NEWSLINE

President Salva Kiir Mayardit on Wednesday called for equality of educational opportunities for children in the country. Speaking in Wau, he strongly advocated for the rights and potential of girls and women. July 2014 Kiir Senior Secondary school students marching during the 9th July 3rd Anniversary in Wau town [photo by James Deng Dimo] By James Deng Dimo WAU July 2014 [GURTONG] – warned parents against forcing their daughters into early marriage, or viewing them as a potential source of wealth [through bridewealth traditions]. “When we talk about education, we must have to offer similar right to our children without isolating our young daughters from equal access to education,” Kiir said. “There is no child who is without value; they are all our children; none of them should be left out from education”. The President pointed out that South Sudan will not be able compete in the modern world if parents prevent their young daughters from getti

By Thudan Gai Majiok May 23, 2014  –  Our major disease in South Sudan is tribalism which has bred nepotism, favoritism, hatred and lack of effective governance. This disease called tribalism is the one that made Kiir and Malong recruited 15,000 armed youth members entirely from Aweil and Kuajok. This disease called tribalism is the one that made Dr. Riek Machar ran to the direction of Jonglei State when war broke out in Juba, knowing very well that he was going to be rescued by his Nuer tribesmen from Jonglei. He did not choose to run to the direction of Lakes State. He would be killed like his fellow tribesmen and women brutally killed in Juba. This disease called tribalism is the one that made the 15,000 armed youth members of Aweil and Kuajok killed one ethnic community in Juba because they bore the name ‘Nuer’ with Riek Machar. Not to forget; Honourable Gier Chuang’s 7 bodyguards were also murdered based on the fact that “these are people of Greater Upper Nile”

By Bayak Chuol Puoch   I am very disappointed seeing SPLM Former Detainees to be neutral in this conflict while we have lost many lives in South Sudan as the killing is still continuing in the country. The SPLM Former Detainees were with Dr Riek Machar and his team to reformed the party as they mentioned last December and we the South Sudanese people thought that, these SPLM Former Detainees were seeking to reform the party. This came out as a result of the ethnic killing in the country. This has shown us that SPLM Former Detainees were not happy because they lost their positions in the government upon the reshuffling and that was why they have been against the government of South Sudan. The SPLM Former Detainees were coming out in a big number on December 6 th 2013 against President Salva Kiir Mayardit and the South Sudanese thought these people would bring developments in this country as they were not happy with the regime. The SPLM Former Detainees were in

ADDIS ABABA (23 May) -- the leader of SPLM/A-in-Opposition Riek Machar expected to arrive in Khartoum within the coming week, as part of a tour of East African countries belonging to the IGAD bloc.  Machar has been staying in Addis Ababa since the peace deal signed 9 May with his rival the President of South Sudan Salva Kiir.   An advance delegation of the opposition faction by its spokesman Yohanis Musa Pouk was scheduled to arrive in Khartoum today to arrange for Machar’s arrival. Riek Machar will meet with officials of the Sudanese government during his visit. Reacting to the news, South Sudan’s Foreign Minister has reportedly said the expected visit by the rebel leader to Khartoum should be coordinated between the Sudanese and South Sudanese for the sake of peace and stability in South Sudan. He pointed out that the two Sudans have good diplomatic relations and the flow of oil through Sudanese territory is evidence of the good ties between the two cou

      The president of republic of south Sudan, HE. Salva Kirr Mayardit announced publically to his supporters after arriving from the signing of an agreement with the rebel leader in Addis Ababa that the election will not be held on 2015 as it was expected. It has to be pushed  at-least three year from now  until his government is stable. According to transitional constitution,South Sudan was to hold its first election on 2015 ,  But due to political unrest the election can not take place. The P resident informed his supporters that the election might take place on 2017 or 2018 if all goes well The international bodies and observers stated that the delay of election is a political move

The Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of China, Li- Ruogu has cautioned Uganda and other African countries to be more critical of the aid some donors are willing to extend to their countries.                                                                                                                          By  Chimp Reports The high ranking Chinese official,  who is currently in the country to discuss with Government financing modalities for Karuma and Isimba hydropower dams among other projects,  said African governments should be ready to ignore aid if it does not lead to development because many donors still don’t understand the situation in Africa and continue to issue aid conditions which are out of date.  The China Exim Bank President who was accompanied by a 16 -man delegation made the remarks this week while meeting Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi at his Office in Kampala. “Listen to donors carefully to ensure that you benefit from aid,” Ruogu said,

