September 5, 2014
By Matt Wade
By Matt Wade
Mingkaman, South Sudan: (click here) The scene at the food distribution centre at Mingkaman is all too common in villages and towns across South Sudan. Scores of women sit in the mud sorting food rations in searing heat. Once the portions have been allocated according to family size, the women heave sacks of sorghum and lentils onto their heads and carry them to the makeshift humpies that have been their homes since they fled fighting last December.
"The biggest challenge is malnutrition," said Peter Biar Deng, an aid worker based at the feeding centre. "It's very common here."...
If the people weren't hungry and struggling day to day it would provide the opportunity to think about other things besides survival.
September 4, 2014
By Jonathan Fisher
If the people weren't hungry and struggling day to day it would provide the opportunity to think about other things besides survival.
September 4, 2014
By Jonathan Fisher
...The recent shooting down of a UN helicopter (click here) briefly restored the country to the international headlines—but this isolated incident is just the latest outrage in the short history of the world’s youngest country, which still faces a deeply uncertain future.
Journalistic accounts of the conflict’s origins, where they exist, usually highlight historical rivalries between the president, Salva Kiir, and his former vice president—now rebel leader—Riek Machar, and ethnic warfare between the Dinka and Nuer people.
This narrative is a highly simplistic way of explaining what’s been happening in South Sudan. But it does at least point to the ultimate source of the problems: the interplay of complex historical identity politics and shameless, short-term elite politicking. This toxic blend is what makes South Sudan’s current crisis so difficult to explain....
People need land to live and food to eat and water to drink. If the basics aren't available it leads to unrest, hopelessness and ultimately violence. And that is exactly the problem in South Sudan.
September 4, 2014
By Peter Snyder
[JURIST] A group of East African (click here) and South Sudanese rights group submitted a petition Wednesday to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development(IGAD) [official website] calling for an immediate comprehensive arms embargo on South Sudan. IGAD, which is made up of eight East African nations including Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda, has been mediating peace talks to end nine months of civil conflict in South Sudan. The petition calls for an arms embargo [AI backgrounder] that...:
People need land to live and food to eat and water to drink. If the basics aren't available it leads to unrest, hopelessness and ultimately violence. And that is exactly the problem in South Sudan.
September 4, 2014
By Peter Snyder
[JURIST] A group of East African (click here) and South Sudanese rights group submitted a petition Wednesday to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development(IGAD) [official website] calling for an immediate comprehensive arms embargo on South Sudan. IGAD, which is made up of eight East African nations including Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda, has been mediating peace talks to end nine months of civil conflict in South Sudan. The petition calls for an arms embargo [AI backgrounder] that...:
