures.

The Rest @ Sudan Tribune

North Sudan Reports Alignment in South Sudan Defense Forces

By Ngor Arol Garang

January 21, 2011 (ABYEI) - A top military officer from South Sudan's army, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), on Friday denied media reports that they have signed an agreement with an armed militia group in the regional capital of Juba earlier this week.

On Wednesday, the Khartoum-based Arabic daily, Al Ahram, reported that a political agreement was inked on in Juba between the SPLA and the militias of South Sudan Defense Forces, saying the latter was represented by Ashwang Arop.

However, colonel Phillip Aguer Panyang, spokesman of the Sudan People's Liberation Army in an interview with Sudan Tribune from the regional capital of Juba on Friday denied knowing any armed group called south Sudan defensive with which they have signed an agreement.

"No, we did not sign any agreement with any armed group this week. I am also not aware of the existence of any armed group called South Sudan Defense Forces. Who did they say was their leader?," asked Aguer.

The military officer said there are media in the north accustomed to manufacturing false information and conflicting reports against the Government of South Sudan, since it was formed in 2005.

• The SPLA became the south's official army as part of a 2005 peace deal, which ended decades of civil war between north and south.
• As part of the deal the south has just completed a referendum, which is expected to see the south separate from the north to form a new nation by July.
• Many in the north are not happy that the oil-rich south is separating.
  

"There are media are in the north accustomed to manufacturing false information and conflicting reports against the government of south and the Sudan People's Liberation Army. This is one of them. They say anything without proof just to cause confusion with intention to create conflict," said Aguer.

He called on the media to be responsible and seek clarifications on unclear information and reports from concerned authorities before rushing it out to the public.

"There seems to be no responsible media in the north. They appear to have lost ethnics. Their reporting does not show any sense of responsibility. They are always bias in their reports about South Sudan and particularly when it comes to issues concerning SPLA," said Aguer.

The officer said a responsible media should always conduct proper verifications of any information obtained from their sources. "A responsible media must conduct proper verifications of any information they received from their sources before publishing it."

In 2006 the SPLA and SSDF signed the Juba declaration incorporating the SSDF into the SPLA, which under the peace deal was the only legal army in the south.

As part of the deal Paulino Matip became the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the SPLA.

The Rest @ Sudan Tribune

Darfur - 3 UN Helipcopter Crews Kidnaped

KHARTOUM — Three Bulgarian helicopter aircrew working on a UN contract were kidnapped in Sudan's troubled Darfur region on Thursday, the United Nations and the Bulgarian foreign ministry said.

The trio, seized by unidentified gunmen, were reportedly well.

"A crew of three Bulgarian nationals, working for a Bulgarian airline company operating flights on a UN contract, were kidnapped in north Sudan," the foreign ministry said in Sofia.
UNAMID, the joint UN-African Union mission in Darfur, said the three were working on a World Food Programme (WFP) mission when seized at Um-Shalaya southeast of El-Geneina in West Darfur.

"The incident occurred as the crew landed their helicopter at approximately 10:35 hrs and were subsequently met by unknown armed men," said a statement from UNAMID. It said no other details were immediately available.

The three work for the UN Humanitarian Air Service, which is managed by the WFP.
Bulgarian foreign ministry spokeswoman Vesela Cherneva told national radio: "We have confirmed their identities but cannot disclose any details at this stage."

The executive director of Bulgarian company Heli Air Sau confirmed to Focus news agency that their helicopter and its three Bulgarian aircrew had been kidnapped.

"It is our helicopter and crew," he was cited as saying. "We have information that our employees are well... The information is indirect but at least we have it."

Amor Almagro, WFP spokesperson in Sudan, said the three "were abducted this morning at 10:30 by armed men in the landing field of Um-Shalaya, 60 kilometres (36 miles) southeast of El-Geneina, in West Darfur."

"We don't know who they are," Almagro added, referring to the kidnappers.
Since 2003, Darfur been gripped by a civil war that has killed 300,000 people and displaced another 2.7 million, according to UN figures. Khartoum says 10,000 people have died in the conflict.

A wave of kidnappings for ransom has plagued Darfur since March 2009, when the International Criminal Court indicted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in the region.

Thirty people, including 26 foreigners, had already been kidnapped there since the indictment, with all the hostages released unharmed a few days later.

Just last week Istvan Papp, 56, a Hungarian civilian working for UNAMID in Darfur, was released.

He had been abducted by gunmen along with two colleagues from a compound in El-Fasher in October, and had been the last remaining hostage in the war-torn region.

Meanwhile, retired US general Scott Gration, Washington's special envoy for Sudan, on Thursday wound up a two-day visit to Darfur, a UNAMID statement said.

Accompanied by US senior adviser on Darfur Dane Smith, Gration met the leadership of the peacekeeping force to be briefed on the latest developments in the peace process, as well the current security situation in Darfur

The Rest @ AFP

Sudan Debate

Listen to the resolve....

36 Killed by Gatluak Gai's Forces in South Sudan

Even after casting his vote at the grounds where his father's remains lie, Mabior de Garang, son of former Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) leader, John Garang de Mabior, was not an entirely happy man.


Mr Mabior, who went with his mother and two siblings to symbolically pay their respects to their father's grave that was only metres away from the polling centre where he voted from, said his thoughts on what was a historic day for Sudan were with parts of his father still unfulfilled vision. He said the dream of his father and other SPLA founding fathers had been for a day when the entire Southern Sudan would have a chance to choose whether to stay united with the north or secede.

Disputed areas...

However, he added, the three areas of Abyei, Nuba Mountains and Southern Blue Nile - all found at the disputed border points between the south and the north - would not vote as expected on whether they would want to belong to the north or the south of Sudan.

"I have mixed feelings; what the white people call a bitter-sweet moment," he told Daily Monitor shortly after voting. "On one level, I am happy because we are getting our freedom and on another level I am not happy because the marginalised areas are not voting in this referendum.

It was part of the CPA. Our New Sudan that we envisioned was Southern Sudan of the 1956 border and the three marginalised areas of

• Abyei
• Nuba Mountains
• Southern Blue Nile.

So because it is not being done in Abyei and the Nuba Mountains, it gives me a bitter-sweet feeling."

Administrative status


The three areas are largely inhabited by the Ngok Dinka, who are related to the inhabitants of the rest of Southern Sudan.

However, Misseriya nomads migrate seasonally through the territory, which often results in conflict between the two groups over land.

When Sudan's north and south signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), a protocol in the deal granted the disputed territory special administrative status under the presidency and its own January 2011 referendum to decide whether to continue that status within the North or become part of the South.

Locals in the three 'marginalised' areas were therefore expected to vote in their own separate referendum on the same day as the south, but the plans have been shelved indefinitely. Instead, developments in the controversial areas during the run up to the referendum in the south provided a glimpse into the potential conflicts that could erupt in an area with the potential of dragging the north and south back to war.

On Friday, three days before the referendum in the south, militias loyal to renegade Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) renegade officer, Gatluak Gai, engaged the Southern Sudan military based in Unity State in a gun battle in which two militiamen were killed.

• Southern Sudan Minister of Internal Affairs, Lt. Gen. Gier Chuang Aluong, said during two days of fighting, the SPLA also captured 32 prisoners of war, including two officers from Gatluak's attackers.

About 36 people have been confirmed dead in the four days of fighting. Both Gen. Aluong and the chairperson of the Abyei Referendum Forum, Deng Mading Mijak, said the people in the three areas in the north had fallen victim to joint attacks between the Sudanese armed forces and government sponsored militia.

Mr Mijak said the attacks made an already bad situation worse because besides not getting the opportunity to decide their fate, they were now mourning lives that had been lost. He added that the attacks would only make them more determined to fight for an opportunity to decide where they belong.

According to Gabriel Garang Deng, the Director of Taxation in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, the unresolved fate of the marginalised areas is a recipe for trouble in future because no side is likely to cede ground.

"In the long run the issue of Abyei could become like that of Kashmir [a region between Pakistan and India, which has been the source of a protracted conflict between the two countries]," he said, "because if they don't want to surrender it to us, we are not ready to surrender it to them

The Rest @ All Africa

Commentary - South Sudan Should Join East African Community

By Rev Titus S. Makuma (email the author)

Posted Tuesday, January 11 2011 at 00:00

There is high hope that the sun will shine brightly on South Sudanese territory as the people decide whether to secede from the north. The people of southern Sudan are focused on this historical moment which will forever define their true identity and nationality. Those in the Diaspora are anxiously looking forward to a home-coming. A place where security will be guaranteed as well as the exercise of political and socio-economic freedom.

This freedom may, however, be tested in the event that both north and south begin to contest border lines in the oil-rich regions. “It is important to work out these problems in advance as much as possible, where the border is going to run, how the oil is shared, what happens to assets, as ambiguity can be a dangerous thing,” said Roger Middleton of foreign affairs think-tank Chatham House.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir has commented that after so many years of conflict, there is no mistaking the sheer appetite for peace in the south. One man remarked that the referendum will put behind their temporary status in the north where their freedom has been suffocated and grant them a land of permanence in the south where they can freely cultivate, graze cattle, build houses, educate their children and run viable businesses.

I believe this kind of sustainable development will progressively put them at the same level with the East African region.

The people of South Sudan have a lot in common with their neighbours in the East African region in terms of cultural inclination, intermarriage, trade, education and political affiliation.....

The Rest @ The Daily Monitor, Uganda

South Sudan Gets Land Lease to Raise Crops, or Maybe Raise an Army

Apr 16, 2009
New York investment firm mulling more land leases in S. Sudan.

from African News Analysis by David Barouski

Sudan Tribune16 April 2009
Jarch Management Group, Ltd., a US investment firm, disclosed that it is considering additional opportunities to lease large tracts of farmland in Southern Sudan.

This report follows the announcement in January of a massive lease agreement that prompted some tension within governing circles in Southern Sudan.

In an apparent change of course from oil investing to agriculture, Jarch Management took a 70% interest in the Sudanese company Leac for Agriculture and Investment and leased approximately 400,000 hectares of land claimed by General Paulino Matip, a figure now straddling a deep fissure within the Sudan People’s Liberation Army.

In a statement emailed to Sudan Tribune today the company disclosed that it aims to lease another 400,000 hectares of land by the end of the year.

"Since its January 2009 announcement that it had leased about 400,000 hectares, the Company has had a multitude of offers to buy and lease farmland from around the world,” said a statement from the management of the company.

“However, the Company is focused on frontier African countries and continues to look for opportunities in farmland and other natural resources in these countries. As such, the Company hopes to conclude more deals for more leased farmland. The Company is hopeful that it can lease at least another 400,000 hectares of land by the end of the year.”

• South Sudanese law requires that large leases of land be approved by two local government bodies.
• Accordingly, a January statement from Leac Company noted that the acquisition would include dealings with local land authorities and stressed that “the state and local governments shall have budgets for development because of the cash flows from the agricultural schemes the two companies will operate.”

While U.S. companies are banned from doing business in Sudan, agriculture in Southern Sudan is exempted from sanctions provided that the national government does not have any stake in the business and provided that no imports or exports pass through non-exempt areas.

Jarch Management Group, Ltd, which is registered in the Virgin Islands, is managed by New York investor Philippe Heilberg, commodities traders and former State Department and Central Intelligence Agency officials, among others.

The Rest From African News Analysis

Pirates who took the Faina Are offloading Weapons

This is an exerpt from Doug Farah's Blog.

Note that the Pirates are trying now to offload what every they can from the Faina

-Shimron

“The Islamists have sent pick-ups from Mogadishu to go and collect the gear,” said an analyst with a network of Somali informers. “There’s not much they can do with the tanks — they can’t get them off — but the rest of the weapons they are trying to move ashore.”

Somalia’s insurgents have made a series of impressive gains in recent weeks. They now control the port city of Kismayo and have armed and equipped pirate gangs as part of a campaign to control the seas.

So, radical Islamists supporting piracy that yields not only large amounts of wealth, but obstructs a major world sea lane, while at the same time effectively starving much of their own population by making it virtually impossible to deliver humanitarian aid to the region.

And, while the government of Kenya claims the shipment, including the tanks and other sophisticated weaponry, were for its army, it seems at least a good chunk were actually destined for southern Sudan.

I would like to see the end-user certificate for the transaction. Using a flag of convenience ship to send weapons to one of the world’s most volatile regions, and making no efforts to insure the safe passage, despite a record number of hijacking in the very same waters, seems just a bit reckless.

The Islamists, of course, are looking for weapons. The Russians, as we have increasingly seen, are not overly concerned about where their weapons end up, be it Iran, Lebanon, Venezuela or, in the recent past, Mogadishu.

Pirates, of course, look to acquire merchandise of value and resell it. They are part of the facilitating network. If we were willing to pay $20 million, they would likely give the weapons to the U.S. navy. It really doesn’t matter to them, as long as their profits hold up.



This from the Washington Times

-Shimron

Andrew Mwangura, a director of the Kenya-based Seafarers Assistance Program, said shipping documents and other sources indicate that in the past two years, Ukrainian arms dealers have made four shipments of tanks and heavy weapons to southern Sudan via Kenya. Mwangura's organization has contacts among shippers and Somali clans, and has provided accurate information in the course of the hijacking.

Radio France Internationale said it had reached the Somali pirates aboard the Faina by satellite telephone Monday, and aired a recording of a man pledging to fight back if the Americans or anyone else attacked.

"Ships and troops have surrounded us," said a man identified by RFI as pirate Sugule Ali. He spoke in Somali.


"There's a lot of unusual movement surrounding us, and planes are flying overhead," the man said. "I warn anyone who might be tempted by any military operation or use of force, if we're attacked, we'll defend ourselves, until the last one of us dies."


The man repeated a demand for $20 million in ransom for the release of the ship and the crew. He did not say whether the pirates intended to keep the arms, apparently discovered by the hijackers only after they took control of the vessel.

The crew members number 17 Ukrainians, three Russians and one person described as either Latvian or Lithuanian.


One crew member, Viktor Nikolsky, spoke to Kenyan officials over the weekend and told them the Faina's captain had died of "hypertension," the independent Russian news Web site Gazeta.ru reported.

China and Sudan to Build Railway to Mauritania

NOUAKCHOTT, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Sudan's Danfodio Holding and China's Transtech Engineering have signed an agreement to build a 460 million euro ($634 million) railway linking Mauritania's capital Nouakchott with southern phosphate deposits at Bofal.

The deal for the 430 km (290 mile) line, which will run close to the Islamic Republic's southern frontier with Senegal, was signed late on Friday in Nouakchott with private Mauritanian investors and Transport Minister Ahmed Ould Mohameden.

"This line will allow the exploitation of the Bofal deposits and open up isolated areas of Mauritania with considerable animal, agricultural and mineral resources," Mohameden said at the signing.

The Mauritanian government hopes the line can link Mauritania to an existing West African rail network covering Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso.
The proven reserves of phosphate, commonly used in fertilisers, at Bofal are around 165 million tonnes. The government forecasts an annual production of 2 million tonnes over 30 years.

Transtech and its parent company China Railway Engineering Corp., one of the world's largest railway builders, won a $1 billion contract earlier this year to build a 700-km railway in Sudan connecting the capital Khartoum with eastern Port Sudan

The Rest @ Reuters

SPLM Commemorates Death of Dr. John Garang

July 30, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Under the slogan of "Two Years for Peace and Democratic Transformation", thousands of Sudanese marked the second anniversary of former SPLM leader John Garang’s tragic death in a helicopter crash, amid renewed calls to uphold the fragile peace deal he brokered.

Pagan Amum (left) and Malik Agar wave their hands to greet people attending the second anniversary of Garang Death, Khartoum, July 30, 2007 (SUNA).
The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) commemorated Monday evening at Khartoum Stadium the second anniversary of death of Dr. John Garang, with participation of folklore groups from the different parts of the Sudan to reaffirm SPLM attachment for a united, and democratic Sudan in implementation of the ideas of Late First Vice President John Garang, the organizers said.
The event was attended by members of the SPLM, National Congress, political forces, political parties and a number of members of the diplomatic corps accredited to Sudan.
The commemoration ceremony was addressed by SPLM Secretary General Pagan Amom, who greeted the masses and called for implementation of the CPA for the sake of unity and stability.
Amum affirmed commitment of the SPLM to all provisions of the CPA. He also urged the withdrwal of the Sudan Armed Forces from the oil fields in Upper Nile and Unity States underscoring that security is well established in these regions.
The occasion was also addressed by the Deputy Secretary General of the SPLM Malik Aggar, who reviewed the stances of late Dr. Garang towards the process of peace, unity and justice equality for creating a new Sudan.
He pointed out that late Dr. John Garang had called for solution of Darfur problem, pointing out that the SPLM is endeavouring for realizing stability in Darfur.
The occasion was also addressed by representative of the National Congress Party Salah Mohamed Adam, who said the memory of late Dr. Garang will remain in the hearts of the Sudanese people, pointing out that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) will remain the candle that lights the way for overcoming difficulties.
He affirmed commitment of the National Congress to implementation of the CPA.
The state minister at the ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Anna Essito, hailed Garang’s concern for the equality between men and women and urged the implementation of his vision in this regard to create the New Sudan.
The meeting also was addressed by the Kenyan Ambassador and the US chargé d’affaires in Sudan.

The Rest @ Sudan Tribune