Category Archives: South Sudan

Against all odds: South Sudan’s daring drive on women’s football

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The country’s FA is launching an ambitious strategy for a sport that has been considered a taboo for girls

South Sudan gained independence in 2011 and its history is so short that it is a regular low-scoring answer on the popular quiz show Pointless. Much less trivially, for a majority of its existence the country has been in civil war, with peace and a new national unity government in place only from February of this year.

For a country clawing its way back from the devastating effects of a conflict that has seen hundreds of thousands killed and 1.5 million internally displaced, where nearly half of girls are married by 18, child marriages are increasing and sexual violence was used tactically during the war , it would be easy to assume that football, let alone women’s football, would be nonexistent.

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If Ethiopia descends into chaos, it could take the Horn of Africa with it

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As conflicts rapidly unfold in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen, the US, UK and European states are being sidelined

The Ethiopian army’s assault on Tigray province marks a serious backwards step by the country’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, who has been feted internationally as a moderniser and Nobel peace prize winner. Abiy calls it a “law enforcement operation” – but he risks being blamed for an expanding refugee emergency and a burgeoning region-wide crisis.

An even bigger fear is the break-up of Ethiopia itself in a Libyan or Yugoslav-type implosion. The country comprises more than 80 ethnic groups, of which Abiy’s Oromo is the largest, followed by the Amhara. Ethnic Somalis and Tigrayans represent about 6% each in a population of about 110 million. Ethiopia’s federal governance structure was already under strain before this latest explosion.

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UN issues $100m emergency funding and calls for global effort to avert famine

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Organisation says money pledged is ‘not enough’ and warns of potential for huge number of child deaths

The UN has earmarked $100m (£75m) in emergency funding for seven countries deemed at risk of famine, warning that without immediate action the world could see “huge numbers of children dying on TV screens”.

The climate crisis, Covid-19, conflict and economic decline have created an “acute and grave crisis” in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen, where millions of people are facing emergency levels of food insecurity, UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told the Guardian.

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‘We have a right to be at the table’: four pioneering female peacekeepers

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Twenty years after a landmark UN resolution, leading figures share insight on women’s vital role in mediating conflict

In October 2000, the UN security council adopted resolution 1325 – the first resolution that acknowledged women’s unique experience of conflict and their vital role in peace negotiations and peacebuilding. Twenty years on, we speak to four women helping keep the peace around the world.

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Uganda calls in troops as violence flares between refugees and locals

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Tensions between locals and South Sudanese refugees have left at least 10 dead as authorities act to prevent escalation

Uganda has sent security troops to its north-west region where tensions are on the rise following deadly attacks on refugees by local people.

More than 10 South Sudanese refugees were killed, including a teenage girl and a 25-year-old woman and her baby, and 19 others were seriously wounded in clashes at a water point in Madi-Okollo district last week.

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Sudan government agrees to peace deal with five rebel groups

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Pact covers security, land ownership, power sharing and return of displaced people

Sudan’s government has agreed to a peace deal with five rebel groups in a move seen by observers as a significant step towards resolving multiple deep-rooted civil conflicts that have caused immense suffering in the country for decades.

The agreement will provide a welcome boost to the transitional government that took power after the fall of the authoritarian ruler Omar al-Bashir last year.

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Syria deadliest place to be an aid worker, amid global 30% rise in attacks – report

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Ability to carry out humanitarian work in most dangerous conflict-hit regions threatened by local NGO staff being caught in crossfire

There has been a sharp rise in the number of aid staff killed in the first six months of this year with Syria at the top of the list of the deadliest places to be a humanitarian worker.

A total of 74 fatalities have been recorded globally since January, a 30% rise on the same period last year. Syria accounted for more than a quarter of the deaths.

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‘I saw so much killing’: the mental health crisis of South Sudan refugees

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Therapy is helping some of the thousands forced over the border to Uganda to cope, but funding shortfalls mean resources are becoming scarcer

As darkness fell, Rebecca closed the door to her makeshift home. The day was over.

The 29-year-old, who had been uprooted from South Sudan to a north Ugandan refugee settlement, sat on the bed where her four children slept and, at around 10pm, tried to take her own life. “By then I didn’t care about anything – not myself, not even my kids. The pain was too extreme,” she says. Her children awoke and their cries brought help from neighbours.

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The contraceptive helping refugee women plan their families

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Instead of becoming ‘factories for babies’, women who’ve fled South Sudan to Uganda are trying new options for managing their reproductive health

Christine Lamwaka and her husband gathered their six children and fled. It was April 2017 and their town in South Sudan had just been attacked. They walked for two days from Eastern Equatoria before crossing the border into Uganda.

