Month: February 2023

The administrators of Ugandan districts and South Sudan counties that straddle the common border between the two countries last week signed an agreement on joint management of security.

The accord was signed between the Ugandan security committees from Lamwo and Kitgum districts and the commissioners of Magwi, Budi, and Ikwotos counties of South Sudan at a ceremony held at Magwi County headquarters in Eastern Equatoria State.

The South Sudan government was represented by David Otto, the commissioner for Magwi County; Mboya Akileo the commissioner for Budi County, and Caesar Ingong Abondio, the commissioner for Ikwotos County while Uganda was represented by Geoffrey Osborn Oceng and Jimmy Ssegawa Ebil, the Lamwo and Kitgum Resident District Commissioners (RDC) respectively.

The leaders agreed to eliminate the barriers to the free movement of people, goods, and services between Uganda and South Sudan under the East African protocol. They also agreed to put a mechanism to facilitate the movement of refugees across the border points as well as sensitize them on refugee policies regarding the cross-border movement by refugees through gazetted and ungazetted border points.

The deal also spelled that South Sudan and Ugandan security agencies collaborate and end harassment of refugees, returnees, and traders following the recent spate of arrests and harassment of people as they cross the border from both sides.

“There is illegal crossing with firearms by criminals from both sides. Illegal crossing with firearms is prohibited and punishable by law. The parties agree to curb the vice,” the agreement read in part. “The parties agree to strengthen security and observation of human rights and protection policies.”

The pact also said that mechanisms be put in place to ensure that their respective (customs) officers working at the border points adhere to government policies about their roles and responsibilities to end unnecessary charging of traders at border points.

“On the issue of smugglers and cattle rustlers, the parties agree to intensify patrol and increase intelligence information sharing to curb the vices,” the agreement reads. “The parties agree to ensure gender mainstreaming in the services offered at the border points due to a lack of gender sensitivity at border points both in Uganda and South Sudan.”

Oceng told Uganda’s The Monitor newspaper that the parties also agreed to sensitize people on Ugandan road user policies and use official border crossing points rather than illegal crossing points along the porous border.

“South Sudan and Ugandan security have agreed to put in place a mechanism to counter cattle rustlers. Regarding illegal logging, the parties agreed to enforce relevant laws that promote the environment and regulate the use of natural resources,” Oceng said. “This comes as a result of land conflicts along border points mainly in the areas of Palabek Nyimur, Lokung, and Madi-Opei (Uganda) and Pogee, Lobone, Owiny-ki-bul, and Tseretenya (South Sudan). The implementation progress made shall be reviewed quarterly.”

Local authorities in Eastern Equatoria (Magwi, Ikwoto Budi), Lamwo, and Kitgum districts recently entered into discussions involving community development, protection, safety operation, and social service.

“Over the years, due to civil wars, the two countries have interchangeably hosted refugees from either country, with relative peace,” said Mboya Akileo, the county commissioner for Budi County. “There is the continuous movement of people across the border points between the two countries. The parties agreed that this MoU shall be overseen by the management of the district security committees of Lamwo and Kitgum and counties of Magwi, Budi, and Ikwoto.”

Source: Radio Tamazuj

Following one of the worst measles outbreaks in South Sudan’s recent history, the health ministry, with support from its partners, plans to conduct a nationwide measles vaccination campaign across the country in March 2023, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said in a statement on Monday.

According to IRC, with a 182 percent increase in measles cases between the first two months of 2022 compared to the first two months of 2023, the national campaign is aimed at closing immunity gaps to stop the transmission of the virus and protect the health of the populace.

The WHO noted that from January 2022 to 1 February 2023, health authorities in South Sudan responded to an ongoing outbreak of measles, with 4,339 suspected cases and 46 deaths reported across the country.

Caroline Sekyewa, IRC Country Director in South Sudan, said measles vaccination coverage rates have remained low and reached only 69 percent in 2021, which is below the target of 95 percent for measles elimination.

