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.
Sudan’s security apparatus has halted production of three Arabic newspapers for allegedly defying a censorship order, and on Wednesday confiscated an English-language daily for reporting the story. ”That story has caused us problems,” said Nhial Bol, editor of the Citizen, which planned on Wednesday to publish an article and editorial on the censorship.
Formerly warring north and south Sudan were at loggerheads on Sunday as the south pulled out of a national census, a cornerstone of their fragile peace agreement, citing a barrage of grievances. ”We have deferred the census until sometime this year,” the information minister in the southern government confirmed.
Uganda’s fugitive rebel commander Joseph Kony is walking to the Sudan-Democratic of Republic of Congo border to sign a final peace deal this week with the Ugandan government, Western diplomatic sources said on Sunday. Officials said the Lord’s Resistance Army leader will sign two days ahead of an official ceremony in Juba.
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.
Uganda and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army are expected to sign a final peace deal to end one of Africa’s longest conflicts on April 5, about a week later than a Kampala deadline. Progress has slowed because of the rebels’ demand that the International Criminal Court drop war crimes indictments against their leader Joseph Kony.
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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/ 19 January 2008
The United Nations envoy to Sudan, Jan Eliasson, said on Friday that fresh fighting in the war-torn region of Darfur has set back hopes for a speedy resumption of peace talks. ”The current atmosphere is not the best,” Eliasson told reporters in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, where he met Sudan’s First Vice-President, Salva Kiir.
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/ 23 October 2007
A prominent Darfur rebel figure and five other smaller factions will not attend peace talks due to start this weekend in Libya, leaders said on Tuesday, casting doubt on prospects for peace. Ahmed Abdel Shafie told reporters that African Union and United Nations mediators had not heeded rebel requests for a delay to allow them to form a united position.
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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.
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/ 11 October 2007
The main party in southern Sudan has suspended its participation in the national government until its northern partners reignite a stalled peace process, the secretary general of the party said on Thursday. Pagan Amum of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) said: ”The SPLM has recalled all ministers and presidential advisers.”
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/ 4 September 2007
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon flew in to south Sudan’s capital, Juba, on Tuesday to try to speed implementation of the 2005 peace deal that ended Africa’s longest civil war. Aides said Ban would try to resolve sticking points in the roll-out of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
South Sudan has awarded two companies exploration licenses for gold and uranium in areas thought to be rich in minerals. British/South African New Kush Exploration and Mining Company and the United Kingdom-listed Brinkley Mining paid 000 for one-year exploration licenses in the area bordering Kenya.
Sudan’s northern army has missed a deadline to move its troops to the north under a peace deal and are still paying illegal militias based in the south, the United Nations said. A January 2005 north-south peace deal created a southern autonomous government and two separate armies with joint units in key towns.
Talks between Uganda’s government and northern rebels to end two decades of civil war resumed on Thursday with a United Nations envoy warning both sides not to let the chance for peace slip through their grasp. Three months ago, the LRA negotiators walked out of the talks after Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir threatened them.
A meningitis outbreak that has swept across south Sudan since the start of the year has killed 661 people, while dozens more have died from measles and cholera, a report said on Tuesday. More than 11 000 people have contracted meningitis since the start of 2007.
Under bright yellow umbrellas in a dusty market in south Sudan’s capital Juba, men sit with handfuls of up to five currencies, all of which can still pay your way in some parts of this semi-autonomous region. A north-south accord in 2005 ended Africa’s longest war, bringing peace to Sudan’s south although a separate conflict continues in western Darfur.
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/ 29 November 2006
Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) on Wednesday suspended participation in peace talks with the government to end a brutal two-decade conflict, claiming the army had killed three rebel fighters. Rebel spokesperson Obonyo Olweny said they withdrew from the peace process after the Uganda People’s Defence Forces attacked a rebel unit.
Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army rebels reiterated a threat on Monday to keep fighting one of Africa’s longest insurgencies unless international arrest warrants for their top commanders are scrapped. The government and rebels signed a long-awaited truce in August, supposed to give both sides breathing space while peace talks aimed at ending their 20-year rebellion continue.
Uganda’s rebel Lord’s Resistance Army on Thursday demanded radical changes to the country’s power structure, calling for complete autonomy for their northern region under a new federal Constitution. In addition, the rebels said poverty stricken northern Uganda should get at least 22% of all government revenue under a new wealth-sharing formula.
Uganda’s rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) called on Monday for South Africa to play an unofficial role in peace talks after the government rejected an appeal for South African mediation. The LRA said it wanted members of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to participate.
Uganda on Friday rejected a call by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels for South African mediation as fragile peace talks aimed at ending Uganda’s brutal two-decade war resumed. Kampala’s delegation to the negotiations said the LRA request was unwarranted and instead expressed full confidence in lead mediator Riek Machar, vice-president of autonomous southern Sudan.
Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in Uganda on Wednesday asked South Africa to join efforts to mediate faltering peace talks with the Ugandan government aimed at ending two decades of fighting. The announcement from LRA supremo Joseph Kony came a day after the rebels won a 72-hour break in peace talks with the government.
Uganda’s rebel Lord’s Resistance Army on Monday said it will resume peace talks with the government, but sought a break to mourn its third-in-command, killed by the army over the weekend, officials said. The government welcomed the decision by the rebels, who last Wednesday stormed out of the talks being held in southern Sudan.
Peace talks to end northern Uganda’s brutal two-decade war hung in the balance on Tuesday as the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) refused to return to the table unless the government declares a truce. The halting negotiations had been due to resume on Tuesday following the LRA’s declaration of a unilateral ceasefire last week.
Peace talks between the Ugandan government and rebels aimed at ending nearly two decades of fighting adjourned on Monday for a week to allow for consultations, but it was unclear whether there was any progress, officials said. The talks, which began on June 14 in the capital of autonomous southern Sudan, are aimed at ending 19 years of conflict in northern Uganda.
The Ugandan government on Wednesday flatly rejected demands for a truce from the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and said there could be no ceasefire until a full peace settlement is reached. Just a day after peace talks began under Sudanese mediation, Kampala’s delegation took a hard line against a raft of proposals from the LRA’s negotiators.
For decades known mainly to the outside world for their dreadlocks, gumboots and kidnapping of children, Uganda’s brutal Lord’s Resistance Army has been Africa’s most mysterious rebel movement. But in recent weeks, the group has ventured out of jungle hideouts in an unprecedented bid to paint itself as a liberation movement.
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/ 11 November 2005
A senior United States envoy and Sudan’s vice-president discussed their efforts to bring peace to troubled Darfur on Friday. Also on Friday, the US moved to cement ties with the autonomous government of southern Sudan by opening a consulate in the south. The consulate is to be housed for the time being in a Red Cross compound.
A black-clad choir, many with tears streaming down their cheeks, sang a mournful song of peace on Saturday at the start of the funeral of southern leader and first vice-president John Garang de Mabior, who was killed last week in a helicopter crash. Several heads of state were in the audience.
Sudan prepared on Saturday to bury the late vice-president and ex-rebel chief John Garang, who led southern Sudanese in a 21-year war against the government in Khartoum before sealing a historic peace deal in January.