Archive By Daniel Dut De Awan The current seemingly lack of outrage over the outrageous situation that is unfolding in Jonglei state (JS) is outrageous. We’ve just entered another week, and there is no news of the women who were seized in front of their bewildered children and herded to jail, like some hardened criminal fugitives, having been released. Together with hardened murders, rapists, and adulterers, they are languishing inside Kong Nyuon’s dungeons, guarded by Nuer guardsmen. If … [Read more...]
South Sudan leader calls for peace in his Xmas message
South Sudanese president, Salva Kiir, has called on churches to help his government disseminate Christmas messages of peace, reconciliation and forgiveness to overcome the violence in the country after more than two years of the civil war in the young state. President Kiir, while addressing Christmas after attending prayer services at Saint Teresa Cathedral in Juba, on Sunday evening said in closely watched comments by members of his political rivals in Juba, that peace was one of the … [Read more...]
Feature: East Africans enjoy lowest call charges under new initiative
by Bedah Mengo NAIROBI, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- This Christmas, Gloria Ombogo's elder sister who works in the hotel industry in Rwanda did not travel home to Nairobi to celebrate the holiday with them, yet this did not dampen her spirit. Ombogo and other members of her family spend time with her on phone, talking for hours on end, thanks to low calls rates. "Myself I talked with her for about 30 minutes, my mother and father too talked to her at length and everyone was happy. In total, we spend … [Read more...]
Syria to South Sudan: aid groups list their top humanitarian concerns for 2016
By Tom Esslemont LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - There's one prediction for 2016 that most aid workers can make with confidence - that the new year will usher in rising humanitarian needs.Besides displacement caused by long-term conflicts in places like Syria and South Sudan, there is also the threat of more violence in Central African Republic and hunger caused by El Nino, which is expected to bring more drought to already-parched southern regions in Africa and potential flooding in … [Read more...]
Nigerian army repels Boko Haram attack near state capital – witnesses
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Up to seven people died when Nigeria's army repelled an attack on Sunday by suspected Boko Haram fighters on a village near a northern state capital, residents and military sources said. Gunfire and explosions could be heard in the evening outside Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state and birthplace of Boko Haram's insurgency to establish an Islamic state in the northeast of Africa's most populous nation. Soldiers stopped suspected Boko Haram fighters in … [Read more...]
Benin prime minister unharmed after helicopter crash-landing
COTONOU (Reuters) - Benin's Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou walked away unharmed after the helicopter he was travelling in crash-landed in the north of the West African nation on Saturday, his daughter said. It was not immediately known why Zinsou's helicopter made the forced landing in the town of Djougou, where he had been due to meet local people. "My father is fine. There were no victims in the helicopter accident in Djougou," Marie-Cecile Zinsou, who is also a member of her father's … [Read more...]
Ethiopian opposition figures arrested over land protests
ADDIS ABABA | By Aaron Maasho Reuters Ethiopian police have arrested two senior opposition members on suspicion of inciting weeks of protests against government plans to set up a new economic zone near the capital that would displace farmers, their party leader said on Friday. The Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) says 87 protesters have been killed by police since demonstrations broke out this month in Oromiya region, in the country's worst civil unrest for a decade. On Dec. 15, a … [Read more...]
Somali government bans Christmas celebrations
Reuters MOGADISHU The government of Somalia has issued a ban on Christmas and New Year's celebrations in the Muslim country, saying the festivities "have nothing to do with Islam." "We warn against celebration of Christmas, which is only for Christians," Sheikh Mohamed Kheyrow, director of Somalia’s ministry of religion, said on state radio. "This is a matter of faith. The Christmas holiday and its drum beatings have nothing to with Islam." He said the ministry has sent letters to the … [Read more...]
South Sudan: Former governor arrested
The former governor of Western Equatoria state in South Sudan, Joseph Bangasi Bakosoro, has been reportedly arrested by National Security Services. One of his family members said Wednesday that Mr. Bakosoro is being held since Tuesday. According to family sources, Bakosoro had been at the NSS headquarters in Jebel area for a meeting on Tuesday afternoon, and as he was leaving after the meeting finished, NSS agents stopped his car at the gate and called him back to them. The agents ordered … [Read more...]
Meet the All-Women Peacekeeping Force of South Sudan
All photos courtesy of Nonviolent Peace force An ongoing civil war has claimed thousands of lives in Africa's youngest state, but the Women Peacekeeping Teams are paving the way for a route out of conflict. by Lucy Draper, Broadly Mary Nyakhan Makuei is 38 years old and has seven children. She lives in Juba, the capital of South Sudan—the world's youngest country and one that has been struggling with a brutal civil war since 2013, just two years after it was first … [Read more...]