By Mading Ngor, South Sudan , mired in conflict since December, plans to issue exploration licenses for gold-mining within three months as the nation seeks to reduce its dependency on oil revenue. Companies will soon begin drilling for “substantial” deposits of the precious metal in the country’s Eastern Equatoria state, Arkangelo Okwang Oler, director general for mineral development at the Petroleum and Mining Ministry , said in a May 6 interview in the capital, Juba. Australia’s government plans to donate geological and administrative equipment to South Sudan if the ministry erects new headquarters, Oler said. “In a period of three months we can have a building fully operational and we start giving licenses without any problems at all,” Oler said. When the infrastructure is ready and the equipment arrives “that’s the end of provisional licensing” for mineral-mining, he said. South Sudan wants to diversify its economy from oil, an industry that provid

South Sudan's president and rebel chief signed a ceasefire deal. Members of the White Army, a South Sudanese anti-government militia, attend a rally in Nasir on April 14, 2014. [AFP Photo]   President Salva Kiir and rebel boss Riek Machar, who shook hands and then prayed together, "agreed that immediately all hostile activities will stop within 24 hours from the signing of this agreement", said head mediator Seyoum Mesfin, from the East African regional bloc IGAD. "Fighting will stop," he added. Kiir, explaining his olive branch to his bitter rival, told reporters that as leader he had in the past accepted compromises and had "been in a position to make peace with everybody". Machar, who swapped his military fatigues for a business suit, said he was "happy" at the signing of the agreement. The peace deal, which followed intense lobbying from world leaders with Washington slapping sancti

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has pledged to implement the peace agreement he signed with his former deputy Riek Machar, now rebel leader in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa without fail. 10 May 2014 President Kiir and Machar at the signing of the agreement in Addis Ababa on Friday May 9, as the Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn looks on. [Reuters photo] Juba, 10 May 2014 - "I'm not here to respond to what my brother here (Machar) has said. I'm here to sign the peace agreement," Kiir said. The president declined to talk about a coup attempt  but said a "gun doesn’t fire itself". "I want to assure you that the party and army I'm leading will implement this agreement without fail," the president said. "I cannot let my people continue bleeding. I am the president and responsible for all the people of South Sudan." The agreement mediated by the Ethiopian prime minister Hailemari

An official says that South Sudan's rebel leader has arrived in Ethiopia for talks with President Salva Kiir on Friday. 09 May 2014 President Salva Kiir (Left) and Rebel Leader Dr Riek Machar. [Courtesy photo | File] ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Tewolde Gebremeskel, a top official with the regional body sponsoring the talks, confirmed Thursday that Machar has arrived in the Ethiopian city of Gambella. According to the BBC, the advanced team of President also arrived in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa on Thursday. The Friday talks will be the first time the leaders of South Sudan's two warring sides are meeting face-to-face since violence broke out in December, killing thousands of people. The meeting between Kiir and his former vice president, Riek Machar, is expected to last one day. More than 1.3 million people have fled their homes since the ethnically targeted violence began in December. Aid workers fear mass hunger unless the vi

South Sudanese youth living in Melbourne, Australia have condemned the UN Mission in South Sudan’s (UNMISS) mistake of transporting arms by road instead of airlifting them. 18 March 2014 South Sudanese youth protesting the UNMISS Partiality in Melbourne, Australia. [Courtesy photo]  2014 (Gurtong)- “It is clear that UNMISS is supporting the rebellion in the country and South Sudanese youth here in Melbourne condemn this behavior,” a press statement issued by the youth in Melbourne partly reads. The youth call for Ms Hilde Johnson, the head of UNMISS in Juba to resign immediately and review of UNMISS’ operation mandate. “We are sick of war and are against anyone supporting the war by arming the rebellion in our country. Hilde Johnson is doing just that arming the rebellions in the country and she must go,” they said. Recently, the government troops (security personnel) intercepted weapons in a UNMISS convoy of 12 trucks marked as carryi

NEWSLINE: Malakal IDPs Desperately Need Relief Aid : The internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Malakal town desparately need relief assistnace.   March 2014 ID... text

The internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Malakal town desparately need relief assistnace.   March 2014 IDPs at a UNMISS clinic in Malakal. [File]  [Gurtong] - They have expressed disappountnent in the government for its failure to rescue them from the rebels' "atrocities" daily. The IDPs say people are being killed daily when found from their hideouts. IDPs in the United Nations' compound said their colleagues in churches and hiding in their houses risk being killed as the rebels still control Malakal town. Malakal fell into the hands of the Anti-government forces led by the country's ex-vice president Dr. Riek Machar, now turned rebel leader since mid-February after they overan the government forces there. "People are suffering. They have no food and water to drink. The town is looted," an IDP lamented. "So, there is no hope of life for those who are now in Churches and in their hideouts in town.&q