“With an increased population in the refugee camps, disruption of healthcare service delivery, and limited access to healthcare services, this outbreak could further exacerbate an already fragile health system which is also battling malnutrition and flooding,” she said. “The IRC, however, continues to step up efforts to curb the spread of the disease through public health awareness.”

IRC says that it will work with the health ministry and partners to get vaccines into the arms of children who remain unprotected by conducting measles vaccination campaigns in the affected counties.

“Currently, the IRC is mobilizing community volunteers to raise awareness and to educate parents on the importance of the measles vaccination,” the statement read. “The community members are encouraged to minimize direct contact with infected children and to report any suspected cases.”

The IRC is appealed to all donors to make funding available to fight the measles outbreak which it says is having a detrimental effect on the lives of children across South Sudan and threatening the lives of children in neighboring countries.

Measles is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus, but it can easily be prevented with timely immunization. Children are most at risk of the disease – children who are malnourished are even more vulnerable.

Source: Radio Tamazuj

Amnesty International (AI), a global movement that campaigns to end abuses of human rights, over the weekend called on the South Sudanese authorities to expeditiously clarify the fate and whereabouts of Morris Mabior Awikjok Bak.

Mabior, a political and human rights activist who has been seeking asylum in Kenya since 2021, was picked up from his home in Nairobi on 4 February by men in Kenya Police uniform accompanied by a South Sudanese national.

His wife, Angelina Aliet Marol, who was with him at the time of his arrest told Radio Tamazuj that the armed men came into their house, ransacked it, and allegedly seized their phones, laptops, and other valuables before handcuffing her husband and shoving him into a car.

Responding to Saturday’s petition by the Pan-African Lawyers Union (PALU) to the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) to try and establish the fate and whereabouts of Mabior, a critic of the South Sudanese government who was reportedly arbitrarily arrested or unlawfully abducted in Kenya, forcefully returned and allegedly detained in South Sudan this month, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for East and Southern Africa Flavia Mwangovya tasked the government to come clean about his whereabouts.

“We applaud PALU’s efforts seeking, through the EACJ, to clarify the fate and whereabouts of Mabior, a South Sudanese man who attempted to seek refuge in Kenya in 2021. We call on the South Sudanese authorities to, without further delay, clarify the fate and whereabouts of Morris Mabior Awikjok Bak,” she charged. “What happened to Morris Mabior Awikjok Bak matches a broader pattern of abductions and illegal transfers of South Sudanese refugees from neighboring countries by South Sudan’s National Security Service (NSS).”

“This case brings back haunting memories of the enforced disappearance in Kenya and alleged extrajudicial killings in South Sudan of South Sudanese human rights lawyer and activist Dong Samuel Luak, and Aggrey Ezbon Idri, a member of the political opposition,” she added.

According to Amnesty International, in addition to clarifying the fate and whereabouts of Mabior, the South Sudanese authorities must ensure he has regular access to his family, a lawyer, and a doctor, and unless he is charged with an internationally recognizable offense, he should be immediately released.

According to the rights body, on 4 February, Mabior, a critic of the South Sudanese government and the Director General of the NSS’s Internal Security Bureau, was reportedly arbitrarily arrested or unlawfully abducted, allegedly by armed Kenyan security forces, and a South Sudanese man and Kenyan woman in civilian clothes, in Nairobi, Kenya, where he resides. It is believed he was forcefully returned to Juba, the capital of South Sudan, and is being held in incommunicado detention at a National Security Service detention facility.

“The NSS operates a spy network that extends throughout East Africa where many South Sudanese have found refuge,” the AI statement said.

“Since January 2017, at least four South Sudanese men, three of whom were refugees and under Kenya’s protection, were illegally picked up and transferred back to South Sudan where they were held in prolonged detention in the NSS’s detention facility known as the Blue House. Two of them were allegedly extra-judicially killed.”

AI said that since the NSS Act in 2014, the NSS has accumulated unchecked powers, becoming one of the main perpetrators of human rights violations and the most powerful security actor in South Sudan.

Source: Radio Tamazuj

The police in Yirol West County of Lakes State are investigating a case in which a woman is suspected to have killed her two children and then committed suicide over the weekend.

