Rheumy-eyed Chief Joseph Lokoi has lived through two civil wars in south Sudan, but the scars covering his body are not the relics of battle.
South Sudanese officials accused the government on Tuesday of reinforcing troops in the disputed oil town of Abyei, raising tensions as United Nations Security Council envoys flew in to shore up a peace deal. Clashes in Abyei last month increased fears of a return to war between the northern government and the south.
Lying on a sagging mattress and wincing slightly, Anna Lado laughs at the idea that she should have been afraid of giving birth to her first child, now lying in a crib near her in a hospital in south Sudan. ”It’s natural,” she smiles. But in fact, she received a life-saving caesarean in the capital’s teaching hospital.
Southern Sudan’s Minister of Defence and a presidential adviser were among at least 23 people killed on Friday in a plane crash blamed on engine failure, officials said. ”Two engines failed and there was nothing the pilot could do,” First Vice-President Salva Kiir told a news conference.
Ugandan government officials quit peace talks on Friday after fugitive rebel leader Joseph Kony delayed signing a final deal, casting doubt over the fate of nearly two years of tortuous negotiations. The draft deal with Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army had been due to be signed on Thursday.
Elders from northern Uganda tried to meet fugitive rebel leader Joseph Kony on Friday to salvage long-running peace talks after he delayed signing a deal to end one of Africa’s longest wars. The draft agreement between Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army and the government appeared to be near collapse.
Uganda’s fugitive rebel chief Joseph Kony will sign a final peace deal with the government on the South Sudan-Democratic Republic of Congo border two days before an official ceremony, South Sudanese officials said on Friday. South Sudan’s Vice President Riek Machar has been chairing long-running negotiations between the two sides in Juba.
The forlorn wrecks of cars and motorbikes dotting southern Sudan’s potholed dirt tracks and rare tarmacadam roads might signal chaos to some. But Zeru Woldemichael sees a business opportunity — in insurance. The Eritrean entrepreneur is hoping to snare a portion of the fledgling insurance market in this semi-autonomous region.
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/ 29 February 2008
Uganda’s government and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army have signed the last in a series of documents paving the way for a final peace agreement to end one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts. But only hours later, the LRA delegation stormed out of a meeting held after the signing ceremony late on Friday
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/ 15 October 2007
Representatives of seven Darfur rebel groups met in south Sudan on Monday to try to reach a common negotiating position ahead of peace talks with the government. But huge doubts remain about whether Darfur’s rapidly fracturing rebel groups will be able to agree on a joint set of grievances before they travel to Libya for the negotiations with Khartoum on October 27.