NEWSLINE: South Sudan: LET US BE AMBASSADOR​S OF PEACE : By Francis Chol South Sudanese let us choose peace.  Peace is a commodity that cannot be bought from any nearby shop.  It does ... text

By Francis Chol South Sudanese let us choose peace.  Peace is a commodity that cannot be bought from any nearby shop.  It does not require you to pay any single south Sudanese pound, but rather a decision that you make yourself. As our hearts pour in solidarity to remember thousands of innocent citizens who have lost their lives in this crisis, we need to take this responsibility of preaching and maintaining peace in our hearts and build up our society, our country to a better South Sudan that we all love to live in. South Sudanese we have a chance and let's take this chance to bring peace, reconciliation and total forgiveness among ourselves. We are one people. The only way we can maintain peace is to build a bridge of total trust and domination of peace in our hearts by preaching peace to bridge the gaps we are all witnessing.  South Sudanese, the conflict is not about us it was caused not by ancient ethnic antagonism but by a fanatical elite engage

United Nations officials have signed an agreement with the government of South Sudan and the Chinese embassy to build a new camp in Juba to house thousands of South Sudanese who were forced from their homes by nearly three months of fighting. 07 March 2014 Displaced men rest in an improvised shelter at an UNMISS base in Juba, where nearly 30,000 people who were forced from their homes when violence erupted in South Sudan have sought shelter. [Reuters] JUBA — The new camp will be used to house some of the thousands of displaced people who sought shelter at U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) bases after fighting erupted in Juba in December and quickly spread around the country. The South Sudanese government provided land for the 600,000 square metre site, adjacent to the UN House base in the Jebel.area of Juba, and Chinese companies led by the China National Petroleum Corporation will provide machinery and $1.6 million to fund the project, which is expected to ac

Fighting that left dozens of soldiers dead at the SPLA Giyada base in Juba yesterday also resulted in the presumably accidental killing of three boys, according to an eyewitness. 07 March 2014 Smoke billows out of the SPLA Giyada base after a firefight, JUBA ( March 2014) -  The gunfight at Giyada started with a dispute over pay involving senior officers. At issue was whether soldiers accused of having defected or gone absent without leave should be paid in Juba or not. A businessman who lives in Juba recounted that he walked past the Giyada base soon after the initial gunfight on Wednesday morning, during a lull in the clashes. He says that around 10:00 a.m. yesterday he was cutting across Meidan Simba from the direction of Juba University heading toward Jabarona neighborhood in order to visit a sick friend. Lying in the field were the bodies of three children, he said, recognizing them as boys who normally washing cars in Meidan Simba. Nearby also was the b

Juba 5 March 2014 Another fight erupted  early in the morning at the army barrack at Giada where the rebels tried to overthrow the government early this year in Juba, this has come when things are almost normalizing in capital of the young country Juba The army spokes person confirmed that the fight started from a barrack occupied by the commando soldier, Till now we don't know the reason as to why the soldiers began shooting at the barrack, the number of people who are dead of injured after the fright is not yet confirmed. The Army spokes person also confirmed that an investigation is underway and who are responsible will face the law  of the republic of South Sudan and the SPLA This has made the business in Juba to stop since there is a lot of soldiers moving allover the city which has made the business people to close there shops and the customers to remain at home.

On Tuesday, the negotiating teams halted the three-week talks in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa amid the ongoing violence in South Sudan, APA reports quoting Press TV. 05 March 2014 Rebel delegation head Gen Taban Deng signs ceasefire agreement with South Sudan Government in January 2014. [File/Courtesy] March 5, 2014 Baku-APA. The two sides failed to sign a declaration of principles, which would act as a guide to the negotiating agenda. “We were ready to sign the document for the declaration of principles. It’s only that the government… pulled out of it and asked for time,” said Hussein Nyong, spokesman for the rebel faction. The central government insists that the talks should be held with the rebels and not any third party, and blames the other side of incorporating seven released detainees as a third party in the talks. “Unfortunately, the imposition of the seven detainees, to make them a party to the government-rebel negotiation is not acc