Police investigator Deborah Anak Gordon told Radio Tamazuj on Monday that the incident happened near Yirol West airstrip at 4 PM.

She identified the woman as 25-year-old Ajak and the two children as four and six months old Majak and Majak Majok respectively.

“It was Saturday at 4:00 PM when a mother decided to kill two children and committed suicide. The reason why she killed two of her children and committed suicide is being investigated and we are asking anyone with informed to provide us with enough information to help us in the investigation,” she said.

Officer Anak added that the woman’s husband was questioned but the police allowed the family to finish the burial rights before continuing with further investigations.

“Most of the cases related to suicide incidences are always caused by these economic challenges, but we are still making an investigation into what was the exact cause,” she added.

According to her, this is the second suicide case in her county in the past month.

Source: Radio Tamazuj

The South Sudan People’s Defense Forces soldier accused of killing 3 Syrian nationals and a local youth in Akon Village in Warrap State today (Tuesday) pleaded guilty to all 3 charges brought against him in the army’s General Court Martial sitting in Juba.

Private Yak Garang Yak, a member of the Tiger Division which protects the president is accused of shooting three Syrian construction workers who were building President Salva Kiir’s house and a young man in Akon village on 7 January.

Among the charges framed against and read to him by Maj. Gen. Majok Michael Chan, the President of the General Court Martial, include murder under section 83 of the SPLA Act 2009, read together with Section 206 of South Sudan`s Penal Code Act 2008, Section 83 read together with 327 for damaging a vehicle, and Section 67 of the SPLA Act 2009, disobedience of lawful orders.

The court asked the accused if he was guilty or innocent of the charges and he pleaded guilty.

“Did you kill the Syrians Yassir, Jihad, and Abdulsalam?” the president asked Garang.

“But what annoyed me to the point of killing them? Yes, I killed them,” the accused replied, “I also shot at their car and was told by my commander that I was under arrest but not immediately arrested.”

Asked if he understood and was guilty of the charges read to him, Private Garang said, “Yes I have understood the charges and I am guilty.”

After being read the charges and pleading guilty, Private Garang’s defense team led by Maj. William Johnson Dut insisted on their initial application to have their client sent for a mental checkup to ascertain that he was sane and lucid but the Presiding Judge threw out the application.

The court asked the defense if they had witnesses to present in court but they said they did not have any.

The court adjourned to Friday 3 March when it will make a final ruling.

Source: Radio Tamazuj

All President Kiir does is win all the time, even when he destroys Chollo’s land. The King honoring Kiir outside of his kingdom has created a wrong impression that President Kiir is a President for life; in addition, by crediting Kiir for non-existent peace, the King, directly and indirectly, tells citizens of our Republic that their suffering is a direct result of rebellion against injustice in the country.

The losers from King honoring Kiir are the people of South Sudan. What peace and stability? When the King is not at his palace, and his subjects are displaced and are nowhere to be found in the Kingdom, how misplaced and mistermed is this “event”? Where is peace And Stability” in South Sudan?

How can Kiir be credited or associated with anything to do with peace and stability in the Republic of South Sudan? Here comes the uncomfortable question nobody in the Republic of South Sudan and the Chollo Kingdom is willing to ask.

Why is the King honoring President Kiir? What has President Kiir done to deserve honoring from the Chollo King? Has the relocation of the King to safety in Juba by the President played a role in the King praising Kiir? Kiir once told the people to fight and kill themselves and that he will not use the army and police to protect anybody. Defeated can come to Juba, and he will protect them. Is this peace?

President Kiir does not deserve any honor from the Chollo King; instead, Chollo King should have been honored by the President. Kiir should have credited the King for wanting peace and stability in the country. The King never encouraged or demanded his subjects to fight against Kiir’s degree, which gave Malakal to the Padang Dinka section. The killing of the tens of thousands of innocent Chollo Kingdom subjects by the Pandang militia allied to president Kiir or by the Nuer white army associated with FVP Dr. Riek clearly shows that the government is behind the displacement of Chollo people.