“It was hard to flee with the young children. We struggled to run. I thought we couldn’t make it alive,” says Lamwaka, who was 22 at the time of the attack.

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Huge locust swarms raise fears of food shortages in South Sudan

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UN warns 25 million people could be affected as wartorn country is beset by fresh wave of insects

Swarms of desert locusts, which have been ravaging crops and grazing land across east Africa, have now crossed the border into South Sudan, a country already struggling from widespread hunger and years of civil war.

The UN has warned that an imminent second hatch of the insects could threaten the food security of 25 million people across the region.

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Locusts swarm into crisis-hit South Sudan as plague spreads across east Africa

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Invasion is further food shortages in country struggling with drought and legacy of civil war

Swarms of locusts ravaging crops and grazing land across east Africa have reached South Sudan, already reeling from widespread hunger and years of civil war, the country’s agriculture minister said on Tuesday.

Kenya, Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti are battling the worst locust outbreak in decades, and swarms have also spread into Tanzania and Uganda.

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‘Food prices shot up’: floods spark a scramble for survival in east Africa

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From Somalia to South Sudan, torrential rains have devastated crops and made roads impassable, sending the cost of food soaring

Before the floods hit her village, crumpling buildings, ripping out pathways and submerging swathes of land, Nurto Mohamed Hassan could buy a kilogram of rice for the equivalent of about 70p.

Now the cost is more than £1. This may not seem a lot in isolation but, for people with little money and families to feed, it is a significant rise.

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UN peacekeepers intervene after violent clashes in South Sudan

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Nepalese blue helmets deployed in Lakes state after 79 people die in fighting between Gak and Manuer communities

UN peacekeepers have been sent to South Sudan’s northern Lakes region after a series of clashes in which 79 people were killed and more than 100 injured.

With roads impassable due to heavy rains and flooding, the Nepalese blue helmets travelled by helicopter on Tuesday from Rumbek, the state capital, to Maper, about 100km north, according to the UN mission in the country, Unmiss.

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Record rise in attacks on healthcare workers leaves ‘millions at risk’ – UN

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Increase in violent conflict combined with effects of climate crisis make outlook bleak for world’s poorest people, says report

Attacks on healthcare workers have reached a record high according to a UN report that predicts a “bleak outlook” for the world’s poorest people due to intense armed conflict and the climate emergency.

The number of highly violent conflicts has risen to 41, from 36 in 2018, causing deaths, injuries, significant displacement and hunger, the UN’s global humanitarian overview 2020 report found.

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Dozens killed by floods and landslides in DRC and Kenya

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Hundreds of thousands of people in need of aid as heavy rain lashes east Africa

Dozens of people have died in flooding in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) when the Congo river and its tributaries burst their banks, a charity and media reports said on Saturday, as heavy rains also lashed east Africa.

Twenty-five people were reported to have been killed in the northwestern province of Équateur bordering Congo-Brazzaville, Congolese media reports said.

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Nigel Cross obituary

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My friend Nigel Cross, who has died aged 66, coolly straddled the worlds of literature and international development.

Born in Cambridge to Barry Cross, a university academic who became president of Corpus Christi College, and his wife, Audrey (nee Crow), Nigel was educated at Clifton college, Bristol, and Sussex University, where he studied English.

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Rise in children forced to join militias raises fresh fears over South Sudan

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Growing number of young fighters combined with sexual violence and ethnic tensions threatens return to civil war, UN warns

UN investigators have warned that despite the fragile peace in South Sudan, the recruitment of children into the army and militias is on the increase as each side seeks to bolster infantry numbers.

The investigators also warned that sexual violence against women and localised ethnic violence are increasing tensions that could return the country to civil war.

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‘Before I was kidnapped I had friends’: the girl soldiers of South Sudan | Samuel Okiror

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A reintegration programme has helped 360 girls leave armed groups in Yambio county but for many the trauma of sexual violence persists

Late one night in April 2015, 13-year-old Patricia* and her sister, who was 11, were kidnapped from their beds by rebel forces fighting the government in South Sudan.

The girls were taken from their home in a raid on their village by the South Sudan National Liberation Movement in Yambio county, not far from the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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Congo abuses drive global rise in sexual violence against women

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Study identifies DRC, India and South Sudan among countries where women are at greatest risk of attack

Sexual violence is on the increase both inside and outside of wartime contexts and women remain the primary victims, warns new research.

In their report, researchers from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (Acled) analysed data gathered from 400 recorded sexual violence events that occurred between January 2018 and June 2019.

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