By: Ilya Gridneff Associated Press A heavily armed UN convoy walks through the streets of Malakal, the capital of oil-producing Upper Nile state. House after house has been burned to the ground. Hospital patients have been shot by armed rebels while lying in their beds. Dozens of corpses litter the streets. “This is about revenge now. There is no humanity here,” said Col. Jan Hoff, an officer in Norway’s army who has served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. South Sudan, he said, is the worst he’s seen. “It’s absolutely horrific,” Hoff said this week as he led a heavily armed UN convoy through the streets of Malakal, the capital of oil-producing Upper Nile state. “This is tribe against tribe. In Syria it was foreign fighters against the government. Here I don’t think it’s about the government.”  A corpse nearby is already a skeleton wrapped in a soldier’s uniform. Hoff said he counted 30 bodies on a recent day. A colleague had counted 70. T

It is heartbreaking to see the devastation wrought on the people of South Sudan since the sudden outbreak of fighting there two months ago. More than 850,000 South Sudanese have been forced to flee their homes ; family members have been killed and injured, homes and livelihoods lost. More than 150,000 have left the country altogether. Children who should be going to school have been orphaned, lost, attacked and recruited into armed forces. Even those who are still with their families have seen things they should not be seeing, experienced violence they should not witness. Hundreds of thousands of children are displaced, living in the open, facing disease and malnutrition, with no place to go where they feel safe, and no school to give them a sense of normality. And as if that were not enough, the rainy season will begin in around six weeks. Under the best of circumstances, the rains bring much flooding to South Sudan, but with over 700,000 people displaced within

Upper Nile state citizens in Malakal's UNMISSCompound have said the rebel fighters have disappeared from the town. 23 February 2014 By Ariik Atekdit JUBA, 23 February 2014 [Gurtong] – Some internally displaced persons (IDPs) residing in the UN base who chatted on facebook with Gurtong's reporter on Saturday said: "Anti-government forces in Malakal have disappeared this morning (Saturday) and nobody knows where they have gone all to." "I don't know whether they have gone back to Nasir or hiding somewhere in the town," an IDP in the UN base said. Another IDP in the same camp has echoed the same message.  "This is true. They are not seen at all. And we cannot independently find their whereabouts because we are confined in the UN camp." Malakal was recaptured on Wednesday by Mr. Machar's rebels with government officials announcing it as a tactical withdrawal

NEWSLINEKENYA: Rebels Claim Pursuit Of SPLA Out Of Malakal : South Sudan rebels on Wednesday claim they were pursuing the government forces outside Malakal town. The rebels also claim the full... text

South Sudan rebels on Wednesday claim they were pursuing the government forces outside Malakal town. The rebels also claim the full control of Malakal town, the state capital of the oil-rich Upper Nile state. 21 February 2014 South Sudanese government soldiers. [File] JUBA – 21 February 2014 [Gurtong] -  Speaking to Radio Miraya on Wednesday, the rebels’ Spokesman Lul Ruai:  “I am not sure if there is any fighting inside Malakal town. May be outside Malakal town where our forces are still pursuing the government forces. They are running towards Akoka,” Lul said. Lul claimed that there have been bombings on their forces on Wednesday morning by Ugandan troops. He denied claims by the SPLA that they are involved in looting in the town but he instead said they are peacefully positioning themselves. The rebels’ mouthpiece said fighting escalated on Tuesday after when the SPLA started gunfire on their positions. The rebels claim full contr

  United Nation Children Fund (UNICEF) says it is alarmed by the increase in recruitment of children into armed conflict in Central African Republic, South Sudan and Syria. 12 February 2014 Child Soldiers. [IRIN Photo] By Gabriel Mayom JUBA, 12 February, 2014 [Gurtong] -  The concern comes as the world marks  the International Day against the use of Child Soldiers on 12 February today. In a joint press statement, UNICEF and Leila Zerrougui, the Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) for Children and Armed Conflict, have created a fact sheet on recruitment and use of children. “The United Nations continues to receive credible reports that children have been recruited and used by Government and opposition forces in the conflict in South Sudan,” the statement said. The allegation comes at a time the Government of South Sudan has already committed herself to preventing and ending the recruitment and use of children by its national security force

  UPDF soldiers holding brooms as they march through Juba town  during Tarehe Sita celebrations, Tuesday. PHOTO: Kennedy Oryema When they were done, they left the places much better and cleaner than they found them, winning praise of the local people. Given the recent conflict, heavily armed soldiers, some with guns strung to their backs others with rifles dangling off their shoulders attacked piles of rubbish and garbage with various implements such as spades and cleaned them out. In some places they just swept. The rubbish was loaded on to waiting trucks to be dumped away. The exercise part of the numerous activities to mark the annual Tarehe sita (February 6)  army day which will be commemorated tomorrow a. In Uganda, national events take place in  Busheyi under the theme: National Consciousness and Pan Africanism the corner stone for African peace, stability and transformation. Several other activities to m