The Chollo politicians, like their king, have demonstrated nationalism and proved to South Sudanese what nationalism means despite losing their Malakal to the Padang Dinka section temporarily.

How can the King honor the President outside his Kingdom and term the event “ Peace and Stability?”

Has the Chollo King forgotten the suffering of our fellow citizens in the Greater Equatoria region under President Kiir? This honoring of President Kiir by the King is not only an insult to the general suffering people of our Republic but also to the families of Chollo victims.

The losers from the King honoring Kiir are, in no doubt South Sudanese In short. In the history of humanity, rebellion has always been a direct result of the government losing its legitimacy in the eyes of the people. The government of President Kiir lost its legitimacy when Kiir became a dictator.

No citizen will forget that our suffering directly results from Kiir choosing to look out for his interest and looting the country. Also, President Kiir creates insecurity and instability in the country to prolong his dictatorial hold on power – “divide and rule.” Honoring Kiir is a betrayal to the people of South Sudan and our fellow citizens in the Chollo Kingdom.

How can the King honor the president when Kiir is responsible for the innocent Nuer killed in Juba in 2013? And why does the King honor Kiir when our fellow citizens in Greater Equatoria are still suffering under President Kiir? In addition, the killing of the 3000 innocent Chollo Kingdom subjects in 2022 under Kiir’s watch does not warrant the King to honor the President. The King credited Kiir for peace and stability in the country is misplaced, and this unwarranted credit to President Kiir has to be corrected. And the person who deserved to be honored was the Chollo King, who maintained a national position despite his kingdom suffering an invasion by the Padang militia and White Army.

Source: Radio Tamazuj

As results of Nigeria’s presidential and national assembly election held on Saturday trickled in, opposition political parties cruising high begun calling for nullification in some parts of the country, the East African reports

Although the opposition parties were reported to be waxing stronger and clinching many states which have been the strongholds of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) including Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, they were irked by the fact that APC was still leading in the polls.

And despite the Nigerian underdog, the Labour Party, relentlessly eating deep into APC turfs by clinching very important states of Lagos and Plateau among others, it is also spoiling for a further fight, calling for results nullification.

The main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which was ousted in 2015 by APC, is also calling for the cancellation of results despite winning APC’s states of Katsina, Kebbi, and Osun among others.

Manually transmitted results

Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo who is supporting the Labour Party is leading the calls for results to be canceled in all areas of the country where they believe were compromised.

On Monday, Obasanjo also called for the rejection of all election results which were manually transmitted.

The elder Nigerian statesman, who alleged that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and servers used during the elections were compromised, noted that cancellation would rectify the anomaly.

“It is no secret that INEC officials, at an operational level, have been allegedly compromised to make what should have worked not to work and to revert to the manual transmission of results which is manipulated and the results doctored,” Obasanjo said.

“The INEC chairman may claim ignorance, but he cannot fold his hands and do nothing when he knows that the election process has been corrupted and most of the results that are brought outside BVAS and servers are not a true reflection of the will of Nigerians who have made their individual choice,” he added.

Obasanjo, who noted that Nigeria’s outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari had proven beyond doubt that he intended to leave a legacy of free, fair, transparent, and credible elections, called on him to intervene and reschedule elections in the affected areas.

Labour Party speaks

The dark horse Labour Party, which took Nigeria by storm and has caused upsets in APC and PDP turfs, has also alleged that the processes leading to the election results have been compromised.

Mr. Akin Osuntokun, the party’s director-general of its presidential campaign council, said on Monday in Abuja that INEC did not follow the publicly advertised guidelines for the conduct of the elections.

“Consequently, we regret to state that we have lost confidence in the results being collated and being announced,’’ he said.

He said that Nigerians swamped the party with calls and protests over INEC’s non-compliance with provisions of the electoral guidelines and the “obvious manipulations of the election results”.

“We hereby call on INEC to suspend further results announcements and follow its own guidelines or completely cancel the entire election and make plans for another election with strict compliance with the stipulated laws and guidelines,” he said.

He also urged the international community to walk their talk in Nigeria and condemn the “multiple evils that are being perpetrated in the country”.

Evidence of election offences

Mr. Diran Onifade, the Media Director of the Labour Party Campaign Organisation, also said that Nigerians came out to vote hopeful of INEC and the Nigerian Government to provide a free and fair credible election.

“After careful consideration of field reports from various locations, we have on record evidence of election irregularities by INEC and security officials, and vicious attacks by political thugs, one of whom was caught with half a million dollars in cash,” he said.

According to Onifade, the Amended Electoral Act of Nigeria says that election results were to be uploaded to the central server from the polling units and that the manual collation made no sense.

He added that according to Section 60 of the Nigerian Electoral Act 2022, an election presiding officer is mandated to announce the results at the polling unit in the presence of party agents.

PDP national collation agent Dino Melaye and other party agents walked out of the International Conference Centre in Abuja over alleged rigging.

Dino alleged that INEC had been compromised and the election was rigged in favor of the ruling APC.

“Having observed that the INEC chairman is determined to rig the elections by making sure that results are not uploaded, we are not here to rubber stamp the electoral fraud that has been prepared by INEC and the APC,” he said.

APC statement

Meanwhile, also irked by the outcome of the results from its stronghold, APC has called on its restless supporters to be calm and promised to uphold the outcome of the results.

APC presidential candidate Bola Tinubu urged the party’s supporters to be unruffled and avoid any act that can lead to a breakdown of law and order.

Tinubu’s plea is coming in the wake of his loss to LP presidential candidate Peter Obi in Lagos.

The result came as a big blow to many APC supporters in Lagos who had earlier anticipated an early victory for the former Lagos state governor.

APC commended Nigerian security forces for providing a conducive voting environment despite reports of attacks and intimidation on their supporters in some areas by agents of opposition parties.

“As the party that was [best] prepared for the 2023 polls and whose candidates ran the best campaigns, we of course have a functional situation room to which our 176,606 agents filled accurate data in real-time, bearing true reflection of the wishes and aspirations of voters expressed freely on February 25, 2023,” APC said in a statement.

The party also added that in line with provisions of Nigeria’s Electoral Act, they believe the duty for declaring election results lies squarely with INEC.

INEC shrugged off demands for either fresh polls or results nullification and reported it would not pause the ongoing collation and declaration of the results.

AU and ECOWAS recommendations

As the complications lasted, the African Union (AU) and Ecowas observation teams deployed to monitor the Nigerian elections made recommendations for improvement in the country’s electoral process.

They noted that Nigeria’s democracy is critical to the stability of West Africa and the continent in general.

Former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta, who is the leader of the AU observation mission, and former Sierra Leone president Ernest Koroma, the leader of the Ecowas mission, read out the recommendations.

The missions also noted that the Saturday elections saw an improvement from past elections.

Improve on logistic

Reading out the AU Observation Mission’s statement, Kenyatta urged the INEC to improve on logistics operations and review the allocation of voters per polling unit to ensure everyone cast their ballots within the stipulated time.

“Consider necessary measures to allow for voting for election officials and essential workers that may be on duty during the polling days.

“Review the allocation of voters per polling unit as a way to ensure that it is equitable, strengthening measures to enhance accessibility to polling units, especially for people that require special assistance,” Kenyatta said.

Communicate with stakeholders

He also said INEC was supposed to sustain efforts to regularly communicate with stakeholders throughout the electoral process.

On his part, Koroma said that the objective of the observation mission was to promote peaceful, democratic, and credible polls.

“INEC should intensify and increase the frequency of communication on developments regarding the electoral process to the general public and promptly share information in order to discourage misinformation through social media and other means,” Koroma said.

“Ensure ongoing training of technical and ad-hoc staff to professionally handle and resolve issues related to the use of BVAS machines,” he added.

He also noted the system of uploading results needed to be reviewed in real-time and communication on the voting and collation process should be enhanced.

The missions urged stakeholders and Nigerians to remain peaceful and ensure a peaceful transition to the next administration.

Source: Radio Tamazuj